CHAPTER I--WHAT IS COMING
"Will you do it?" asked the eager, black-eyed girl sitting on the deepwindow 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, laughinghappily.
"It will be great! great!" murmured Helen Cameron, her hands clasped inblissful anticipation. "Right into the 'wild and woolly.' Dear me, RuthFielding, we _do_ have the nicest times--you and I!"
"You needn't overlook me," grumbled the third and rather plump freshmanwho occupied the most comfortable chair in the chums' study in DareHall.
"That would be rather--er--impossible, wouldn't it, Heavy?" suggestedHelen Cameron, rolling her black eyes.
Jennie Stone made a face like a street gamin, but otherwise ignoredHelen's cruel suggestion. "I'd rather register joy, too----Oh, yes, I'mgoing with you; have written home about it. Have to tell Aunt Kateahead, you know. Yes, I'd register joy, if it weren't for one thing thatI see looming before us."
"What's that, honey?" asked Ruth.
"The horseback ride from Yucca into the Hualapai Range seems like adoubtful equation to me."
"Don't you mean 'doubtful equestrianism'?" put in the black-eyed girlwith a chuckle.
"Perhaps I do," sighed Jennie. "You know, I'm a regular sailor onhorseback."
"You should have taken it up when we were all at Silver Ranch with AnnHicks," Ruth said.
"Oh, say not so!" begged Jennie Stone lugubriously. "What I should havedone in the past has nothing to do with this coming summer. I groan tothink 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 thatJennie 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 andspringing down from the window seat. "It will be just the jaunt for you.The physical culturists claim there is nothing so good for reducingflesh 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! Mostphysical culturists have never ridden any kind of horse in their livesbut 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--andDr. 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," saidJennie. "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 aboutany 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 windowagain. The window gave a broad view of the lower slope of College Hilland the expanse of Lake Remona. Dusk was just dropping, for the time wasafter dinner; but objects were still to be clearly observed. "Where'sJane Ann Hicks?"
"Just completing her full course at Briarwood Hall," Ruth explaineddemurely. "She will go to Montana, of course. But if I write her I knowshe'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, somewhatwonderingly.
"Because I think it is my duty," the plump girl declared. "You young andflighty 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 shakingher 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 regularparty!"
"Why not?"
"It _will_ be great fun," acknowledged the black-eyed girl.
"Of course it will, goosie," said Jennie Stone. "Isn't everything thatRuth Fielding plans always fun? Say, Ruth, there are some girls righthere at Ardmore--and freshies, too--who would be tickled to death to joinus."
"Goodness!" objected Ruth, laughing at her friend's exuberance. "Iwouldn't wish to be the cause of a general massacre, so perhaps we'dbetter not invite any of the other girls."
"Little Davenport would go," Jennie pursued. "She's a regular bear on apony."
"Bareback riding, do you mean, Heavy?" drawled Helen.
Except for a look, which she hoped was withering, this was ignored bythe plump girl, who went on: "Trix would jump at the chance, Ruth. Youknow, she has no regular home. She's just passed around from one familyof 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 partythat's going to start for the south pole this season. He's afraid ofgirls. He's an old bachelor--and a misogynist."
"Goodness!" murmured Helen. "There should be something done aboutletting 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 threetimes a week all this spring. Her father believes that horseback ridingkeeps 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 keepeverybody 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 talkedover the possibility of making the trip into the Hualapai Range for morethan a fortnight; but nothing had as yet been planned in detail.
Mr. Hammond, president of the Alectrion Film Corporation had conceivedthe idea of a spectacular production on the screen of "TheForty-Niners"--as the title implied, a picture of the early gold diggingin 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 wasbefore its inhabitants stampeded for other gold diggings.
Mr. Hammond desired to have most of the scenes taken at Freezeout Campand he had talked over the plot of the story with Ruth Fielding, whoseprevious successes as a scenario writer were remarkable. The producerwished, 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 makethe films.
There was a particular reason, too, why Ruth had a more than ordinaryinterest in this proposed production. Instead of being paid outright forher work as the writer of the scenario, some of her own money was to beinvested in the picture. Having taken up the making of motion picturesseriously and hoping to make it her livelihood after graduating fromcollege, Ruth wished her money as well as her brains to work for her.
Nor was the president of the Alectrion Film Corporation doing anunprecedented thing in making this arrangement. In this way the shrewdcapitalists behind the great film-making companies have obtained thebest work from chief directors, the most brilliant screen stars, and themore successful scenario writers. To give those who show special talentin the chief departments of the motion picture industry a financialinterest in the work, has proved gainful to all concerned.
Ruth had walked slowly to the window, and she stood a moment looking outinto the warm June dusk. The campus was de
serted, but lights glimmeredeverywhere in the windows of the Ardmore dormitories. This was theevening before Commencement Day and most of the seniors and juniors wereholding receptions, or "tea fights."
"What do you think, girls?" Ruth said thoughtfully. "Of course, we'llhave 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 seizingher chum's arm.
"What bit you, Ruth Fielding? A mosquito?" demanded Jennie.
"Sh! girls," breathed the girl of the Red Mill softly. "There's somebodyjust under this window--on the ledge!"
Ruth Fielding In the Saddle; Or, College Girls in the Land of Gold Page 2