CHAPTER XXIII--MORE OF IT
Royal Phelps continued very grave and silent for a few moments afterRuth's last statement. Then he groaned.
"Well, it can't be helped! None of you can want that ledge of gold morethan I do. That I know. But, of course, your claims are perfectlylegitimate. It is a fact the men Edith will bring out with her are undercontract. I sent her to a lawyer in Kingman who understands such things.An agreement with the men covers all the claims they may stake out onthis certain ledge--dimensions in contract, and all that. I wanted tostart the work, make a showing with reports of assayers and all, thensend it to a friend of mine in New York who graduated from college lastyear and went into his father's brokerage shop, and he would put sharesin my mine on the market. With the money, I hoped to develop and--Well!what's the use of talking about it? We'll get our little slice and thatis all, if you girls and the other folks that have staked claims hang onto your ownings."
"Tell me how you came to get Edith into it?" asked Ruth withoutcommenting upon his statement.
"Why, she's a good old sport, Edie is," declared the brother warmly."She stood up to the pater for me. She can do most anything with him.But I've got to do something before he lets down the bars to me, evenfor her sake.
"We kept in correspondence, Edie and I, all through the winter. When Ifound this gold I wrote her hotfoot. I did not dare file my claim. Itwould cause comment and perhaps start a rush this way."
"I see."
"And you can easily understand," he chuckled, "how startled Edie waswhen, as she told me, she learned that several girls she knew werecoming out here to old Freezeout to work with some movie people. Ofcourse, she did not tell me just who you were, Miss Fielding."
"I suppose not."
"No. Well, she was suspicious of you, she said. Wanted to know just whenyou were coming and how. She desired to get to Yucca as soon aspossible, but she had to spend some time with the pater. Poor old chap!he thinks the world and all of her--in his way.
"Well, she had to do some shopping in New York, and went to a friend'shouse. The chauffeur who drove them around was a decent fellow and shetold him to keep a watch on the Delorphion for you folks. You wentthere, didn't you?"
"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Ruth, remembering Tom's story.
"So did she--for one night. She took the same train you did and anaccident gave her some advantage. I don't think she was nice to thatfriend of yours that she made tag on with her as far as Handy, where Imet her," added Royal Phelps, slowly.
"Oh!" was Ruth's dry comment.
"But she was mighty secretive, you know," apologized the young man. "Yousee, we really had to be."
"I suppose so."
"Well, that's about all. Edie brought the money. She has some of her ownand the pater gave her five thousand without asking a question. She andI are really partners. We're going to show him--if we can."
"I think it is fine of you, Mr. Phelps!" cried Ruth, with enthusiasm."And--and I think your sister is a sister worth having."
"Oh, you can bet she is!" he agreed. "Edie is all right. I couldn'tbegin to pull this off if it were not for her. I expect the pater willsay so in the end. But if I can show some money for what I have done--abunch of it--it will be all right with him."
Ruth made no further comment here. She saw plainly that Royal Phelps'father probably weighed everybody and everything on the same scales uponwhich precious metals are weighed.
"Now I'll catch your pony, Mr. Phelps," she said. "If you want to rideback with me I'll introduce you to the girls and Miss Cullam."
"That's nice of you. Perfectly bully, you know. Or, as they say outhere, 'skookum!' But I guess I'd better wait till Edie returns. Let herdo the honors. Besides, I am not at all sure that we sha'n't be enemies,Miss Fielding--worse luck."
"Oh, no, Mr. Phelps," Ruth said warmly. "Never _that!_"
"I don't know," he grumbled, hobbling on his crutches now while shewalked toward the pony that was trailing his picket-rope. "You see, I'mpretty desperate about this gold strike. I've a good mind to go up thereon the ridge and pull up all your stakes and throw 'em away."
"I wouldn't," she advised, smiling at him. "Mr. Flapjack Peters has whatthey call a 'sudden' temper; and his daughter, we found out coming overfrom Yucca, is a dead shot."
"I want a big slice of that ledge," said the young man, sighing. "Enoughto make a showing in the Eastern share market."
"Let us wait and see. You know, you might be able to buy up usgirls--three of us who hold the next three claims to yours and yoursister's."
"Oh! Would you do it?" he demanded, brightening up.
"Perhaps. And we might wait for our money till you got the mine toworking on a paying basis," Ruth said seriously. "Besides, there is MinPeters and her father. If you would take them into your company, so thatthey would have an income, Peters would be of great use to you, Mr.Phelps."
"Look here! I'll do anything fair," cried the young man. "It isn't thatI am just after the money for the money's sake----"
"I understand," she told him, nodding. "We'll talk about it later. Afterwe get reports on the ore that Peters took specimens of, all along theledge. But I am afraid your sister's bringing workmen up here will starta stampede to Freezeout."
"What do we care, as long as we get ours?" he cried, cheerfully. "Whew!The pater may think I am some good after all, before this business isover."
They mounted their ponies and rode to the camp. They followed the veryroute Ruth had come, but did not see the wounded wild horse again. RoyalPhelps left her when they came in sight of Freezeout and Ruth rode downinto the camp alone.
She told the camp wrangler something about her adventure and the nextday he went out with some of the Indians and punchers working for theoutfit, and they ran down the black and white stallion.
However, Ruth had less interest in the wild stallion than she had inseveral other subjects. She quietly told the girls and Miss Cullam nowabout the possible discovery of a rich gold-bearing ledge so near camp.The Ardmore's were naturally greatly excited.
"Stingy!" cried Trix Davenport. "Why not tell us all before?"
"Because those who found it had first rights," Ruth said gravely. "I_did_ stake out a claim for Rebecca. And I think Miss Cullam comesnext."
"Oh, girls! _Real gold?_" gasped the teacher, while Rebecca wasspeechless with amazement.
There was certainly a small "rush" that evening for the gold-bearingledge. Miss Cullam staked her claim and put up a notice next to RebeccaFrayne. All the other Ardmore's followed suit; even Ann Hicks was bittenby the fever of gold seeking.
They must have been watched, for not a few of the actors began to stakeout claims as best they knew how and put up notices on the outskirts ofthe line along the summit of the ridge followed by those first to knowof the gold.
The Western men, the teamsters and others, laughed at the whole businessand tried to tease Flapjack Peters; but they could get nothing out ofhim. Then some of them saw samples of the ore. The next morning foundFreezeout Camp almost abandoned. Everybody who had not already done sowas prowling around that half mile ridge of land, trying to stake claimsas near to the top of the ledge as he could.
"And at that," Min said gloomily, "some of these fellers that caught onlast may have the best of it. We don't know where the richest ore isyet."
Mr. Hammond and his director were nearly beside themselves. That day thecompany was so distraught that not a foot of film was made.
"How can I tell these crazy gold hunters how to act like _real_ goldhunters?" growled Grimes.
"If other people come flocking in the whole thing will be ruined,"groaned Mr. Hammond.
Ruth Fielding did not believe that. She began to get a vision of what areal gold rush might mean. If they could get a _bona fide_ stampede onthe film she believed it would add a hundred per cent. to the value of"The Forty-Niners."
Ruth Fielding In the Saddle; Or, College Girls in the Land of Gold Page 24