CHAPTER XVIII--RUTH REALLY HAS A SECRET
Ruth Fielding came back from her ride to Freezeout Camp and said not aword to a soul about her discovery of the young man in the cabin. Shehad a secret at last, but it was not her own. She did not feel that shehad the right to speak even to Helen about it.
She was quite sure "the hermit" had no ill intention toward their party.And if he had a companion that companion could do those at Freezeout noharm.
Just what it was all about Ruth did not know; yet she had somesuspicions. However, she rode out to the lone cabin the next day, andthe next, to see that the young man was comfortable. "The HermitProspector," as he laughingly called himself, was doing very well.
Ruth brought him two slim poles out of the wood and he fashioned himselfa pair of crutches. By means of these he began to hobble around and Ruthdecided that he did not need her further ministrations. She did not tellhim that she should cease calling, she merely ceased riding that way.For a "hermit" he had seemed very glad, indeed, to have somebody tospeak to.
Ruth was exceedingly busy now. The director, Mr. Grimes--a very efficientbut unpleasant man--arrived with the remainder of the company, andrehearsals began immediately. Hazel Gray, who had been so fresh andyoung looking when Ruth and Helen first met her at the Red Mill, wasbeginning to show the ravages of "film acting." The appealingpersonality which had first brought her into prominence in motionpictures was now a matter of "registering." There was little spontaneityin the leading lady's acting; but the part she had to play in "TheForty-Niners" was far different from that she had acted in "The Heart ofa School Girl," an earlier play of Ruth's.
Mr. Grimes was just as unpleasantly sarcastic as when Ruth first sawhim. But he got out of his people what was needed, although his shoutingand threatening seemed to Ruth to be unnecessary.
With Ruth Mr. Grimes was perfectly polite. Perhaps he knew better thanto be otherwise. He was good enough to commend the scenario, andalthough he changed several scenes she had spent hard work upon, Ruthwas sensible enough to see that he changed them for good cause andusually for the better.
He approved of Min's part in the play, and he was careful with theWestern girl in her scenes. Min did very well, indeed, and even Flapjackmade his extra three dollars a day on several occasions when he appearedwith the teamsters in the "rough house" scenes in the night life of theold-time mining camp.
The film actors were not an unpleasant company; yet after all they werenot people who could adapt themselves to the rude surroundings of theabandoned camp as easily, even, as did the college girls. The women werealways fussing about lack of hotel requisites--like baths and electriclights and maids to wait upon them. The men complained of the food andthe rude sleeping accommodations.
Ruth learned something right here: All the girls from Ardmore saveRebecca Frayne and Ruth herself came from wealthy families--and Rebeccawas used to every refinement of life. Yet the Ardmores took the"roughing it" good-naturedly and never worried their pretty heads about"maid service" and the like.
Some of the film women, seeing Min Peters about in her usual garb,undertook to treat her superciliously. They did not make the mistaketwice. Min was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and sheintended to be treated with respect. Min was so treated.
Helen Cameron was much amused by the attitude her brother took towardthe leading lady, Hazel Gray. Miss Gray was not more than two yearsolder than the twins and when the film actress had first become known tothem Tom had been instantly attracted. His case of boyish love had beenacute, but brief.
For six months the walls of his study at Seven Oaks were fairly paperedwith pictures of Hazel Gray in all manner of poses andcharacterizations. The next semester Tom had gone in for well-knownathletes, not excluding many prize fighters, and the pictures of MissGray went into the discard.
Now the young actress set out to charm Tom again. He was the only youngpersonable male at Freezeout, save the actors themselves, and she knewthem. But Tom gave her just as much attention as he did Min Peters, forinstance, and no more.
There was but one girl in camp to whom he showed any special attention.He was always at Ruth's beck and call if she needed him. Tom never puthimself forward with Ruth, or claimed more than was the due of any goodfriend. But the girl of the Red Mill often told herself that Tom wasdependable.
She was not sure that she ever wanted her chum's brother to be anythingmore to her than what he was now--a safe friend. She and Helen had talkedso much about "independence" and the like that it seemed like sheertreachery to consider for a moment any different life after college thanthat they had planned.
Ruth was to write plays and sing. Helen was to improve her violinplaying and give lessons. They would take a studio together inBoston--perhaps in New York--and live the ideal life of bachelor girls.Helen desired to support herself just as much as Ruth determined tosupport herself.
"It is dependence upon man for daily bread and butter that makes womenslaves," Helen declared. And Ruth agreed--with some reservations. Itbegan to look to her as though all were dependent upon one another inthis world, irrespective of sex.
However, Tom was one of those dependable creatures that, if you wantedhim, was right at hand. Ruth let the matter rest at that and did notdisturb her mind much over questions of personal growth and expansion,or over the woman question.
Her thought, indeed, was so much taken up with the picture that wasbeing made that she had little time to bother with anything else. Shealmost forgot the lame young man in the distant cabin and ceased towonder as to who his companion might be. She certainly had quiteforgotten the specimens of ore which had been sent to the Handy Gulchassayer's office until unexpectedly the report arrived.
Helen and Jennie, as well as Peters and his daughter, were interested inthis event. The others of the Ardmore party had only heard of thesupposed find and had not even seen the uncovered bit of ledge fromwhich the ore had been taken.
"Why, perhaps we are all rich!" breathed Jennie Stone. "Beyond thedreams of avarice! How much does he say?"
"One hundred and thirty-three dollars to the ton. And it's 'free gold,'"declared Ruth. "It can be extracted by the cyaniding process. That canbe done on the spot, and cheaply. Where there is much sulphide in theore the gold must be extracted by the hydro-electric process."
"Goodness, Ruth! How did you learn so much?" gasped Helen.
"By using my tongue and ears. What were they given us for?"
"To taste nice things with and drape 'spit-curls' over," giggled Jennie.
They went to Peters and Min and displayed the report. The old prospectorcould have given the thing away in the exuberance of his joy if it hadnot been for the good sense his daughter displayed.
"Hush up, Pop," she commanded. "You want to put all these bum actors onto the strike before we've laid out our own claims? We want to grab offthe cream of this find. You know it must be rich."
"Rich? Say, girl, rich ain't no name for it. I know what this Freezeoutproposition was when it was placer diggings. Where so much dust andnuggets come from along a crick bed, we knowed there must be a regularmother lode somewheres here. Only we never supposed it was on that sideof the stream an' so far away. It looked like the old bed of the cricklay to the west.
"Well, we've got it! A hundred and thirty-three dollars per ton at thegrass-roots. Lawsy! No knowin' how deep the ledge is. An' you ladiesonly took specimens in one spot. We want to take others clean acrosstthe ledge--as far as we kin trace it--git 'em assayed, then pick out thebest claims before any of these cheapskates around here can ring in onit. Laugh at _me_, will they? I reckon they'll find out that Flapjack iswuth something as a prospector after all."
He quite overlooked the fact that the three college girls had found theore--and that somebody had uncovered the ledge before them! But Min didnot forget these very pertinent facts.
"We got to get a hustle on us," she announced. "No knowin' who 'twasthat first opened that prospect, Pop. Mebbe he was green, or he ain'thad his
samples assayed yet. We got to get in quick."
"Sure," agreed Flapjack.
"And the best three claims has got to go to Miss Ruth and Miss Cam'ronand Miss Stone. They found the place. You an' I, Pop, 'll stake out thenext best claims. Then the rush kin come. But we want to git moresamples assayed first."
"Is that necessary?" Ruth asked, quite as eager as the others now.Somehow the gold hunting fever gets into one's blood and effervesces. Itwas hard for any of them to keep their jubilation from the knowledge ofthe whole camp.
"We dunno how long this ledge of gold-bearing rock is," Min explained."Maybe we only struck the poorest end of it. P'r'aps it'll run twohundred dollars or more to the ton at the other end. We want to stakeoff our claims where the ore is richest, don't we?"
"Let's stake it _all_ off," said Helen.
"Couldn't hold it. Not by law. These big minin' companies git so manyclaims because they buy up options from different locaters all along aledge. There's ha'f a hundred claims belongs to the Arepo Company, forinstance, at one workin's. No. We've got to be careful and keep thissecret till we're sure where the best of the ore lays."
"Oh, let's go at once and see!" cried Jennie.
"We'll go this afternoon," Ruth said. "All five of us."
"I hope nobody will find the place before we get there," Helen observed.
"No more likely now than 'twas before," Min said sensibly. "Pop'll sneakout a pick and shovel for us, and meet us over there on the ridge."
So it was arranged. But the three college girls were so excited thatthey were scarcely fit for either work or play. They set off eagerlyinto the hills after lunch and met Flapjack and his daughter as had beenappointed.