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[Illustration: AS THE MAD HORSE CIRCLED HER, THE GIRL STRUCK AGAIN AND
AGAIN. Page 171]
Ruth Fielding
In the Saddle
OR
COLLEGE GIRLS IN
THE LAND OF GOLD
BY
ALICE B. EMERSON
Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,"
"Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island," Etc.
_ILLUSTRATED_
[Image]
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Books for Girls
BY ALICE B. EMERSON
RUTH FIELDING SERIES
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.
RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
Or, Lost in the Backwoods.
RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
Or, Nita, The Girl Castaway.
RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.
RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box.
RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.
RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.
RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
Or, Helping the Dormitory Fund.
RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
Or, Great Times in the Land of Cotton.
RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
Or, The Missing Examination Papers.
RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
Or, College Girls in the Land of Gold.
Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York.
Copyright, 1917, by
Cupples & Leon Company
Ruth Fielding in the Saddle
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. What Is Coming 1
II. Eavesdropping 9
III. The Letter from Yucca 18
IV. A Week at Home 26
V. The Girl in Lower Five 35
VI. Somebody Ahead of Them 44
VII. A Mysterious Affair 52
VIII. Min 58
IX. In the Saddle at Last 67
X. The Stampede 75
XI. At Handy Gulch 82
XII. Min Shows Her Mettle 94
XIII. An Ursine Holdup 100
XIV. At Freezeout Camp 109
XV. More Discoveries 117
XVI. New Arrivals 124
XVII. The Man in the Cabin 134
XVIII. Ruth Really Has a Secret 142
XIX. Something Unexpected 151
XX. The Mad Stallion 159
XXI. A Peril of the Saddle 167
XXII. Ruth Hears Something 177
XXIII. More of It 185
XXIV. The Real Thing 192
XXV. Uncle Jabez Is Converted 199
RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
CHAPTER I--WHAT IS COMING
"Will you do it?" asked the eager, black-eyed girl sitting on the deep
window shelf.
"If Mr. Hammond says the synopsis of the picture is all right, I'll go."
"Oh, Ruthie! It would be just--just scrumptious!"
"_We'll_ go, Helen--just as we agreed last week," said her chum, laughing
happily.
"It will be great! great!" murmured Helen Cameron, her hands clasped in
blissful anticipation. "Right into the 'wild and woolly.' Dear me, Ruth
Fielding, we _do_ have the nicest times--you and I!"
"You needn't overlook me," grumbled the third and rather plump freshman
who occupied the most comfortable chair in the chums' study in Dare
Hall.
"That would be rather--er--impossible, wouldn't it, Heavy?" suggested
Helen Cameron, rolling her black eyes.
Jennie Stone made a face like a street gamin, but otherwise ignored
Helen's cruel suggestion. "I'd rather register joy, too----Oh, yes, I'm
going with you; have written home about it. Have to tell Aunt Kate
ahead, you know. Yes, I'd register joy, if it weren't for one thing that
I see looming before us."
"What's that, honey?" asked Ruth.
"The horseback ride from Yucca into the Hualapai Range seems like a
doubtful equation to me."
"Don't you mean 'doubtful equestrianism'?" put in the black-eyed girl
with a chuckle.
"Perhaps I do," sighed Jennie. "You know, I'm a regular sailor on
horseback."
"You should have taken it up when we were all at Silver Ranch with Ann
Hicks," Ruth said.
"Oh, say not so!" begged Jennie Stone lugubriously. "What I should have
done in the past has nothing to do with this coming summer. I groan to
think of what I shall have to endure."
"Who will do the groaning for the horse that has to carry you, Heavy?"
interposed the irrepressible Helen, giving her the old nickname that
Jennie Stone now scarcely deserved.
"Never mind. Let the horse do his own worrying," was the placid reply.
The temper of the well nourished girl was not easily ruffled.
"Why, Jennie, _think!_" ejaculated Helen, suddenly turned brisk and
springing down from the window seat. "It will be just the jaunt for you.
The physical culturists claim there is nothing so good for reducing
flesh and helping one's poor, sluggish liver as horseback riding."
"Say!" drawled the other girl, her nose tilted at a scornful angle,
"those people say a lot more than their prayers--believe me! Most
physical culturists have never ridden any kind of horse in their lives
but a hobbyhorse--and they still ride _that_ when they are senile."
Ruth applauded. "A Daniel come to judgment!" she cried.
"Huh!" sniffed Jennie, suspiciously. "What does that mean?"
"I--I don't just know myself," confessed Ruth. "But it sounds good--and
Dr. Milroth used it this morning in chapel, so it must be all right."
"Anything that our revered dean says goes big with me, I confess," said
Jennie. "Oh, girls! isn't she just a dear?"
"And hasn't Ardmore been just the delightsomest place for nine months?"
cried Helen.
"Even better than Briarwood," agreed Ruth.
"That sounds almost sacrilegious," Helen observed. "I don't know about
any place being finer than old Briarwood."
"There's Ann!" cried Ruth in a tone that made both the others jump.
"Where? Where?" demanded Helen, whirling about to look out of the window
again. The window gave a broad view of the lower slope of College Hill
and the expanse of Lake Remona. Dusk was just dropping, for the time was
after dinner; but objects were still to be clearly observed. "Where's
Jane Ann Hicks?"
"Just completing her full course at Briarwood Hall," Ruth explained
demurely. "She will go to Montana, of course. But if I write her I know
she'll join us at Yucca just for the fun of the ride."
"Some people's idea of fun!" groaned Jennie.
"What are _you_ attempting to go for, then?" demanded Helen, somewhat
wonderingly.
"Because I think it is my duty," the plump girl declared. "You young and
flighty freshies aren't fit to go so far without somebody solid along----"
"'Solid!' You said it!" scoffed Helen.
"I was referring to character, Miss Cameron," returned the other shaking
her head. "But Ann is certainly a good fellow. I hope she will go,
Ruth."
"I declare, Ruthie," exclaimed her chum, "you are getting up a regular
party!"
"Why not?"
"It _will_ be great fun," acknowledged the black-eyed girl.
"Of course it will, goosie," said Jennie Stone. "Isn't everything that
Ruth Fielding plans always fun? Say, Ruth, there are some girls right
here at Ardmore--and freshies, too--who would be tickled to death to join
us."
"Goodness!" objected Ruth, laughing at her friend's exuberance. "I
wouldn't wish to be the cause of a general massacre, so perhaps we'd
better not invite any of the other girls."
"Little Davenport would go," Jennie pursued. "She's a regular bear on a
pony."
"Bareback riding, do you mean, Heavy?" drawled Helen.
Except for a look, which she hoped was withering, this was ignored by
the plump girl, who went on: "Trix would jump at the chance, Ruth. You
know, she has no regular home. She's just passed around from one family
of relations to another during vacations. She told me so."
"Would her guardian agree?" asked Ruth.
"Nothing easier. She told me he wouldn't care if she joined that party
that's going to start for the south pole this season. He's afraid of
girls. He's an old bachelor--and a misogynist."
"Goodness!" murmured Helen. "There should be something done about
letting such savage animals be at large."
"It's no fun for poor little Trix," said Jennie.
"She shall be asked," Ruth declared. "And Sally Blanchard."
"Oh, yes!" cried Helen. "She owns a horse, and has been riding three
times a week all this spring. Her father believes that horseback riding
keeps the doctor away."
"Improvement on 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away,'" quoted Ruth.
"How about eating an onion a day?" put in Jennie. "That will keep
everybody away!"
"Oh, Jennie, we're not getting anywhere!" declared Helen Cameron. "_Are_
you going to invite a bunch of girls, Ruth, to go West with us?"
This is how the idea germinated and took root. Ruth and Helen had talked
over the possibility of making the trip into the Hualapai Range for more
than a fortnight; but nothing had as yet been planned in detail.
Mr. Hammond, president of the Alectrion Film Corporation had conceived
the idea of a spectacular production on the screen of "The
Forty-Niners"--as the title implied, a picture of the early gold digging
in the West. He had heard of an abandoned mining camp in Mohave County,
Arizona, which could easily and cheaply be put into the condition it was
before its inhabitants stampeded for other gold diggings.
Mr. Hammond desired to have most of the scenes taken at Freezeout Camp
and he had talked over the plot of the story with Ruth Fielding, whose
previous successes as a scenario writer were remarkable. The producer
wished, too, that Ruth should visit the abandoned mining camp to get her
"local color" and to be on the scene when his company arrived to make
the films.
There was a particular reason, too, why Ruth had a more than ordinary
interest in this proposed production. Instead of being paid outright for
her work as the writer of the scenario, some of her own money was to be
invested in the picture. Having taken up the making of motion pictures
seriously and hoping to make it her livelihood after graduating from
college, Ruth wished her money as well as her brains to work for her.
Nor was the president of the Alectrion Film Corporation doing an
unprecedented thing in making this arrangement. In this way the shrewd
capitalists behind the great film-making companies have obtained the
best work from chief directors, the most brilliant screen stars, and the
more successful scenario writers. To give those who show special talent
in the chief departments of the motion picture industry a financial
interest in the work, has proved gainful to all concerned.
Ruth had walked slowly to the window, and she stood a moment looking out
into the warm June dusk. The campus was deserted, but lights glimmered
everywhere in the windows of the Ardmore dormitories. This was the
evening before Commencement Day and most of the seniors and juniors were
holding receptions, or "tea fights."
"What do you think, girls?" Ruth said thoughtfully. "Of course, we'll
have to have the guide Mr. Hammond spoke about, and a packtrain anyway.
And the more girls the merrier."
"Bully!" breathed the slangy Miss Stone, wiggling in her chair.
"Oh, I vote we do, Ruth. Have 'em all meet at Yucca and----"
Suddenly Ruth cried out and sprang back from the window.
"What's the matter, dear?" asked Helen, rushing over to her and seizing
her chum's arm.
"What bit you, Ruth Fielding? A mosquito?" demanded Jennie.
"Sh! girls," breathed the girl of the Red Mill softly. "There's somebody
just under this window--on the ledge!"