Ruth Fielding came back from her ride to Freezeout Camp and said not a
word to a soul about her discovery of the young man in the cabin. She
had a secret at last, but it was not her own. She did not feel that she
had 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 no
harm.
Just what it was all about Ruth did not know; yet she had some
suspicions. However, she rode out to the lone cabin the next day, and
the next, to see that the young man was comfortable. "The Hermit
Prospector," as he laughingly called himself, was doing very well.
Ruth brought him two slim poles out of the wood and he fashioned himself
a pair of crutches. By means of these he began to hobble around and Ruth
decided that he did not need her further ministrations. She did not tell
him that she should cease calling, she merely ceased riding that way.
For a "hermit" he had seemed very glad, indeed, to have somebody to
speak to.
Ruth was exceedingly busy now. The director, Mr. Grimes--a very efficient
but unpleasant man--arrived with the remainder of the company, and
rehearsals began immediately. Hazel Gray, who had been so fresh and
young looking when Ruth and Helen first met her at the Red Mill, was
beginning to show the ravages of "film acting." The appealing
personality which had first brought her into prominence in motion
pictures was now a matter of "registering." There was little spontaneity
in the leading lady's acting; but the part she had to play in "The
Forty-Niners" was far different from that she had acted in "The Heart of
a School Girl," an earlier play of Ruth's.
Mr. Grimes was just as unpleasantly sarcastic as when Ruth first saw
him. But he got out of his people what was needed, although his shouting
and threatening seemed to Ruth to be unnecessary.
With Ruth Mr. Grimes was perfectly polite. Perhaps he knew better than
to be otherwise. He was good enough to commend the scenario, and
although he changed several scenes she had spent hard work upon, Ruth
was sensible enough to see that he changed them for good cause and
usually for the better.
He approved of Min's part in the play, and he was careful with the
Western girl in her scenes. Min did very well, indeed, and even Flapjack
made his extra three dollars a day on several occasions when he appeared
with the teamsters in the "rough house" scenes in the night life of the
old-time mining camp.
The film actors were not an unpleasant company; yet after all they were
not people who could adapt themselves to the rude surroundings of the
abandoned camp as easily, even, as did the college girls. The women were
always fussing about lack of hotel requisites--like baths and electric
lights and maids to wait upon them. The men complained of the food and
the rude sleeping accommodations.
Ruth learned something right here: All the girls from Ardmore save
Rebecca Frayne and Ruth herself came from wealthy families--and Rebecca
was 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 mistake
twice. Min was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and she
intended to be treated with respect. Min was so treated.
Helen Cameron was much amused by the attitude her brother took toward
the leading lady, Hazel Gray. Miss Gray was not more than two years
older than the twins and when the film actress had first become known to
them Tom had been instantly attracted. His case of boyish love had been
acute, but brief.
For six months the walls of his study at Seven Oaks were fairly papered
with pictures of Hazel Gray in all manner of poses and
characterizations. The next semester Tom had gone in for well-known
athletes, not excluding many prize fighters, and the pictures of Miss
Gray went into the discard.
Now the young actress set out to charm Tom again. He was the only young
personable male at Freezeout, save the actors themselves, and she knew
them. But Tom gave her just as much attention as he did Min Peters, for
instance, 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 put
himself forward with Ruth, or claimed more than was the due of any good
friend. But the girl of the Red Mill often told herself that Tom was
dependable.
She was not sure that she ever wanted her chum's brother to be anything
more to her than what he was now--a safe friend. She and Helen had talked
so much about "independence" and the like that it seemed like sheer
treachery to consider for a moment any different life after college than
that they had planned.
Ruth was to write plays and sing. Helen was to improve her violin
playing and give lessons. They would take a studio together in
Boston--perhaps in New York--and live the ideal life of bachelor girls.
Helen desired to support herself just as much as Ruth determined to
support herself.
"It is dependence upon man for daily bread and butter that makes women
slaves," Helen declared. And Ruth agreed--with some reservations. It
began to look to her as though all were dependent upon one another in
this world, irrespective of sex.
However, Tom was one of those dependable creatures that, if you wanted
him, was right at hand. Ruth let the matter rest at that and did not
disturb 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 was
being made that she had little time to bother with anything else. She
almost forgot the lame young man in the distant cabin and ceased to
wonder as to who his companion might be. She certainly had quite
forgotten the specimens of ore which had been sent to the Handy Gulch
assayer's office until unexpectedly the report arrived.
Helen and Jennie, as well as Peters and his daughter, were interested in
this event. The others of the Ardmore party had only heard of the
supposed find and had not even seen the uncovered bit of ledge from
which the ore had been taken.
"Why, perhaps we are all rich!" breathed Jennie Stone. "Beyond the
dreams 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 can
be done on the spot, and cheaply. Where there is much sulphide in the
ore 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 prospector
could have given the thing away in the exuberance of his joy if it had
not been for the good sense his daughter displayed.
"Hush up, Pop," she commanded. "You want to put all these bum actors on
to the strike before we've laid out our own claims? We want to grab off
the cream of this find. You know it must be rich."
"Rich? Say, girl, rich ain't no name for it. I know what this Freezeout
proposition was when it was placer diggings. Where so much dust and
nuggets come from along a crick bed, we knowed there must be a regular
mother lode somewheres here. Only we never supposed it was on that side
of the stream an' so far away. It looked like the old bed of the crick
lay to the west.
"Well, we've got it! A hundred and thirty-three dollars per ton at the
grass-roots. Lawsy! No knowin' how deep the ledge is. An' you ladies
only took specimens in one spot. We want to take others clean acrosst
the ledge--as far as we kin trace it--git 'em assayed, then pick out the
best claims before any of these cheapskates around here can ring in on
it. Laugh at _me_, will they? I reckon they'll find out that Flapjack is
wuth something as a prospector after all."
He quite overlooked the fact that the three college girls had found the
ore--and that somebody had uncovered the ledge before them! But Min did
not forget these very pertinent facts.
"We got to get a hustle on us," she announced. "No knowin' who 'twas
that first opened that prospect, Pop. Mebbe he was green, or he ain't
had 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'ron
and Miss Stone. They found the place. You an' I, Pop, 'll stake out the
next best claims. Then the rush kin come. But we want to git more
samples 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. It
was hard for any of them to keep their jubilation from the knowledge of
the 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 two
hundred dollars or more to the ton at the other end. We want to stake
off 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 many
claims because they buy up options from different locaters all along a
ledge. There's ha'f a hundred claims belongs to the Arepo Company, for
instance, at one workin's. No. We've got to be careful and keep this
secret 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 sneak
out 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 that
they were scarcely fit for either work or play. They set off eagerly
into the hills after lunch and met Flapjack and his daughter as had been
appointed.