CHAPTER XXV
SUNLIGHT ONCE MORE
Somewhere some one laughed nervously. Another struck a match. Ruth was crowded back into a corner behind Tom’s broad shoulders.
In the flickering light of more matches she stared out from her enforced retirement upon the queerest tableau she had ever seen. Curiously enough, she was not frightened. It all seemed so unreal, fantastic.
Cowboys all around, their weary, white faces lit up oddly by the flickering light, every one with a hand on his holster, quiet, tense, and in the far corner of the place, backed up against the wall, two great, clumsy animals staring at the intruders with eyes half frightened, half fierce!
Even as Ruth stared, fascinated, one of them growled and moved forward a clumsy step. The other, as though encouraged by the defiance of its mate, growled also and ambled forward.
A bear is always more apt to run than fight. But, trapped here in the narrow confines of the cave with a certainty of attack from the rear should they try to escape, the bears took the only course left open to them--battle with their enemies. And a bear, roused to the attack, is a formidable foe!
As the great menacing beasts lunged forward the last feeble match went out, leaving the place in darkness. Only the faint ray of light from the far end of the cave mitigated the intense gloom.
Ruth shrank closer to Tom. The hair began to rise on her tingling scalp. She _was_ frightened now!
She heard the muttered remarks of the cowboys.
“If we all fire we’ll get one of ’em.”
“Leave it to Cameron and me, we’re nearest!” Layton Boardman’s voice was clear and sharp. “Over against the light, Cameron--can you see?”
The bears had halted, probably nonplussed for a moment by the failure of the light that had so clearly shown them their enemies.
One of them, a huge lump of shadow, bulked against the faint light from the opening.
Tom grunted. With a roar, the shadow moved forward.
There was a shot! Another!
“Got him!” was Boardman’s exultant cry.
But the gray shadow against the light, halted with a grunt of surprise as Tom’s first bullet grazed his huge shoulder, now lumbered forward again, moving with incredible swiftness.
Ruth, cowering behind Tom, felt rather than saw the nearness of the brute, knew that it had reared and was towering above them!
Tom’s pistol cracked again and then again.
The sinister shadow reeled, wavered, and fell, raking Tom’s arm in the descent, tearing the skin from shoulder to wrist.
Ruth was vaguely aware that other matches were being struck and in the weird light saw the faces of men bending eagerly above two great beasts, one of which still kicked feebly.
Ruth’s hand, falling on Tom’s arm, came away hot and sticky. She saw then the rent in his coat and the blood dripping from his fingers.
“Tom, you’re hurt! Oh, Tom, your arm!”
“It’s nothing.” Tom’s voice was impatient, curt. “Lucky he didn’t get more of us!”
But Layton Boardman had seen Tom’s injury, as had some of the other boys.
“What you need, Cameron, is something to stop that blood,” the former decided. “Come on, boys, let’s get out of here. The sooner the better!”
All pressed forward.
Tom forced himself to walk steadily, though his arm throbbed badly and he was feeling dizzy.
Ruth put his arm across her shoulders and whispered to him to lean on her.
“You were wonderful, Tom!” she said. “I’m so proud of you!” The words went a long way toward keeping Tom’s head up.
They found the opening of the cave larger than they had expected. It was an easy matter, once they had found their way over the bodies of the dead bears, to crawl out through the aperture into the blessed fresh air.
They stood silent for a moment, all of them, filling their lungs gratefully, faces upturned to the dazzling blue of the sky--a sky, but a short time before, they had thought never to see again!
Boardman looked at Tom, who was keeping his feet only by a tremendous effort of will.
“You must have come to pretty close quarters with that bear,” he remarked gravely.
Tom nodded.
“If I had finished him with the first shot, like you,” he said, “I wouldn’t have been left--this--little--souvenir--” Then he crumpled up, his face a ghastly gray, the blood from his wounded arm reddening the ground where he lay.
Boardman started to lift him, but Ruth motioned him away.
“We have to stop that bleeding first,” she said quietly, but with drawn lips. “He has lost far too much blood already.”
While the men stood about, Ruth tore strips from her skirt, which as “Ann Marks,” the heroine of the play, she fortunately wore, and tied them together. It was the matter of a moment to tear away the tattered sleeve of Tom’s shirt; to twist the strip from the skirt around the arm above the wound and just beneath the shoulder.
Even then, twist with all her might, Ruth could not stop the spurting blood.
“Get me a stick somebody--quick!” she cried. “A little one that I can get through this knot!”
One of the boys was quick to see what she wanted and brought a slender, tough twig and handed it to her.
“Maybe this’ll help, ma’am.”
“Just the thing, thanks,” returned Ruth.
She worked the twig beneath the bandage then began to twist it tighter and tighter until it seemed that the tourniquet must cut into the flesh.
But it worked! The blood flowed more and more sluggishly until finally it stopped altogether. Only then Ruth looked up, flushed and weary, but triumphant.
“Take him to the others as soon as you can, please,” she directed. “He must have a doctor at once.”
When, a few moments later, the disheveled band appeared before their would-be rescuers, bearing Tom among them, those digging at the débris stared for a moment as though they saw a band of ghosts.
But only for a moment. Then such a reunion, such a laughing and shouting and crying hysteria of welcome ensued as that grim old mountain had never witnessed before.
“Now that I’ve got you again, I’m never going to let you go,” Helen cried, clinging to Ruth.
“We must get Tom to the ranch at once--at once, Helen! He may die----”
“Tommy boy!” All the color swept out of Helen’s face.
Tom did not die, though the doctor declared Ruth’s improvised tourniquet had much to do with that result.
“It was quick work and thorough, my dear,” said the old doctor, eying Ruth benevolently over his thick-rimmed glasses. “I congratulate you.”
But Ruth, turning away with the happy tears flooding to her eyes, did not need congratulations. All she cared for was the tremendous fact that Tom would live. Not only that, but he recovered with surprising speed and was out of bed in a day’s time, though, of course, the wound was a much longer time in healing.
As soon as Ruth could bring herself around to thought of her picture again, the cameramen assured her that, so far from the scene being ruined by the second and unplanned landslide, it had been immeasurably strengthened.
“Nothing like the real thing to add realism to a film,” one of them jovially informed her. “I believe the avalanches, artificial and real, will make the greatest picture ever filmed!”
Ruth’s heart leaped at this.
“Some good seems to come even from the worst happenings,” she said. “I’m glad that you had the presence of mind to keep on grinding!”
“We thought the whole thing was staged at first,” they confessed to her. “And when we found out the true state of the case it was too late to stop grinding. The scene was shot.”
“Glory be!” laughed Ruth, and went off to find Tom, Tom swathed in bandages but with the glamour of a wounded hero about him, nevertheless.
A day or two later Chess Copley came to Golden Pass. He had meant to surprise Helen, and his intention was certainly successful.
He came from the railroad station on horseback and when Helen recognized him she flung herself with such fervor at the rider that his mount became frightened and nearly ran away with him.
“That’s the kind of a welcome I like!” cried Chess, as he dismounted and threw the reins to the grinning Andy. “Come here, fiancée, and receive the salute!”
Whereupon he kissed her quite heartily and openly before them all.
“How about business?” Helen asked him eagerly as she led him toward the porch. “You look as though you might be the bearer of good news----”
“The very best,” replied Chess. “Business is great! Nothing now stands between us and eternal bliss. Hello!” as he caught sight of Tom, bandaged but grinning delightedly, “who threw a brick at you, son?”
Of course a recital of the tremendous events of the past few days was quickly poured into his interested ears.
“What did you do with the bears?” Chess queried when they came to the fight in the cave.
“The boys went back the next day and got them,” Tom answered. “I reckon,” with a grin, “they’ll be eating bear meat for a week.”
“Ugh!” said Ruth with a shudder, as she looked at Tom’s arm, “I don’t see how they could touch it!”
A delightful few days followed, during which Ruth added the finishing touches to her picture. There remained the final scene, the close-up of Layton Boardman and Ruth in the humble cabin of Ann Marks, the two lovers reunited and looking toward a rosy future.
It was a short time after the completion of this final scene that Tom found himself alone with Layton Boardman.
Poor Tom did not feel in the best of good humor, for that last scene in which Boardman had held Ruth close and kissed her still rankled in his mind.
“By gosh, I’m glad that last scene is shot,” remarked the actor, with a sigh of relief. “I make a rotten lover, don’t I, Cameron?”
“What? Rotten lover?” queried Tom. “What do you mean, Boardman?”
“Just what I said. I can’t make love for a cent, no matter how I try. You see, it simply isn’t in me. I don’t care for girls that way--never did, no matter how hard they rave over me in the pictures.”
“You--er--did it very well,” stammered Tom. He was so astonished he scarcely knew what to say.
“Thanks for saying that. Then I won’t have to do it all over again!” and Tom felt the note of relief in Boardman’s voice. “I was afraid it might be necessary and that Miss Fielding would call me down for being such a wooden man at it. Ever since I agreed to take the part I tried to drill myself in it. And, believe me, drilling opposite to such a girl as Viola was some job! It went easier with Miss Fielding, but still, as I said before, I’m no lady’s man and never was. I’d never give ’em a second hoot if it wasn’t all a part of the job.” And then Boardman strolled off to join some of the cowboys.
Tom stood stock still for a moment, gazing after the retreating moving picture actor. Then slowly a grin swept over his face.
“Tom Cameron, did you hear that?” he muttered to himself. “Never cared for any girl, never was a lady’s man! ‘Drilled myself in it!’ Gosh, and I thought it was all real! Well, I’ve been seven kinds of a fool--I’ll say so myself!”
Some time later that same evening Tom asked Ruth what she meant to do about him now that she had finished her picture. She succeeded in putting him off once more, though this time without hurting his feelings.
“Wait just a little while, Tommy-boy,” she pleaded. “Just till I see myself on the screen. I must first know what kind of an actress I make.”
* * * * *
It was not very long after this that Ruth found her new picture advertised in electric lights before one of the big moving picture houses in New York.
The first few scenes in which Ruth appeared were sufficient to convince those critics of the moving picture world who had gathered to view “Hearts of the Mountains” that a new and scintillating star had appeared on the horizon.
It is not often that one finds author, director, and star all in the person of one charming girl. Ruth’s career was unique enough to satisfy even the most enthusiastic searchers after romance.
The avalanche was a tremendous spectacle. Those in the theater, gripped and stirred by the power of it, rose as a man and demanded the appearance of the author of the play.
Ruth, who was in the audience, was lifted to the stage by the eager hands of her admirers.
Flushed, tremulous, but wholly in command of herself, she said a few words of appreciation. The last part of her impromptu little speech was fairly drowned beneath the thunderous wave of applause that swept the theater.
Ruth knew that, in that moment, she had won fame.
Sol Bloomberg’s sly attempt to punish Ruth for her acquisition of Boardman and, by stealing Viola, to make a failure of Ruth’s picture had come to worse than nothing.
His picture, starring Viola and her lover, Tony Martano, was a disastrous failure. No one seemed to know just why--except perhaps Bloomberg himself. At any rate, one “listening in” for a moment on a conversation held between him and one of his directors, might possibly have found a clew to the mystery.
“It ain’t that Viola ain’t a good actress, Jim,” the picture magnate asseverated, chewing viciously upon a huge and unlighted cigar. “It’s just that she’s plum silly over that Dago she’s fell for.”
The director nodded in deep dejection.
“Don’t you suppose I know it? She lets Tony Martano hog all her best scenes. And he’s some ham actor! I tell you, Sol,” he went on with a frankness born of long and intimate association, “you sure pulled a bone when you put them two in the same picture.”
Bloomberg flared up at this.
“I wouldn’t ’a’ got Viola at all if I hadn’t held Tony out as bait. You know that as well as I do. Now keep still and get out! I gotta think!”
That his thoughts were not pleasant ones was proved a few moments later when he slammed his hat down on his head and angrily left the office, the mangled cigar, unlit, still between his teeth.
There were more reasons than one for Bloomberg’s deep depression. Not only had he lost money through the failure of his picture, but what shreds of reputation remained to him, as well.
The story of how he had tempted Ruth’s star into breaking her contract had gone the rounds as such bits of scandal will in the moving picture world. Ruth was applauded for her courage and resource, while Bloomberg became a laughing stock even among those he called his friends. Nor were Viola’s chances for making a good contract helped by her desertion of the Fielding Film Corporation at a critical time.
Ruth would not have been human had she failed to gloat a little over the downfall of her enemies.
“So are the wicked punished!” she said, with a twinkle in her eyes, to Helen.
They were back in the living room of the old house at the Red Mill.
At this observation of her chum Helen looked up and laughed affectionately, albeit still with that faint touch of envy.
“You lucky, lucky girl!” she murmured. “With the world at your feet, to say nothing of Tom!”
THE END
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THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES By ALICE B. EMERSON 12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to live with her miserly uncle. Her adventures and travels make stories that will hold the interest of every reader.
Ruth Fielding is a character that will live in juvenile fiction.
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THE BETTY GORDON SERIES By ALICE B. EMERSON 12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM or The Mystery of a Nobody
At twelve Betty is left an orphan.
2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON or Strange Adventures in a Great City
Betty goes to the National Capitol to find her uncle and has several unusual adventures.
3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL or The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune
From Washington the scene is shifted to the great oil fields of our country. A splendid picture of the oil field operations of today.
4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL or The Treasure of Indian Chasm
Seeking treasures of Indian Chasm makes interesting reading.
5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne
At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery.
6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK or School Chums on the Boardwalk
A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot.
7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS or Bringing the Rebels to Terms
Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies.
8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH or Cowboy Joe’s Secret
Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
9. BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS or The Secret of the Mountains
Betty receives a fake telegram and finds both Bob and herself held for ransom in a mountain cave.
10. BETTY GORDON AND THE LOST PEARLS or A Mystery of The Seaside
Betty and her chums go to the ocean shore for a vacation and Betty becomes involved in the disappearance of a string of pearls.
11. BETTY GORDON ON THE CAMPUS or The Secret of the Trunk Room
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May Hollis Barton is a new writer for girls thoroughly up-to-date in plot and action. Clean tales that all girls will enjoy reading.
1. THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY or Laura Mayford’s City Experiences
Laura was the oldest of five and she had a chance to try her luck in New York.
2. THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL or The Mystery of the School by the Lake
When the three chums arrived at the boarding school they found the other students in the grip of a most perplexing mystery.
3. NELL GRAYSON’S RANCHING DAYS or A City Girl in the Great West
Nell had a ranch girl visit her in Boston, and when Nell visited the great West she found many stirring adventures.
4. FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY or The Queer Old Lady Who Lost Her Way
Four sisters are keeping house and having trouble. One day there wanders in from a stalled express train an old lady who cannot remember her identity.
5. PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY or The Girl Who Won Out
The tale of two girls, one plain but sensible, the other pretty but vain. Unexpectedly both find they have to make their own way.
6. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE or The Old Bachelor’s Ward
Her guardian Major, an old bachelor, knows nothing about children.
7. HAZEL HOOD’S STRANGE DISCOVERY or The Old Scientist’s Treasure Box
Times were hard at the Widow Hood’s place and Hazel thought it her duty to go to work.
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Bab was quite excited to learn that a distant relative had died and left her his property.
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1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE or The Story of Nine Adventurous Girls
How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems commonplace, but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made their club serve a great purpose continues the interest to the end, and introduces a new type of girlhood.
2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD or The Great West Point Chain
The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with feuds or mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled them in some surprising adventures that turned out happily for all, and made the valley better because of their visit.
3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST or The Log of the Ocean Monarch
For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back into the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the reader sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their friends to come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine story.
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BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES By JANET D. WHEELER 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners
Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead that was unoccupied and located far away in a lonely section of the country. How Billie went there, accompanied by some of her chums, and what queer things happened, go to make up a story no girl will want to miss.
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Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short time after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of the school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge of two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in very, very plain food and little of it—and then there was a row!
3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND or The Mystery of the Wreck
One of Billie’s friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse Island, near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited the Island. There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children were washed ashore.
4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES or The Secret of the Locked Tower
Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children who had broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost invention, and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore
A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a great variety of adventures. They visit an artists’ colony and there fall in with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her constantly.
6. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TREASURE COVE or The Old Sailor’s Secret
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2. THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND or Camping Out with Grandpa
The Curlytops camp on Star Island.
3. THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN or Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds
The Curlytops on lakes and hills.
4. THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK’S RANCH or Little Folks on Ponyback
Out West on their uncle’s ranch they have a wonderful time.
5. THE CURLYTOPS AT SILVER LAKE or On the Water with Uncle Ben
The Curlytops camp out on the shores of a beautiful lake.
6. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS or Uncle Toby’s Strange Collection
An old uncle leaves them to care for his collection of pets.
7. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PLAYMATES or Jolly Times Through the Holidays
They have great times with their uncle’s collection of animals.
8. THE CURLYTOPS IN THE WOODS or Fun at the Lumber Camp
Exciting times in the forest for Curlytops.
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The Curlytops have a fine time at the seashore.
10. THE CURLYTOPS TOURING AROUND or The Missing Photograph Albums
The Curlytops get in some moving pictures.
11. THE CURLYTOPS IN A SUMMER CAMP or Animal Joe’s Menagerie
There is great excitement as some mischievous monkeys break out of Animal Joe’s Menagerie.
12. THE CURLYTOPS GROWING UP or Winter Sports and Summer Pleasures
Little Trouble is a host in himself and his larger brother and sister are never still a minute, but go from one little adventure to another in a way to charm all youthful readers.
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