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+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence
+       The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: June 15, 2008 [EBook #25802]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CAMERAS WHIRRED WHILE THE BARGE PUSHED CLOSE INTO
+SHORE.
+"Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence."                        Page 80]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+RUTH FIELDING
+ON THE
+ST. LAWRENCE
+
+OR
+
+THE QUEER OLD MAN OF
+THE THOUSAND ISLANDS
+
+BY
+ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill," "Ruth
+Fielding in the Great Northwest," "Betty
+Gordon series," etc.
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+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
+RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
+RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
+RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
+RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
+RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
+RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
+RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+
+BETTY GORDON SERIES
+
+BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM
+BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON
+BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL
+BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL
+BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP
+
+Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York
+
+Copyright, 1922, by
+Cupples & Leon Company
+
+Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence
+Printed in U. S. A.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                               PAGE
+      I  "Here Comes The Bride"          1
+     II  A Rift In His Lute             10
+    III  Rice And Old Shoes             18
+     IV  Bilby                          27
+      V  Trouble In Prospect            37
+     VI  An Abduction                   45
+    VII  Expediency                     54
+   VIII  At Chippewa Bay                63
+     IX  A Film Mystery                 73
+      X  A Smell Of Smoke               83
+     XI  Bilby Again                    93
+    XII  The Dance At Alexandria Bay   100
+   XIII  The Kingdom Of Pipes          109
+    XIV  A Demand Is Made              116
+     XV  The Yellow Lady               124
+    XVI  Marooned                      131
+   XVII  A Determination               140
+  XVIII  Bilby's Trump Card            148
+    XIX  Suspense                      156
+     XX  A Failure In Calculation      164
+    XXI  In The Chinese Den            171
+   XXII  The Twins' Alarm              178
+  XXIII  Trouble Enough                186
+   XXIV  A Letter Comes                193
+    XXV  The Heart's Desire            201
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING ON THE
+ST. LAWRENCE
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"HERE COMES THE BRIDE"
+
+
+The sudden joyous pealing of the organ could be heard upon the sidewalk
+before the stately church. As there was a broad canopy from the door to
+the curb, with a carpet laid down and motor-cars standing in line, it
+took no seer to proclaim that a wedding was in progress within.
+
+Idlers halted to wait for the appearance of the wedding party, which was
+about to come forth. Some of the younger spectators ran up the steps and
+peered in at the door, for there was only a lame, old, purblind sexton on
+guard, and he, too, seemed vastly interested in what was going on inside.
+
+One glance down the main aisle of the great edifice revealed a much more
+elaborate scheme of decoration than usually appears at a church wedding.
+Its main effect was the intertwining of French and American flags, and as
+the bridal party turned from the altar the horizon blue uniform of the
+soldier-bridegroom was a patch of vivid color that could not be mistaken.
+
+The bride in her white gown and veil and wreath made, it may be, even a
+more prominent picture than did her husband. But that was only to be
+expected perhaps, for a girl on her wedding day, and in the church, is
+usually the focus of all eyes.
+
+It must be confessed (even her dearest friends must confess it) there was
+another reason why she who, only a moment before had been Jennie Stone,
+quite filled the public eye.
+
+In the first place, Jennie was a well-built girl, and upon her well-built
+frame there had always been since her childhood days a superabundance of
+flesh. And getting married had not changed sweet, jolly, funny Jennie
+Stone in the least! Instead of coming back down the aisle of the church
+with modestly downcast eyes (which is usually a hypocritical display of
+emotion), Jennie smiled at her friends and beamed proudly upon the figure
+in horizon blue at her side.
+
+And she might well be proud of Major Henri Marchand, for he was in the
+very best sense a soldier and a gentleman, and there gleamed a bit of
+color on his breast that had been pinned there by Marshal Foch's own
+hand. As he was still in active service and had only been given leave to
+come to America for his bride, this might be considered the last military
+wedding that the old church was likely to see--perhaps for many years.
+
+The groom's French uniform, and even the olive gray of the best man and
+two or three other men in the party at the altar, had lent their touch of
+color to the picture. But it was the bride's attendants, however, that
+made the party so well worth looking at--especially to the greater number
+of young women and girls in the pews.
+
+Jennie Stone was a popular girl, and had friends galore. Many of those
+girl friends had come from a distance to see their beloved "Heavy Stone"
+(as she had been nicknamed in the old Briarwood Hall days) married to the
+man she had met in France while she was engaged in those useful and
+helpful occupations into which so many American girls entered during the
+war.
+
+Besides, Jennie was the first of the old Briarwood Hall set to be
+married, and this was bound to be a gala occasion. This was no "weepy"
+wedding, but a time of joy. And the bridal party coming down the aisle
+made as brilliant a picture as had ever been seen in the old church.
+
+The maid of honor in pink was as refreshing to look upon as a bouquet of
+arbutus. She had always been a pretty, winsome girl. Now she was
+developing into a handsome young woman, as all Ruth Fielding's friends
+declared. In her present filmy costume with its flowery picture hat the
+girl of the Red Mill had never looked better.
+
+The young man at her side in the uniform of an American captain with his
+black curls and dark face, made a splendid foil for Ruth's beauty. Behind
+him walked his twin sister--as like Tom Cameron as another pea in a
+pod--and Ann Hicks, both in rose-color, completing a color scheme worthy
+of the taste of whoever had originated it. For the sheer beauty of the
+picture, this wedding would long be remembered.
+
+In the very last pew, on the aisle, sat an eager old colored woman--one
+of those typical "mammies" now so seldom seen--in an old-fashioned bonnet
+and shawl. She was of a bulbous figure, and her dark face shone with
+perspiration and delight as she stared at the coming bride and groom.
+
+Jennie saw Mammy Rose (the old woman had been a dependent of the Stone
+family for years), and had the occasion been much more serious than
+Jennie thought it, the plump girl would surely have smiled at Mammy Rose.
+
+The old woman bobbed up, making an old-time genuflection. She thrust out
+a neat, paper-covered parcel which she had held carefully in her
+capacious lap all through the ceremony.
+
+"Miss Janie--ma blessed baby!" she whispered. "I is suttenly glad to see
+dis here day! Heaven is a-smilin' on yo'. And here is one o' ma birfday
+cakes yo' liked so mighty well. Mammy Rose done make it for her chile--de
+las' she ever will make yo' now yo' is goin' to foreign paths."
+
+Another girl than Jennie might have been confused, or even angered, by
+the interruption of the procession. But Jennie could be nothing if not
+kind. Her own hands were filled with her bouquet--it was enormous. She
+stopped, however, before the old woman.
+
+"As thoughtful for me as ever, Mammy Rose, aren't you?" she said
+pleasantly. "And you know all my little failings. Henri," she said to her
+husband.
+
+But the courtly young Frenchman had quite as great a sense of _noblesse
+oblige_ as his bride. He bowed to the black woman as though she was the
+highest lady in the land and accepted the parcel, tied clumsily with baby
+ribbon by the gnarled fingers of Mammy Rose.
+
+They moved on and the smiling, yet tearful, old woman, sank back into her
+seat. If there was anything needed to make this a perfect occasion, it
+was this little incident. The bride and groom came out into the smiling
+sunshine with sunshine in their hearts as well as on their faces.
+
+"I knew," whispered Helen Cameron to Ann Hicks, who stalked beside her in
+rather a mannish way, "that Heavy Stone could not even be married without
+something ridiculous happening."
+
+"'Ridiculous'?" repeated the Western girl, with something like a catch in
+her throat.
+
+"Well, it _might_ have been ridiculous," admitted Helen. "Only, after
+all, Jennie is real--and so is Major Marchand. You couldn't feaze him,
+not even if a bomb had been dropped in the church vestibule."
+
+They were crowding into the motor-cars then, and merrily the wedding
+party sped back to the big house on Madison Avenue, which had been
+garnished for the occasion with the same taste that marked the
+color-scheme of the bride's attendants. The canopied steps and walk, the
+footmen in line to receive the party, and the banked flowers in the
+reception hall were all impressive.
+
+"My!" whispered the irrepressible Jennie to Henri, "I feel like a prima
+donna."
+
+"You are," was his prompt and earnest agreement.
+
+They trooped in at once to the breakfast table. The spacious room was
+wreathed with smilax and other vines--even to the great chandelier. The
+latter was so hidden by the decorations that it seemed overladen, and Tom
+Cameron, who had a quick eye, mentioned it to Ruth.
+
+"Wonder if those fellows braced that thing with wires? Florists sometimes
+have more sense of art than common sense."
+
+"Hush, Tom! _Nothing_ can happen to spoil this occasion. Isn't it
+wonderful?"
+
+But Tom Cameron looked at her rather gloomily. He shook his head
+slightly.
+
+"I feel like one of those pictures of the starving children in Armenia.
+I'm standing on the outside, looking in."
+
+It is true that Ruth Fielding flushed, but she refused to make reply. A
+moment later, when Tom realized how the seating of the party had been
+arranged, his countenance showed even deeper gloom.
+
+As best man Tom was directed to Jennie's right hand. On the other side of
+Henri, Ruth was seated, and that placed her across the wide table from
+Tom Cameron.
+
+The smiling maid of honor was well worth looking at, and Tom Cameron
+should have been content to focus his eyes upon her whenever he raised
+them from his plate; but for a particular reason he was not at all
+pleased.
+
+This particular reason was the seating of another figure in military
+uniform next to Ruth on her other side. This was a tall, pink-cheeked,
+well set-up youth looking as though, like Tom, he had seen military
+service, and with an abundance of light hair above his broad brow. At
+school Chessleigh Copley had been nicknamed "Lasses" because of that crop
+of hair.
+
+He entered into conversation with Ruth at once, and he found her so
+interesting (or she found him so interesting) that Ruth had little
+attention to give to her _vis-à-vis_ across the table.
+
+The latter's countenance grew heavier and heavier, his dark brows drawing
+together and his black eyes smouldering.
+
+If anybody noticed this change in Tom's countenance it was his twin
+sister, sitting on Ruth's side of the table. And perhaps she understood
+her brother's mood. Now and then her own eyes flashed something besides
+curiosity along the table on her side at Ruth and Chess Copley, so
+evidently lost in each other's companionship.
+
+But it was a gay party. How could it be otherwise with Jennie at the
+table? And everybody was bound to second the gaiety of the bride. The
+groom's pride in Jennie was so open, yet so very courteously expressed,
+that half the girls there envied Jennie her possession of Henri Marchand.
+
+"To think," drawled Ann Hicks, who had come East from Silver Ranch, "that
+Heavy Stone should grab off such a prize in the matrimonial grab-bag.
+My!" and she finished with a sigh.
+
+"When does your turn come, Ann?" asked somebody.
+
+"Believe me," said the ranch girl, with emphasis, "I have got to see
+somebody besides cowpunchers and horse-wranglers before I make such a
+fatal move."
+
+"You have lost all your imagination," laughed Helen, from across the
+table.
+
+"I don't know. Maybe I used it all up, back in those old kid days when I
+ran away to be 'Nita' and played at being 'the abused chee-ild'.
+Remember?"
+
+"Oh, _don't_ we!" cried Helen and some of the other girls.
+
+Something dropped on Tom Cameron's plate. He glanced up, then down again
+at the object that had fallen. It was a piece of plaster from the
+ceiling.
+
+Chess Copley likewise shot a glance ceilingward.
+
+There was a wide gap--and growing wider--on his side of the chandelier. A
+great piece of the heavy plaster was breaking away from the ceiling, and
+it hung threateningly over his own and Ruth Fielding's head.
+
+"Look out, Ruth!" shouted Tom Cameron, jumping to his feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A RIFT IN HIS LUTE
+
+
+Tom Cameron, no matter how desirous he might be of saving Ruth from hurt,
+could not possibly have got around the table in time. With a snarling,
+ripping noise the heavy patch of plaster tore away from the ceiling and
+fell directly upon the spot where the chairs of Ruth and Chess Copley had
+been placed!
+
+The screams of the startled girls almost drowned the noise of the
+plaster's fall, but Ruth Fielding did not join in the outcry.
+
+With one movement, it seemed, Copley had risen and kicked his own chair
+away, seized Ruth about her waist as he did so, and so dragged her out
+from under the avalanche.
+
+It was all over in a moment, and the two stood, clinging to each other
+involuntarily, while the dust of the fallen plaster spread around them.
+
+For a moment Ruth Fielding had been in as perilous a situation as she had
+ever experienced, and her life had been rather full of peril and
+adventure since, as a girl of twelve, and in the first volume of this
+series, we met her as "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill."
+
+At the time just mentioned, the orphaned Ruth had appeared at her
+great-uncle's mill on the Lumano River, near Cheslow, in one of the New
+England States, and had been taken in by the miserly old miller rather
+under protest. But Aunt Alvirah Boggs, who was Uncle Jabez Potter's
+housekeeper, had loved the child from the very beginning. And in truth
+the old miller loved Ruth too, only he was slow to admit it.
+
+Ruth's first young friends at the Red Mill were the Cameron twins, and
+with Helen she had spent her schools days and many of her vacations, at
+Briarwood Hall, in the North Woods, at the seashore, in the West, in the
+South, Down East, and in other localities, the narrated adventures of
+which are to be found in the several volumes of the Ruth Fielding Series.
+
+In the book just preceding this present story, "Ruth Fielding in the
+Great Northwest," Helen was likewise with Ruth when she made her famous
+moving picture, "Brighteyes" in connection with the Alectrion Film
+Corporation, the president of which, Mr. Hammond, had first encouraged
+Ruth to turn her entire time and talent to the writing of moving picture
+scenarios.
+
+The fall before the time of this wedding party in which the girl of the
+Red Mill was taking part, fortune threw in Ruth's way a charming young
+woman, a full-blood Osage Indian, in whom Mr. Hammond saw possibilities
+of development for screen acting. At least, to use the trite and
+bombastic moving picture phrase, Wonota, the Indian princess,
+"photographed like a million dollars."
+
+The Great War's abrupt conclusion brought Tom Cameron home just as eager
+as he had been for two years past to have Ruth agree to his plans for the
+future. As Ruth saw it (no matter what may have been her secret feeling
+for Tom) to do as Tom wished would utterly spoil the career on which she
+had now entered so successfully.
+
+Tom, like most young men in love, considered that a girl's only career
+should be a husband and a home. He frankly said that he was prepared,
+young as he was, to supply both for Ruth.
+
+But their youth, in the first place, was an objection in the very
+sensible mind of Ruth. It was true, too, that a second objection was the
+fact that she wanted to live her own life and establish herself in the
+great career she had got into almost by chance.
+
+And then too Tom himself, since his return from France, had shown little
+determination to settle himself at work. Being the son of a wealthy
+merchant and possessing, now that he was of age, a fortune in his own
+right inherited from his mother's estate, Tom Cameron, it seemed to Ruth,
+was just playing with life.
+
+Like many another young fellow so recently from the battlefield, it
+seemed as if he could not settle to anything. And his sister encouraged
+him in this attitude. Ruth secretly blamed Helen for this. And therefore
+her own attitude to Tom had grown more stern.
+
+It was now June--the June following the armistice--the loveliest and most
+accepted time for a bridal. The ceremony of Jennie Stone's wedding to
+Major Henri Marchand had passed off, as we have seen, very smoothly. Even
+Tom, as best man, had found the ring at the right moment, and nobody had
+stepped on Jennie's train.
+
+But this accident at the breakfast table--and an accident that might have
+resulted fatally for Ruth Fielding--threatened to cause not only
+excitement but to sober the whole party.
+
+In a moment, however, in spite of the dust rising from the broken
+plaster, the others saw that Ruth and Chess Copley were both safe. The
+latter was repeating, over and over and in much anxiety:
+
+"You are all right, Ruth! I've got you. You are all right."
+
+The girl herself was quite breathless. Copley held her in rather a close
+embrace, and for a much longer time than appeared necessary--to Tom
+Cameron at least. Tom had got around the table just too late to be of any
+assistance.
+
+"We see you've got her, 'Lasses," Tom observed, rather tartly. "The
+close-up is shot. Break away."
+
+His words started the laughter--and there was much relief expressed in
+the laughter in which all about the table joined. People are apt to laugh
+when serious danger is over. But it might have been observed by his
+friends at another time that Tom Cameron was not usually tart or unkind
+of speech.
+
+Ruth said nothing, and Chess Copley flushed hotly. Jennie had got up with
+Henri in the moment of excitement, and now she quickly seized her goblet
+of grape-juice in which the party had previously toasted the bride and
+groom, and raised the glass on high.
+
+"Hear! Hear!" cried Ann Hicks. "The bride speaks."
+
+"This is a good omen," declared Jennie clinging to Henri's arm. "Our Ruth
+was wounded in France and has been in danger on many occasions, as we all
+know. Never has she more gracefully escaped disaster, nor been aided by a
+more chivalrous cavalier. Drink! Drink to Ruth Fielding and to Chessleigh
+Copley! They are two very lucky people, for that ceiling might have
+cracked their crowns."
+
+They drank the toast--most of them with much laughter.
+
+"Some orator, Jennie," commented Helen. "We are just beginning to
+appreciate you."
+
+"You will all be sorry that you did not treat me better--especially as a
+chee-ild," returned the plump bride, with mock solemnity. "Think! Think
+how you all used to abuse my--my appetite at Briarwood Hall. It is only
+Mammy Rose who is kind to me," and she pointed to the old colored woman's
+gift that had a place of honor before her own plate and that of Major
+Marchand's.
+
+"Let me give a toast," cried Helen gaily. "Let us drink to Jennie's
+appetite--long may it wave."
+
+"Goodness me! Don't speak of waves and appetite in the same breath, I
+beg. Remember we are going directly aboard ship from the house and--and I
+never was a good sailor. Waves! Ugh!"
+
+The fun went on while the serving people swept up the debris and removed
+those dishes that had been covered with dust.
+
+Aside, Ruth, taking for the moment little part in the chatter and
+merriment, for she had received a considerable shock, stood talking with
+Copley. Ruth had given him her hand again and Chess clung to it rather
+more warmly--so the watchful Tom thought--than was needful. But the girl
+felt that she really had a great deal to thank Copley for.
+
+"Jennie in her fun spoke quite truly," Ruth said in a low voice. "You are
+a friend in need."
+
+"And I hope you consider me a friend indeed, Ruth," rejoined the young
+fellow.
+
+"I certainly do," agreed the girl of the Red Mill with her customary
+frank smile.
+
+"I--I am afraid," Chess added, "that I am not considered in that light by
+all your friends, Ruth. Helen Cameron hasn't spoken to me to-day."
+
+"No? Is it serious?"
+
+"It is serious when a fellow gets turned down--snubbed--and not a word of
+explanation offered. And, in the words of the old song, we were
+'companions once, but strangers now'."
+
+"Oh, don't mind. Helen usually gets over the mollygrubs very quickly."
+
+Chess turned to see the other Cameron twin eyeing him with no great
+favor.
+
+However, the throng of guests who were invited to the reception began
+coming in, and for the next two hours the parlors were crowded with the
+many friends of the plump girl, who, as Helen had said, found this the
+greatest day of her life, and there was little time for much individual
+chat, though, it seemed to Tom, Chess Copley kept as close as possible to
+Ruth's side.
+
+It was after Jennie had gone to put on her traveling dress, and the
+immediate wedding party, who were to accompany the bridal couple to the
+dock to see them embark, were hurrying out of the room to put on street
+clothes that Tom, in a low voice, demanded of Chess:
+
+"What are you trying to do--put a label on Ruth? Don't forget she belongs
+to all of us."
+
+Chess Copley had not won his commission in the war and wore only a
+sergeant's chevrons. But the war was over and he could tell his captain
+just what he thought of him. And he did.
+
+"Do you know what you are, Tom Cameron?" he drawled, smiling a hard
+little smile. "You are a regular dog in the manger, and I'm frank to tell
+you so!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+RICE AND OLD SHOES
+
+
+"It is the greatest day in a girl's life," declared Helen Cameron,
+sitting on the edge of one of the twin beds in the room she and Ruth
+occupied while they were at the Stone house. She buckled her fingers
+around her knee to hold one limb crossed over the other--a very mannish
+and independent position. "I don't know that I ever envied Heavy before
+in my life. But she has got something now that we haven't, Ruth."
+
+"Cat's foot!" exclaimed Ann Hicks from her chair. "Who'd want a Frenchman
+for a husband?"
+
+Ruth laughed. "Not to say that Major Marchand is not a fine fellow, I
+agree with Ann that I don't want a husband. Not--right--now!"
+
+"Oh! Very well," said Helen complacently. "But if you thought you'd never
+be able to get one----"
+
+"Shucks!" exclaimed Ann. "As though our Ruth couldn't have all she wants
+if she wants them."
+
+"I really wish you would not speak plurally of them, Ann," cried Ruth,
+laughing. "You will make me feel like the Queen of the Amazons. They say
+she keeps a masculine harem--like a bey, or a sultan, or something of
+that kind."
+
+"Be serious," rejoined Helen. "I mean what I say. Jennie's great day has
+arrived. And she is the first of all our old bunch that went to
+Briarwood--and surely of those who went to Ardmore College--to fetter
+herself to a man for life."
+
+"Well, I shall never be fettered, even if I am married," observed Ann.
+"I'd like to see myself!"
+
+"If the right man comes riding by, Ann, even you will change your mind,"
+Ruth said softly.
+
+"Then I suppose the right man has never ridden up to the Red Mill and
+asked for you?" demanded Helen, with a glance at her chum that was rather
+piercing.
+
+"Perhaps he has," said Ruth composedly, "but I wasn't at home. Aunt
+Alvirah thinks I am almost never at home. And, girls, as I told you
+yesterday, I am going soon on another journey."
+
+"Oh, Ruth, I've been thinking of that!" Helen rejoined, with a sudden
+access of interest and excitement. "To the Thousand Islands! And at the
+loveliest time of all the year up there."
+
+"And that is only the truth," said one of the other bridesmaids. "We
+spent last summer there."
+
+"The Copleys always go," Helen remarked quietly.
+
+"No! Do you mean it?" cried Ruth, showing some surprise. "Well, indeed."
+
+"So you will see a lot more of 'Lasses Copley," remarked Ann.
+
+"I shall be glad if Chess Copley is there when and where we make this
+picture, for I think he is very nice," was Ruth's composed reply.
+
+"Oh, he's nice enough," agreed Helen, rather grumblingly however. "I've
+got nothing to say against Chess--as a general thing."
+
+"And you don't seem to say much for him," put in the Western girl
+curiously.
+
+But Helen said nothing further on that topic. Ruth broke in, answering
+one of the other girls who spoke of the forthcoming picture Ruth was
+going to make for the Alectrion Corporation.
+
+"Of course our famous Wonota is going to be in the picture. For she is
+famous already. 'Brighteyes' appeared for two successive weeks in one of
+the big Broadway picture houses and we are making a lot of money out of
+its distribution.
+
+"But we know Wonota is a find for another very unmistakable reason," she
+added.
+
+"What is that?" asked Helen.
+
+"Other producers have begun to make Wonota and her father offers. For
+Chief Totantora has become interested in the movie business too. Mr.
+Hammond used Totantora in a picture he made in Oklahoma in the spring;
+one in which Wonota did not appear. She was off at school at the time. We
+are going to make of the princess a cultivated and cultured young lady
+before we get through with her," and Ruth laughed.
+
+"A Red Indian!" cried somebody.
+
+"That makes no difference," said Ruth placidly. "She is amenable to white
+customs, and is really a very smart girl. And she has a lovely
+disposition."
+
+"Especially," put in Helen, who remembered the occasion clearly, "when
+she wanted to shoot Dakota Joe Fenbrook when he treated her so unkindly
+in his Wild West show. But, I wanted to shoot him myself," she added,
+frankly. "Especially after he tried to hurt Ruth."
+
+"Never mind him," said her chum at that. "Joe Fenbrook is in the
+penitentiary now, and he is not bothering us. But other people are
+bothering Mr. Hammond about Wonota."
+
+"How?" asked Helen.
+
+"Why, as I said, there are other picture producers who have seen
+'Brighteyes' and would like to get the chief and his daughter under
+contract. They have told Totantora that, as the contract with his
+daughter was made while she was not of age, it can be broken. Of course,
+the Indian agent agreed to the contract; but after Totantora returned
+from Europe, where he had been held a prisoner in Germany during the war,
+the guardianship of Wonota reverted to her father once more.
+
+"It is rather a complicated matter," went on Ruth, "and it is giving Mr.
+Hammond and his lawyers some trouble. There is a man named Bilby, who has
+been a picture producer in a small way, who seems to have some influence
+with the head of the Government Bureau of Indian Affairs. He seems to
+have financial backing, too, and claims to have secured a series of
+stories in which Wonota might be featured to advantage. And he certainly
+has offered Totantora and the girl much more money than Mr. Hammond would
+be willing to risk in a star who may, after all, prove merely a flash in
+the pan."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Ann. "I thought she was a sure-fire
+hit."
+
+"No amateur screen actress--and that is all Wonota is as yet--is ever a
+'sure-fire hit', as you call it," said the practical Ruth. "Many a
+producer has been badly bitten by tying up a new actor or actress to a
+long-time contract. Because a girl films well and is successful in one
+part, is not an assurance that she can learn to be a really great actress
+before the camera.
+
+"In 'Brighteyes' Wonota merely played herself. I was successful in
+fitting my story to her individuality. But she cannot always play the
+same part. In this story we are about to do on the St. Lawrence, she will
+be called upon to delineate a character quite different from that of the
+heroine of 'Brighteyes.'"
+
+"Dear me, Ruth," sighed Helen, "what a business woman you are getting to
+be. Your career has really begun--and so promisingly. While I can't do a
+thing but play the fiddle a little, daub a little at batik, and crochet!"
+
+"And make most delightful fudge!" cried Jennie Stone, just then coming
+into the room in her traveling dress, fresh from the hands of her maid
+and Aunt Kate. "How do I look, girls?"
+
+The bride's appearance drove everything else out of her friends' minds
+for the time being. It was two o'clock and the automobiles were at the
+door. The bridal couple, attended by bridesmaids, the best man, the
+ushers, and other close friends, departed for the dock amid showers of
+rice and a bombardment of old shoes which littered Madison Avenue for
+half a block and kept even the policemen on special duty for the
+occasion, dodging!
+
+They all trooped aboard the steamship where arrangements had been made to
+have the passports of the bride and groom examined.
+
+Mr. Stone had done everything well, as he always did. The bridal suite
+was banked with flowers. Even the orchestra belonging to the ship had
+been engaged specially to play. A second, though brief, reception was
+held here.
+
+The ship's siren sent a stuttering blast into the air that seemed to
+shake the skyscrapers opposite the dock. The young folks trooped back to
+the pier. Tom did his best to escort Ruth; but to his amazement and anger
+Chess Copley pushed in front of him and Ruth took the sergeant's arm.
+
+Helen came along and grabbed her brother with a fierce little pinch. Her
+eyes sparkled while his smouldered.
+
+"I guess we are relegated to the second row, Tommy-boy," she whispered.
+"I do not see what has got into Ruth."
+
+"It's not Ruth. The gall of that 'Lasses!" muttered the slangy Tom.
+
+"So you think he is at fault?" rejoined his sister. "Oh, Tommy-boy! you
+do not know 'us girls'--no indeed you do not."
+
+It was a gay enough party on the dock that watched the big ship back out
+and being turned in the stream by the fussy tugs. The bride and groom
+shouted until they were hoarse, and waved their hands and handkerchiefs
+as long as they could be seen from the dock.
+
+If Helen and Tom Cameron were either, or both, offended by Ruth, they did
+not show it to the general company. As for the girl of the Red Mill, she
+enjoyed herself immensely; and she particularly liked Chess Copley's
+company.
+
+It was not that she felt any less kindly toward Tom; but Tom had
+disappointed her. He seemed to have changed greatly during this past
+winter while she had been so busy with her moving pictures.
+
+Instead of settling down with his father in the offices of the great
+drygoods house from which Mr. Cameron's fortune had come, Tom, abetted by
+Helen, had become almost a social butterfly in New York.
+
+But Chess Copley, although no sober-sides, had thrown himself heart and
+soul into the real estate business and had already made a tidy sum during
+the six months that had ensued since his discharge from the army.
+
+It was true, Chess was looking forward to taking a vacation at the
+Thousand Islands with his family. He told Ruth so with enthusiasm, and
+hoped to see her again at that resort. But Chess, Ruth felt, had earned
+his vacation, while Tom remained a mere idler.
+
+Chess accompanied the Cheslow young people to the Grand Central Terminal
+when they left the dock and there bade Ruth good-bye.
+
+"I shall see you in a fortnight at the Thousand Islands," he assured her,
+and shook hands again. "I shall look forward to it, believe me!"
+
+Tom hung about, gloomy enough, even after they boarded the train. But the
+girls were gay and chattering when they entered their compartment. Ann
+Hicks was going home with Helen for a brief visit, although she would be
+unable to go elsewhere with them during the early part of the summer,
+owing to previous engagements.
+
+"I am determined to go to the St. Lawrence with you, Ruth," declared
+Helen. "And I know Tommy-boy is aching to go."
+
+"I thought," said Ruth rather gravely, "that he might really take to
+business this summer. Doesn't your father need him?"
+
+"Plenty of time for work, Tommy thinks," rejoined Tom's sister gaily.
+
+But Ruth did not smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BILBY
+
+
+The old, shingled Red Mill, which Jabez Potter had revamped each spring
+with mineral paint, was as brilliant a landmark on the bank of the Lumano
+River as ever it had been. In fact, it seemed as though Ben, the hired
+man, had got the red of the shingles and the trim a little redder and the
+blinds a little greener this last spring than ever they had been before.
+
+Overshadowed by great elms, with the yard grass growing thick and lush
+right up to the bark of the trees, the surroundings of the mill and
+farmhouse connected with it (at least, all of those surroundings that
+could be seen from the Cheslow road), were attractive indeed.
+
+Although the old house seemed quite as it always had been from without,
+many changes had been made inside since first Ruth Fielding had stepped
+out of Dr. Davison's chaise to approach her great-uncle's habitation.
+
+At that time Ruth had been less than a mote in the eye of Uncle Jabez.
+She was merely an annoyance to the miller at that time. Since then,
+however, she had many and many a time proved a blessing to him. Nor did
+Jabez Potter refuse to acknowledge this--on occasion.
+
+When Ruth began to do over the interior of the old house, however, Uncle
+Jabez protested. The house and mill had been built a hundred and fifty
+years before--if not longer ago. It was sacrilege to touch a crooked
+rafter or a hammered nail of the entire structure.
+
+But Ruth insisted that she be allowed to make her own rooms under the
+roof more comfortable and modern. Ruth had seen old New England
+farmhouses rebuilt in the most attractive way one could imagine without
+disturbing their ancient exterior appearance. She gathered ideas from
+books and magazines, and then went about replanning the entire inside of
+the mill farmhouse. But she began the actual rejuvenation of the aspect
+of the structure in her own rooms, and had had all the work done since
+her return from the war zone the year before.
+
+She now had a bedroom, a sitting room, a dressing room and bathroom up
+under the roof, all in white (Helen said "like a hospital"), and when one
+opened Ruth's outer door and stepped into her suite it seemed as though
+one entered an entirely different house. And if it was a girl who
+entered--as Wonota, the Osage princess, did on a certain June day soon
+after Jennie Stone's marriage--she could not suppress a cry of delight.
+
+Wonota had stayed before at the Red Mill for a time; but then the workmen
+had not completed Ruth's new nest. And although Wonota had been born in a
+wigwam on the plains and had spent her childhood in a log cabin with a
+turf roof, she could appreciate "pretty things" quite as keenly as any
+girl of Ruth's acquaintance.
+
+That was why Ruth--as well as Mr. Hammond of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation--believed that the Indian girl would in time become a
+successful screen actress. Wonota, though her skin was copper-colored,
+liked to dress in up-to-date clothes (and did so) and enjoyed the
+refinements of civilization as much as any white girl of her age.
+
+"It is so pretty here, Miss Ruth," she said to her mentor. "May I sleep
+in the other bed off your sitting room? It is sweet of you. How foolish
+of people wanting to see on the screen how poor Indians live in their
+ignorance. I would rather learn to play the part of a very rich New York
+lady, and have servants and motor-cars and go to the opera and wear a
+diamond necklace."
+
+Ruth laughed at her, but good-naturedly.
+
+"All girls are the same, I suppose, under the skin," she said. "But we
+each should try to do the things we can do best. Learn to play the parts
+the director assigns you to the very best of your ability. Doing that
+will bring you, quicker than anything else, to the point where you can
+wear diamonds and ride in your own motor-car and go to the opera. What
+does your father, Chief Totantora, say to your new ideas, Wonota?"
+
+"The chief, my father, says nothing when I talk like that to him. He is
+too much of an old-fashioned Indian, I fear. He is staying at a country
+hotel up the road; but he would not sleep in the room they gave him (and
+then he rolled up in his blanket on the floor) until they agreed to let
+him take out the sashes from all three windows. He says that white people
+have white faces because they sleep in stale air."
+
+"Perhaps he is more than half right," rejoined Ruth, although she laughed
+too. "Some white folks even in this age are afraid of the outdoor air as
+a sleeping tonic, and prefer to drug themselves with shut-in air in their
+bedrooms."
+
+"But one can have pretty things and nice things, and still remain in
+health," sighed Wonota.
+
+Ruth agreed with this. The girl of the Red Mill tried, too, in every way
+to encourage the Indian maiden to learn and profit by the better things
+to be gained by association with the whites.
+
+There were several days to wait before Mr. Hammond was ready to send Mr.
+Hooley, the director, and the company selected for the making of Ruth's
+new picture to the Thousand Islands. Meanwhile Ruth herself had many
+preparations to make and she could not be all the time with her visitor.
+
+As in that past time when she had visited the Red Mill, Wonota was
+usually content to sit with Aunt Alvirah and make beadwork while the old
+woman knitted.
+
+"She's a contented creeter, my pretty," the old woman said to Ruth. "Red
+or white, I never see such a quiet puss. And she jumps and runs to wait
+on me like you do.
+
+"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" exclaimed Aunt Alvirah, rising
+cautiously with the aid of a cane she now depended upon. "My rheumatism
+don't seem any better, and I have had it long enough, seems to me, for it
+to get better," she added.
+
+"Poor dear!" said Ruth. "Don't the new medicine do any good?"
+
+"Lawsy me, child! I've drenched myself with doctor's stuff till I'm
+ashamed to look a medicine bottle in the face. My worn out old carcass
+can't be helped much by any drugs at all. I guess, as my poor old mother
+used to say, the only sure cure for rheumatics is graveyard mould."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Alvirah!"
+
+"I don't say it complainingly," declared the little old woman, smiling
+quite cheerfully. "But I tell Jabez Potter he might as well make up his
+mind to seeing my corner of his hearth empty one of these days. And he'll
+miss me, too, cantankerous as he is sometimes."
+
+But Uncle Jabez was seldom "cantankerous" nowadays when Ruth was at home.
+To the miller's mind his great-niece had proved herself to be of the true
+Potter blood, although her name was Fielding.
+
+Ruth was a money-maker. He had to wink pretty hard over the fact that she
+was likewise a money spender! But one girl--and a young one at
+that--could scarcely be expected (and so the old miller admitted) to
+combine all the virtues which were worth while in human development.
+
+"Keep a-making of it, Niece Ruth," Uncle Jabez advised earnestly. "You
+never can tell when you are going to want more or when your ability to
+make money is going to stop. I'd sell the Red Mill or give up and never
+grind another grist for nobody, if I didn't feel that perhaps by next
+year I should have to stop, anyway--and another year won't much matter."
+
+"You get so little pleasure out of life, Uncle Jabez," Ruth once said in
+answer to this statement of the old man.
+
+"Shucks! Don't you believe it. I don't know no better fun than watching
+the corn in the hopper or the stuns go round and round while the meal
+flour runs out of the spout below, warm and nice-smellin'. The millin'
+business is just as pretty a business as there is in the world--when once
+you git used to the dust. No doubt of it."
+
+"I can see, Uncle Jabez, that you find it so," said Ruth, but rather
+doubtfully.
+
+"Of course it is," said the old man stoutly. "You get fun out of running
+about the country and looking at things and seeing how other folks live
+and work. And that's all right for you. _You_ make money out of it. But
+what would I get out of gadding about?"
+
+"A broader outlook on life, Uncle Jabez."
+
+"I don't want no broader outlook. I don't need nothing of the kind. Nor
+does Alviry Boggs, though she's got to talking a dreadful lot lately
+about wanting to ride around in an automobile. At her age, too!"
+
+"You should own a car, Uncle Jabez," urged Ruth.
+
+"Now, stop that! Stop that, Niece Ruth! I won't hear to no such
+foolishness. You show me how I can make money riding up and down the
+Lumano in a pesky motor-car, and maybe I'll do like Alviry wants me to,
+and buy one of the contraptions." "Hullo, now!" added the miller
+suddenly. "Who might this be?"
+
+Ruth turned to see one of the very motor-cars that Uncle Jabez so scorned
+(or pretended to) stopping before the wide door of the mill itself.
+
+But as it was the man driving the roadster, rather than the car itself,
+Uncle Jabez had spoken of, Ruth gave her attention to him. He was a
+ruddy, tubby little man in a pin-check black and white suit, faced with
+silk on lapels and pockets--it really gave him a sort of minstrel-like
+appearance as though he should likewise have had his face corked--and he
+wore in a puffed maroon scarf a stone that flashed enough for half a
+dozen ordinary diamonds--whether it really was of the first water or not.
+
+This man hopped out from back of the wheel of the roadster and came
+briskly up the graveled rise from the road to the door of the mill. He
+favored Ruth with a side glance and half smile that the girl of the Red
+Mill thought (she had seen plenty of such men) revealed his character
+very clearly. But he spoke to Uncle Jabez.
+
+"I say, Pop, is this the place they call the Red Mill?"
+
+"I calkerlate it is," agreed the miller dryly. "Leastways, it's the only
+Red Mill I ever heard tell on."
+
+"I reckoned I'd got to the right dump," said the visitor cheerfully. "I
+understand there's an Injun girl stopping here? Is that so?"
+
+Uncle Jabez glanced at Ruth and got her permission to speak before he
+answered:
+
+"I don't know as it's any of your business, Mister; but the Princess
+Wonota, of the Osage Nation, is stopping here just now. What might be
+your business with her?"
+
+"So she calls herself a 'princess' does she?" returned the man, grinning
+again at Ruth in an offensive way. "Well, I have managed a South Sea
+Island chief, a pair of Circassian twins, and a bunch of Eskimos, in my
+time. I guess I know how to act in the presence of Injun royalty. Trot
+her out."
+
+"Trot who out?" asked the miller calmly, but with eyes that flashed under
+his penthouse brows. "Wonota ain't no horse. Did you think she was?"
+
+"I know what she is," returned the man promptly. "It's what she is going
+to be that interests me. I'm Bilby--Horatio Bilby. Maybe you've heard of
+me?"
+
+"I have," said Ruth rather sharply.
+
+At once Mr. Bilby's round, dented, brown hat came off and he bowed
+profoundly.
+
+"Happy to make your acquaintance, Miss," he said.
+
+"You haven't made it yet--near as I can calkerlate," gruffly said Uncle
+Jabez. "And it's mebbe a question if you get much acquainted with Wonota.
+What's your business with her, anyway?"
+
+"I'll show you, old gent," said Bilby, taking a number of important
+looking papers from his pocket. "I have come here to get this princess,
+as you call her. The Indian Department has sent me. She is a ward of the
+Government, as you perhaps know. It seems she is held under a false form
+of contract to a moving picture corporation, and Wonota's friends have
+applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to look into the matter and get
+at the rights of the business."
+
+Ruth uttered a cry of amazement; but Uncle Jabez said calmly enough:
+
+"And what have you got to do with it all, Mister--if I may be so curious
+as to ask?"
+
+"The girl is given into my charge while her affairs are being looked
+into," said Mr. Horatio Bilby, with an explanatory flourish which
+included both the miller and Ruth in its sweeping gesture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+TROUBLE IN PROSPECT
+
+
+Ruth Fielding wished that Mr. Hammond was within reach; but she knew he
+was already on his way to the Thousand Islands, for which she herself
+expected to start the next day with Wonota and her father. She had not
+heard much about this Bilby; but what she had learned--together with what
+she now saw of him--impressed her not at all in his favor.
+
+In any event she was not willing to accept either Horatio Bilby or his
+declaration at face value. And she was glad to see that the hardheaded
+old miller was not much impressed by the man, either.
+
+"I don't know much about this business, Mister," said Uncle Jabez, with
+much calmness. "But it strikes me that you'd better see the girl's
+father."
+
+"What girl's father?" demanded the visitor, and now he seemed surprised.
+
+"Wonota's. Chief Totantora is the name he goes by. It strikes me that he
+ought to have a deal more to say about the girl than any Government
+department."
+
+"Why, he's nothing but a blanket Injun!" ejaculated Bilby, with disgust.
+
+"Mebbe so," rejoined Uncle Jabez. "But his wearing a blanket (though I
+never see him with it on; he wears pants and a shirt when he comes here)
+don't figger none at all. He still remains the girl's father."
+
+"I guess you don't know, Pop, that these Injuns are all wards of Uncle
+Sam."
+
+"Mebbe so," again observed the miller. "And I have sometimes thought that
+Uncle Sam ain't always been any too good to his red relations. However,
+that isn't to the point. The girl's here. She's sort of in my care while
+she is here. Unless Chief Totantora shows up and asks to have her handed
+over to you, I calkerlate you won't get her."
+
+"See here, my man!" exclaimed Bilby, at once becoming blusterous, "you'll
+get into trouble with the Government if you interfere with me."
+
+"That doesn't scare me none," was the prompt reply of Jabez Potter.
+"Right now the Government of the United States don't look so important to
+me as our local constable. I guess to get possession of the girl you will
+have to bring an officer with you to certify to all this you say you are.
+Until you do, I might as well tell you, first as last, that you ain't got
+a chance--not a chance!--to even see Wonota."
+
+Mr. Bilby grew even redder in the face than nature seemed to have
+intended him to be. And his little greenish-gray eyes sparkled angrily.
+
+"You'll get into trouble, old man," he threatened.
+
+"Don't you let that bother you none," rejoined the miller. "I've had so
+much trouble in my life that I'm sort of used to it, as you might say.
+Now, if that is all you got to offer, you might as well get back into
+that go-cart of yours and drive on."
+
+Mr. Potter turned on his heel and went back into the mill, beckoning to
+Ruth to come with him. She did so--for a little way at least; but she
+soon stopped to peer out and watch the man, Bilby.
+
+When they were, as he thought, out of hearing, he gave vent to several
+grunts, kicked a pebble across the road, and scowled ferociously. He said
+something about "these rubes are smarter than they used to be." He seemed
+convinced that he could do nothing further in the matter he had come
+upon. Not at this time, it was quite plain.
+
+He turned and climbed into the roadster. But he did not drive back toward
+Cheslow; instead he went up the river road, and Ruth Fielding remembered
+that Wonota's father was stopping at the country inn which was only three
+or four miles up that road.
+
+"But nothing can happen because of that, of course," the girl thought, as
+she entered the passage that led to the farmhouse from the mill. "Wonota
+is perfectly safe here, and surely Totantora can take care of himself
+with that little fat man, or with anybody else!"
+
+She entered the kitchen expecting to find the Indian girl at work with
+Aunt Alvirah in the old woman's sunny corner of the great room. The old
+woman was alone, however.
+
+"Where is Wonota?" Ruth asked.
+
+Before Aunt Alvirah could reply an automobile siren echoed outside of the
+house. Aunt Alvirah was smiling and waving at somebody and Ruth hurried
+to the window to look out.
+
+"Here's Helen come for you, my pretty, in that beautiful big car of
+hers," said Aunt Alvirah. "Isn't it fine to be rich?"
+
+"Wait till I make a few more pictures, Aunty, and we'll have a car too.
+If Uncle Jabez won't buy one, I've made up my mind to get a car if it's
+only to take you to drive once in a while."
+
+"It wouldn't hurt Jabez Potter to buy a car," declared the old woman.
+"She's coming in Ruthie. Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" she murmured, as
+she got up to receive the visitor.
+
+Helen swept into the house gaily. She always had a kiss for the little
+old woman who thought her, next to Ruth, the finest girl who ever lived.
+
+"You're always a sight for anyone to look on with pleasure, Helen
+Cameron," said Aunt Alvirah. "And you're mighty smart in that long coat
+and cap."
+
+"And do you put on your coat and bonnet, Aunty," cried Helen, patting her
+wrinkled cheek. "I've come to take you for a spin. And Ruth, too."
+
+"There's Wonota," suggested Ruth.
+
+"Of course. The princess shall join us," Helen cried merrily. "Where is
+she? Tell her to leave her everlasting beadwork long enough to ride in
+the white man's motor-car."
+
+"I suppose," said Ruth, starting for the stairway, "Wonota must be up in
+her own room."
+
+"No, no!" Aunt Alvirah called from her bedroom, to which she had hobbled
+for her cloak and bonnet. "I was just about to tell you, my pretty.
+Wonota has gone out."
+
+"Where did she go?" and Ruth suddenly turned back, and with surprise if
+not exactly with a feeling of alarm.
+
+"She said she would walk up the road to see her father. She is quite fond
+of her father, I believe," added Aunt Alvirah, coming back with her wrap
+and bonnet. "Of course, Indians have family feelings, if they do seem to
+hide 'em so well."
+
+"I am sorry she went out alone," murmured Ruth.
+
+"Pooh! she isn't a child. And she'll not lose her way, that's sure,"
+laughed Helen. "Anyway, we'll overtake her and give her a ride. Chief
+Totantora, too, if he will deign to step into the white man's car."
+
+Ruth said no more. But after the visit of Bilby to the mill she could not
+help but feel some little anxiety. She remembered that Dakota Joe, in
+whose show Wonota had once worked, had tried his best to make trouble for
+her and Mr. Hammond because of the Osage maiden; and this Bilby was
+plainly a much shrewder person than the Westerner had been.
+
+She and Helen aided Aunt Alvirah out to the car. It was a heavy, seven
+passenger machine; but Helen could drive it as well as Tom himself.
+
+"And Tommy-boy," she explained as she tucked the robe about Aunt Alvirah
+before following Ruth into the front seat, "went to town to-day with
+father."
+
+"I hope he will really get down to work now," said Ruth softly, as Helen
+began to manipulate the levers.
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed Helen carelessly. "Work was made for slaves. And Tom
+had a hard time over in France. I tell dad he ought not to expect
+Tommy-boy to really work for a long, long time to come."
+
+"Do you think that is right, Helen?" admonished her chum. "Idleness was
+never good for anybody."
+
+"It isn't as though Tom was poor. He hasn't got to toil and delve in an
+old office--"
+
+"You know it isn't that," cried Ruth warmly. "But he should make good use
+of his time. And your father needs him. He ought to be idle now, not
+Tom."
+
+"Grandmother Grunt!" laughed Helen. "You're twice as old as Aunt Alvirah
+right now."
+
+"After what we have been through--after what the world has been through
+for five years--we all ought to be at work," said Ruth rather severely.
+"And Tom is no exception."
+
+"Why, I never knew you to be hard on Tommy-boy before!" pouted Tom's
+sister.
+
+"Perhaps I never had occasion to be hard on him before," Ruth answered.
+"He is only one of many. Especially many of those who were over there in
+France. They seem to be so unsettled and--and so careless for the
+future."
+
+"Regular female Simon Legree, you are, Ruthie Fielding."
+
+"But when Tom first came back he was as eager as he could be to get to
+business and to begin a business career. And lately, it seems to me, he's
+had an awful slump in his ambition. I never saw the like."
+
+"Oh, bother!" muttered Helen, and started the car.
+
+The car shot ahead, and in five minutes they passed the country inn, but
+saw nothing of either Wonota or the Indian chief. In a cove below the
+river bank, however, Ruth caught a glimpse of a small motor-boat with two
+men in it. And backed into a wood's path near the highway was a small
+motor-car.
+
+Was it the smart roadster Mr. Horatio Bilby had driven to the Red Mill?
+Ruth could not be sure. But she did not enjoy the ride with Helen and
+Aunt Alvirah very much for thinking of the possibility of its being Mr.
+Bilby's car so close to the inn where Chief Totantora was stopping.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN ABDUCTION
+
+
+The ride in Helen's car was enjoyable, especially for Aunt Alvirah. How
+that old lady did smile and (as she herself laughingly said) "gabble" her
+delight! Being shut inside the house so much, the broader sight of the
+surrounding country and the now peacefully flowing Lumano River was
+indeed a treat.
+
+Helen drove up the river and over the Long Bridge, where she halted the
+car for a time that they might look both up and down the stream. And it
+was from this point that Ruth again caught a glimpse of the motor-boat
+she had before spied near the roadside inn.
+
+There was but one man in it now, and the boat was moored to the root of a
+big tree that overhung the little cove. Not that there was anything
+astonishing or suspicious in the appearance of the boat. Merely, it was
+there and seemed to have no particular business there. And the girl of
+the Red Mill recalled that Mr. Horatio Bilby's motor-car was backed into
+the bushes near that spot.
+
+Had Mr. Bilby, who had announced that his business in this vicinity was
+to obtain possession of Wonota, anything to do with the men in the boat?
+The thought may have been but an idle suggestion in Ruth's mind.
+
+Intuition was strong in Ruth Fielding, however. Somehow, the abandoned
+car being there near the inn where Totantora was staying and to which
+Wonota had gone to see her father, and the unidentified motor-boat
+lurking at the river's edge in the same vicinity, continued to rap an
+insistent warning at the door of the girl's mind.
+
+"Helen, let's go back," she said suddenly, as her chum was about to let
+in the clutch again. "Turn around--do."
+
+"What for?" asked Helen wonderingly, yet seeing something in the
+expression of Ruth's face that made her more than curious.
+
+"I--I feel that everything isn't right with Wonota."
+
+"Wonota!"
+
+Ruth, in low tones, told her chum her fears--told of Bilby's call at the
+mill--mentioned the fact that the Indian girl was probably at this time
+at the roadside inn and that the rival moving picture producer was
+perhaps there likewise.
+
+"What do you know about that!" gasped Helen. "Is there going to be a real
+fight for the possession of Wonota, do you think?"
+
+"And for Totantora too, perhaps. For he figures importantly in this
+picture we are about to make up on the St. Lawrence."
+
+"Fine!" exclaimed Helen Cameron. "There is going to be something doing
+besides picture making. Why, Ruth! you couldn't keep me from going with
+you to-morrow. And I know Tommy-boy will be crazy to be in it, too."
+
+Ruth made an appealing gesture as Helen began to back and turn the car.
+
+"Don't frighten Aunt Alvirah," she whispered.
+
+Helen was delighted with any prospect for action. It must be confessed
+that she did not think much about disappointment or trouble accruing to
+other people in any set of circumstances; she never had been particularly
+thoughtful for others. But she was brave to the point of recklessness,
+and she was at once excited regarding the suggested danger to her chum's
+plans.
+
+Bilby had already, Ruth understood, offered more money to Wonota and
+Totantora for their services than Mr. Hammond thought it wise to risk in
+the venture. And, after all, the temptation of money was great in the
+minds of the Indians. It might be that Bilby could get them away from
+Ruth's care. And then what would the Alectrion Film Corporation do about
+this next picture that had been planned?
+
+Aunt Alvirah made no complaint as to how or where the car went--as long
+as it went somewhere. She admitted she liked to travel fast. Having been
+for so many years crippled by that enemy, rheumatism, she seemed to find
+some compensation in the speed of Helen's car.
+
+The inn was several miles away from the Long Bridge; but the road was
+fairly straight, and as the car went over the ridges they could now and
+then catch glimpses of the hotel. On the right were cornfields, the dark
+green blades only six or eight inches high; and scattered over them the
+omnipresent scarecrows which, in the spring, add at least picturesqueness
+to the New England landscape.
+
+Above the purring of the motor Aunt Alvirah raised her voice to remark to
+the chums on the front seat:
+
+"I don't see it now--did it fall down?"
+
+"Did what fall down, Aunty?" asked Ruth, who, though troubled as she was
+by her suspicions, could not ignore the little old woman.
+
+"That scarecrow I see coming up. I thought 'twas a gal picking up stones
+in that field--the one this side of the hotel. It had a sunbonnet on, and
+it was just as natural! But it's gone."
+
+"I don't see any scarecrow there," admitted Ruth, turning to look.
+
+At that moment, however, the car she had seen parked in the bushes
+wheeled out into the highway ahead of them. It started on past the hotel.
+There was another figure beside that of the tubby Horatio Bilby on the
+seat. Ruth recognized Bilby at once.
+
+"Who's that?" asked Helen, slowing down involuntarily.
+
+"That's the man I spoke of," explained Ruth, "I--I wonder who it is
+that's with him?"
+
+"A girl!" exclaimed Helen. "Do you suppose he has got Wonota?"
+
+"Wonota--with a sunbonnet on?" cried her chum.
+
+"I bet he's running away with Wonota!" cried Helen, and started to speed
+up after the other car.
+
+Ruth laid a quick hand on her chum's arm.
+
+"Wait! Stop!" she cried. "See what a curiously acting thing that is he
+has got beside him? Is--It can't be a girl, Helen!"
+
+"It certainly isn't a boy," declared her friend, with exasperation.
+"He'll get away from us. That is a fast car he is driving."
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Ruth again, and as Helen brought her machine to an
+abrupt stop Aunt Alvirah was heard saying:
+
+"Now, ain't that reediculous? Ain't it reediculous?"
+
+"What is ridiculous?" asked Helen, looking back with a smile at the
+little old woman while Ruth opened the door and leaped out to the side of
+the road nearest the river.
+
+"Why, where are your eyes, Helen Cameron?" demanded Aunt Alvirah.
+"There's that scarecrow now. That feller is a-running away with it!"
+
+Helen flashed another look along the road. The figure beside Bilby on the
+seat had been set upright again. Now the girl saw that it was nothing but
+a figure. It was no girl at all!
+
+"What under the sun, Ruth--"
+
+But Ruth was not in hearing. She had dashed into the bushes and to the
+spot where she had previously seen the roadster belonging to Horatio
+Bilby parked. The bushes were trampled all about. Here and there were
+bits of torn cloth hanging to the thorns. Yonder was a slipper with
+rather a high heel. She recognized it as one belonging to Wonota, the
+Osage girl, and picked it up. The Indian maid was really attempting the
+fads, as well as the fancies, in apparel of her white sisters!
+
+But what had become of the girl herself? She certainly would not have
+removed one of her pumps and thrown it away. Like Aunt Alvirah and Helen,
+Ruth knew that the figure beside Bilby in the car was not the missing
+Indian girl. He had attempted to use the scarecrow he had stolen from the
+cornfield across the road to bewilder anybody who might pursue him.
+
+And this very attempt of the rival picture producer to foul his trail
+impressed Ruth that something serious regarding Wonota and her father was
+afoot. If the Indian girl had not gone with Bilby, where had she gone?
+And where was Totantora?
+
+Ruth could not believe that either Wonota or her father would prove
+faithless to their contract with Mr. Hammond--not intentionally, at
+least. She hesitated there in the trampled bushes for a moment, wondering
+if she ought not first to go on to the hotel and make inquiries.
+
+Then she heard something thrashing in the bushes not far away. She
+started, peering all about, listening. The noise led her to the head of a
+gully that sloped down toward the river's edge. It was bush-bestrewn and
+the way was rough. Ruth plunged down the slant of it, and behind the
+first clump of brush she came upon a man struggling on the ground.
+
+His ankles and his wrists were lashed, and when the girl turned him over
+she was amazed to see that he was most cruelly gagged with a piece of
+stick and a handkerchief.
+
+"Totantora!" she screamed. "What is the matter? Where is Wonota?"
+
+His glaring eyes seemed almost popping from their sockets. His
+copper-colored face was a mask of demoniacal rage. His dignity as an
+Indian and his feelings as a father had been outraged. Yet, Ruth was
+positive that the figure in the roadster beside Horatio Bilby was not
+Wonota, the chief's daughter.
+
+Her strong and nimble fingers had gone to work almost at once upon the
+cord that held the Indians wrists. She loosened them in a few moments.
+
+Totantora leaped to his feet, drew a clasp-knife from the pocket of his
+trousers, snapped it open, and slashed through the cords about his
+ankles.
+
+"Where is Wonota? What has happened?" Ruth cried.
+
+The Indian slashed the handkerchief that held the gag in place, dragged
+it out, and cast it away. He made no reply to Ruth's question, but
+lifting up his head sent a long and quavering cry through the grove--a
+cry that might have been the war-whoop of his tribe generations before.
+
+However, Ruth knew it was a signal to his daughter that he was free and
+was in pursuit. If Wonota was where she could hear!
+
+Speaking not at all to the anxious Ruth, Totantora started down the gully
+to the riverside. The girl followed him, running almost as wildly as did
+the Indian chief.
+
+Bounding out into the more open grove at the edge of the stream,
+Totantora uttered another savage yell. Ruth heard, too, the _put, put,
+put_, of a motor-boat. When she reached the water the boat she had
+previously observed was some few yards from the bank. There were two men
+in it now, and Ruth saw at first glance that Wonota, likewise bound and
+gagged, lay propped up against the small over-decked part of the launch.
+
+The Indian chief halted not even to kick off his moccasins. He ran to the
+edge of the bank and, the water being deep, dived on a long slant into
+the river. He rose almost instantly to the surface, and with a long,
+swift side-stroke followed after the motor craft, which was now gaining
+speed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+EXPEDIENCY
+
+
+Up in the Big North Woods Ruth Fielding had seen loons dive and swim (and
+of all the feathered tribe, loons are the master divers) and she had
+wondered at the birds' mastery of the water. But no loon ever seemed more
+at home in that element than did the Indian chief.
+
+Totantora tore through the water after the escaping motor-boat as though
+he, too, were propelled by a motor. And his motor was more powerful, in a
+short race at least, than that driving the launch in which Wonota was
+held prisoner.
+
+Before the men who had abducted the Osage maiden could get their boat out
+of the little cove, Totantora reached the stern of it. He rose breast
+high in the water and clutched the gunwale with one hand. One of the men
+swung at him with a boathook; but the other picked up his canvas coat and
+managed to smother the chief's head and face in it for a minute.
+
+Totantora flung himself backward and dragged the canvas coat out of the
+man's hand. Indeed, he came near to dragging the man himself into the
+water.
+
+The coat did not retard the Indian much. He grabbed it with both hands,
+spread it abroad, and then plunged with it under the stern of the
+motor-boat. At once the propeller ceased turning and the boat lost
+headway. Totantora had fouled the propeller blades with the canvas
+jacket, and the abductors could not get away.
+
+The Indian lunged for the gunwale of the boat again. One of the men was
+now attending to the mechanism. The other beat at Totantora's hands with
+the boathook.
+
+In a flash the chief let go of the rail with one hand and seized the
+staff of the implement. One powerful jerk, and he wrenched the boathook
+from the white man's grasp. The latter fell sprawling into the bottom of
+the boat. With a display of muscle-power at which Ruth could not but
+marvel, Totantora raised himself over the gunwale of the boat and
+scrambled into it.
+
+The second white man turned on him, but the Indian met him stooping,
+seized him around the waist, and tossed him, seemingly with scarcely an
+effort, into the water. The other abductor scrambled forward to get out
+of his reach. The chief bent for a minute over his daughter, and then
+Ruth saw that the girl was free and that she stood up, unhurt. It was all
+over so quickly that it left Ruth breathless.
+
+"Miss Ruth! Miss Ruth!" cried the Indian girl. "I am all right. My
+father, Chief Totantora, would not let these bad white men carry me away
+a captive."
+
+Ruth waved her hand to the younger girl. But she watched the white man
+who was swimming for the shore. She was not afraid of him--any more than
+the Indian chief was fearful of the other white man perched in the bow of
+the motor-boat.
+
+The swimmer reached the bank, caught hold of an overhanging bush, and
+dragged himself out of the river. He was a hang-dog looking sort of
+fellow, anyway; and in his saturated condition his appearance was not
+improved. He lay panting for a minute like an expiring fish, and Ruth
+looked down at him perhaps more contemptuously than she realized.
+
+"Well, who you looking at?" he growled at length.
+
+"I suppose I am looking at one of Mr. Horatio Bilby's choice assistants,"
+Ruth returned scornfully.
+
+"Huh? What do you know about Bilby?" demanded the fellow, evidently much
+surprised.
+
+"I know nothing very good of him, I am sure," the girl of the Red Mill
+replied coolly. "And I am quite confident that you are a fit companion
+for him."
+
+The fellow sat up and leered at her.
+
+"I ain't such a mighty fine sight just now, I guess," he said. "But there
+are worse than me. I didn't know there were any white folks interested in
+this business."
+
+"You make a perfectly proper distinction," Ruth told him. "Bilby is not a
+white man--not in his business ethics I am sure. I want to warn you that
+those Indians have powerful friends and you would do well to have nothing
+more to do with them."
+
+"I get you," growled the fellow. "But take it from me; that Injun don't
+need no friends. He can take care of himself. He's as strong as a bull."
+
+"And with a temper you would best not ruffle. I do not know what Bilby's
+scheme was, or how he got you into it. But take my advice and keep out of
+any further association with Bilby in this matter."
+
+"You don't have to warn me and my partner," said the fellow. "We got
+enough right now. Is he coming ashore?"
+
+He turned to look at the boat, and then leaped to his feet in some fear.
+Totantora, by leaning well over the stern of the boat, had dragged the
+torn coat out of the propeller, and now he was coolly examining the
+mechanism with the evident idea of starting the boat. The Indian seemed
+familiar with the driving power of such a craft.
+
+"I think he will bring his daughter ashore," Ruth said composedly. "If I
+were you I would not cross him further."
+
+"I ain't going to, Miss," said the fellow, now on his feet. "I see Jim is
+keeping as far away from him as he can. Jim can't swim."
+
+"Go aside somewhere. When they reach the bank I will try to take
+Totantora and the girl away with me. Do nothing to cross him, for the
+temper of an Indian is not easily quelled. It just simmers and may break
+out again at any time."
+
+"Believe me," said the fellow, starting off through the bushes, "I ain't
+aiming to have another run-in with him. Not with my bare hands. I hope he
+don't smash the boat, that's all."
+
+"I will do all I can to pacify Totantora," said Ruth, and she really was
+somewhat anxious on this point, for the grim countenance of the Indian
+chief threatened further reprisal.
+
+He was busy with the engine for a time; but by and by the regular popping
+of the exhaust revealed the fact that everything was all right with it.
+The boat described a circle and came back into the cove and to the place
+where Ruth stood on the bank.
+
+The second white man, who was younger and looked less like a drowned rat,
+remained in the bow, staring back in apprehension at the Indian. The
+moment he could do so, this man leaped ashore.
+
+"Say nothing to him," advised Ruth. "I will try to take them both away.
+And, as I have warned your companion, have nothing more to do with Bilby
+or his schemes. These Indians are my friends, and they have other friends
+who are much more powerful than I am, I can assure you."
+
+"Yes, Miss," said the man, politely enough. "I don't want to mix in with
+that redskin. I guess not!"
+
+Wonota stepped ashore and Ruth gave her the shoe she had lost. Her father
+followed her. He turned as though to set the boat adrift, but Ruth laid
+her hand upon his wet sleeve.
+
+"Let it alone, Totantora. I hope you will be advised by me. We will go
+right away from here. Instead of waiting until to-morrow, let us leave
+here to-night and start for the North."
+
+Wonota said something to her father in their own tongue, and he looked at
+Ruth more peacefully.
+
+"White lady is always my friend, I know; and Wonota's friend," he
+observed. "But these bad men tried to steal Wonota."
+
+"Tell me how it happened," Ruth put in, hoping to change his trend of
+thought and determination.
+
+"I will tell you, my friend," said the Indian girl. "A little fat man
+came in a car when Chief Totantora and I were walking in the road. He got
+us to sit down yonder and talk to him. He is one of those who have tried
+to get Chief Totantora and me to go away from you to make pictures. He
+offers much money. And while we talked, those other two men crept up
+behind us and they all seized Chief Totantora and me. We were bound and
+our mouths closed before we knew how many, or how few, our enemies were.
+Then my father was left in the wood and I was carried to the boat. I do
+not know what became of the little fat man."
+
+"I saw him drive away," Ruth said. "It made me suspicious. I had already
+seen and talked with the fat man, whose name is Bilby. Don't forget that
+name, Wonota."
+
+"I will remember," said the Indian girl, composedly.
+
+"He may make some other attempt to get possession of you. Some attempt by
+aid of the courts."
+
+"The white man's law is very strange," muttered Totantora.
+
+"But we will get ahead of Bilby before he can do anything else," Ruth
+went on. "Miss Cameron's car is outside in the road. Go to the hotel and
+change your clothes, Totantora, and I will take both you and Wonota back
+to the Red Mill. Until we get away for the North I shall not want you out
+of my sight."
+
+The Indian shook himself much as a dog might. A lighter expression
+flickered over his dark face.
+
+"I shall not suffer cold from a wetting," he said. "It is nothing. I have
+nothing at the hotel. We will go now."
+
+"Come on, then," rejoined Ruth, promptly. "It is best that we get away
+before Bilby can learn that his plan to make Wonota a captive miscarried.
+Hurry!"
+
+She swept them in her earnestness out to the road where Helen and Aunt
+Alvirah saw them with considerable surprise--particularly because of the
+saturated condition of the Indian.
+
+"I declare, Ruth!" cried Helen, "you do manage to get into such perfectly
+lovely rows. What is the matter?"
+
+But Ruth postponed all explanation for a later time. On their way back to
+the Red Mill she did explain to Helen, however, that she intended to take
+the two Indians to Cheslow and get a train for Albany that evening.
+
+"I will fool Bilby and whoever is aiding him. We will get away."
+
+"If you go to-night, so do I!" exclaimed her chum. "You can't lose me,
+Ruth Fielding. I can see that we are going to have perfectly scrumptious
+times before this picture you are going to make is finished."
+
+"I hope we'll fool Bilby--leave him behind," sighed Ruth.
+
+"The worst of it is, we must leave Tommy-boy behind," said Tom's twin.
+"Won't he be sore when he hears about it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AT CHIPPEWA BAY
+
+
+Helen pronounced that exodus from the Red Mill "some hustle;" and really
+it was but a brief time that Ruth allowed for packing, dressing, and
+getting to Cheslow for the eight-forty-five train, bound north. This was
+a through train with sleeping cars, and stopped at Cheslow only on
+special occasions. Ruth determined that this was one of those occasions.
+
+She hustled Ben, the hired man, off to town ahead, and by the good
+offices of Mercy Curtis a compartment and berth were obtained on that
+especial train. Mercy kept the wires hot arranging this for her friend.
+
+Meanwhile, Helen rushed home in her car, packed her trunk and bag, had
+them loaded into the front of the car, and drove up the road again to the
+Red Mill where she picked up the two Indians and Ruth. Uncle Jabez and
+Aunt Alvirah were sorry enough to see Ruth go; but this trip promised not
+to be a long one, for the picture should be made in five or six weeks.
+
+The Cameron's chauffeur had been instructed by Helen to "burn up the
+road," for there was none too much time before the train was due, and he
+did as he was ordered. Indeed, there were ten minutes to spare when they
+reached the station platform, and the girls spent that time chatting with
+Mercy Curtis leaning out of her window of the telegraph office.
+
+"So, you are off on your travels again," said the lame girl. "I wish I
+was a butterfly of fashion, too."
+
+"'Butterfly,'!" scoffed Helen. "Ruth, at least, is no butterfly. She
+might be called a busy bee with more truth."
+
+"Ah-ha, Miss Helen!" returned Mercy, shaking her finger, "you are the
+improvident grasshopper--no less."
+
+Helen giggled. "Tom says that that old proverb, 'Go to the ant, thou
+sluggard;' should read: 'Go to the ant and slug her.' He does not love
+work any more than I do."
+
+Again Ruth's expression of countenance was one of disapproval, but she
+made no comment on Tom. The train thundered toward the station, slowing
+down as though resenting being stopped in its swift career for even a few
+moments.
+
+Mr. Curtis, the station master, made a point himself of seeing that the
+baggage of the party was put into the baggage car. The conductor and
+porter helped the girls aboard, and they found their sections.
+
+Ruth was determined that Wonota should not get out of her sight again,
+and the Indian girl was to occupy a berth in the stateroom. Totantora was
+to have had the berth; but when he saw it made up and noted the cramped
+and narrow quarters offered him, he shook his head decidedly. He spent
+the night in the porter's little room at the end of the car, and the
+porter, when he found out Totantora was an Indian chief, did not dare
+object for fear of being scalped!
+
+The party reached Hammond the following afternoon. Here they alighted
+instead of at Redwood, the more popular station of those wishing to reach
+the Thousand Islands by way of the electric road to Alexandria Bay. Ruth
+and her party were going direct to Chippewa Bay, for it was upon some of
+the more northern of the fourteen hundred or more isles that constitute
+the "Thousand Islands" that Mr. Hammond had arranged for the film
+company's activities at this time.
+
+A big touring car was waiting for the party, for one of the telegrams
+Ruth had caused to be sent the evening before was to Mr. Hammond, and
+they were glad to leave the Pullman and get into the open air. Totantora,
+even, desired to walk to Chippewa Bay, for he was tired of the white
+man's means of locomotion. Ruth and Wonota would not hear to this.
+
+"I guess we have eluded Bilby," said the girl of the Red Mill; "but I
+shall not feel that Wonota is safe, Totantora, unless you are near her at
+all times. You must keep watch of your daughter. She is a valuable
+possession."
+
+For once Totantora smiled--although it was grimly.
+
+"A squaw did not use to be counted for much in my nation," he said. "But
+Wonota is not like the old squaws."
+
+"Wonota is quite an up-to-date young woman, let me tell you, Mr
+Totantora," Helen told him briskly.
+
+The party remained over night at a small hotel at Chippewa Bay; but in
+the morning Ruth and her companions entered a motor launch and were
+transported to an island where the film producing company had been
+established in several bungalows which Mr. Hammond had rented for the
+time of their stay.
+
+The water between the small islands was as calm as a mill pond; but the
+party caught glimpses from the launch of the breadth of the St. Lawrence,
+its Canadian shore being merely a misty blue line that morning. The rocky
+and wooded islands were extremely beautiful and as romantic in appearance
+as the wilderness always is. Now and then a privately owned island,
+improved by landscape gardening into a modern summer estate, offered
+contrast to the wilder isles.
+
+The girls spent most of the day in getting settled. No work on the new
+picture could be done for a couple of days, and Helen, naturally, looked
+for amusement. There were canoes as well as motor boats, and both the
+chums were fond of canoeing. Wonota, of course, was mistress of the
+paddle; and with her the two white girls selected a roomy canoe and set
+out toward evening on a journey of exploration among the closer islands.
+
+One of the largest islands in the group was in sight--Grenadier Island;
+but that they learned was beyond the American line. They saw it only from
+a distance, keeping close to the New York shore as they did on this brief
+voyage. The tall tamaracks and the other trees crowded some of the
+islands until they seemed veritable jungles.
+
+Some few, however, were bold and precipitous in the extreme. "Just the
+sort of place for pirate dens and robber caves," Helen declared,
+shivering gleefully.
+
+"What a romantic puss you are," laughed Ruth.
+
+"Well, those cracks in the rock yonder look so dark and dismal. And there
+_might_ be dark-skinned men with red bandanas bound around their heads,
+and knives in their belts, along with the rest of the scenery, Ruthie,"
+complained Helen.
+
+Wonota stared at her. "Do you mean, Miss Helen, that there are
+cholos--are greasers--in these woods? My geography book that I study
+shows this country to be far, far from Mexico."
+
+"Oh, my aunt!" chuckled Helen. "She thinks nobody but Mexicans can wear
+gay handkerchiefs bound about their noble brows. Wait till you see
+sure-enough pirates--"
+
+"That is perfect nonsense, Wonota," said Ruth, warningly. "Helen is only
+in fun."
+
+"Ah," said the practical Indian maid, "I understand English--and
+American; only I do not always grasp the--er--humor, do you call it?"
+
+"Good!" applauded Ruth. "Serves you right, Helen, for your silly
+nonsense."
+
+"The Indians' fun is different," explained Wonota, not wishing to offend
+the white girl.
+
+"You are a pair of old sober-sides, that is what is the matter," declared
+Helen gaily. "Oh, Ruth! drive the canoe ashore yonder--on that rocky
+beach. Did you ever see such ferns?"
+
+They brought the canoe carefully in to the shore, landing on a sloping
+rock which was moss-grown above the mark of the last flood. Ruth fastened
+the tow-rope to the staff of a slender sapling. Wonota got out to help
+Helen gather some of the more delicately fronded ferns. Ruth turned her
+back upon them and began climbing what seemed to be a path among the
+boulders and trees.
+
+This was not a very large island, and it was well out from the American
+shore, but inside the line between the States and Canada. Although the
+path Ruth followed seemed well defined, she scarcely thought the island
+was inhabited.
+
+As they had paddled past it in the canoe there had been no sign of man's
+presence. It had been left in the state of nature, and nothing, it
+seemed, had been done to change its appearance from the time that the
+first white man had seen it.
+
+Some rods up the ascent Ruth came to an open place--a table of rock that
+might really have been a giant's dining-table, so flat and perfectly
+shaped it was. She could look down upon Helen and Wonota, and they looked
+up and called to her.
+
+"Look out for the pirates!" shouted Helen, with laughter.
+
+Ruth waved her hand, smiling, and, crossing the rock, parted the brush
+and stepped out of sight of her friends. Two steps she took through the
+clinging bushes when a most surprising figure started up before her.
+
+There was plenty of light, even if the sun had gone down. She was not
+uncertain at all as to the nature of the figure that confronted her--that
+of a man.
+
+She saw almost instantly that the old man's brown eyes were more like a
+child's in expression than like an angry man's. He grinned at her, but
+the grimace was involuntary or meaningless.
+
+"Hush!" he whispered. "Hush!"
+
+Ruth remained both quiet and speechless, looking into his wrinkled old
+face calmly. She thought he must be a beggar from his clothing, but she
+could not imagine him a robber, nor even one of Helen's "pirates." As she
+said nothing the old man repeated his sibilant warning:
+
+"Hush!"
+
+"I am 'hushing' just as hard as I can," whispered the girl in return, and
+smiling a little now. "Why must I 'hush'?"
+
+"Hush!" he said again, quite as earnestly. "You are in danger of your
+life, young woman."
+
+"Not from you, I am sure," she returned. "You would not try to hurt me."
+
+"Hush!" he repeated, looking back over his shoulder into the thicker
+wood. "They may come at any moment now. And although I am their king,
+they would kill you. You see, kings aren't as powerful now as they used
+to be before the war."
+
+"So I understand," agreed Ruth soberly. "But who are you king of--or
+what?"
+
+"I am King of the Pipes," whispered the old man. "You don't know what
+that means," he added, scanning her puzzled face. "No. And that's the
+secret. You cannot be told."
+
+"Oh," murmured Ruth, somewhat amused, yet pitying his evident mental
+state.
+
+"Hush!" he said again. "You are in danger. Go away from this place at
+once, and don't come here again. If my courtiers see you--Ha! Off with
+her head! I shall have to follow the kingly custom. It is not my fault,"
+he added, in the same low tone, shaking his head mournfully. "We kings
+have to lead our lives, you know."
+
+"It must be a dreadful life, if you have to order people's heads cut off
+when they have done you no harm," Ruth ventured.
+
+"But my people would not believe that you would do no harm," he
+explained. "I can see that you are quite harmless. But they have not the
+intelligence I possess. You understand?"
+
+"Quite," said Ruth. "And I will go right away. Thank you for your
+kindness."
+
+"That is right, young woman. Go away. And do not return. It is not safe
+here."
+
+"Can't--can't I do anything for you?"
+
+"Hush!" warned the old man. "No, I do not think you can. I do not care to
+divide my power with any consort. And, unless you are of noble blood I
+could not make you Queen of the Pipes. That would never do. Such a
+mésalliance would never do. My people would never stand for it--oh,
+never!"
+
+"I quite understand that," said Ruth, having difficulty to keep from
+smiling.
+
+"Now go, young woman," the man said pompously. "And do not return."
+
+"I will obey you," said Ruth soberly. "If you are sure I cannot help
+you."
+
+"Hush!" he warned her again, waving his hand. "They are likely to come at
+any moment. And then--"
+
+The girl backed through the bushes and stepped upon the table-like rock.
+She would have bade him good-bye, but he hissed after her another
+sibilant "hush!" and disappeared as mysteriously as he had come.
+
+Ruth descended to the canoe and waited until they were well away from the
+island before she said a word to the other girls about the queer old man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A FILM MYSTERY
+
+
+"I told you there were pirates there," Helen declared that evening, when
+she and Ruth were in the room they shared together. Wonota slept in a
+room adjoining and had already retired.
+
+"I don't think that poor old man was a pirate," returned Ruth, smiling a
+little.
+
+"Didn't he tell you he was 'king of the pirates'?" demanded Helen.
+
+Ruth laughed outright. "He said he was 'king of the pipes'--whatever that
+may mean. Poor old fellow!"
+
+"Well, it seems he most certainly had been 'smoking the pipe'--or do they
+call it 'hitting the pipe'?"
+
+"Don't ask me to aid you with any information on slang," admonished her
+friend. "I don't suppose he is really king of anything except of a
+country of his dreams--poor fellow."
+
+"Dear me!" grumbled Helen. "You never will boost romance, Ruth Fielding.
+Maybe there are pirates on that island."
+
+"Or pipes," said Ruth calmly.
+
+"Never mind. When the boys come I am going to shoo them on to that
+place."
+
+"What boys?" demanded Ruth in surprise.
+
+"The Copleys arrive to-morrow. And their place is not five miles away
+from this very spot. We'll get a motor-boat and go down there to-morrow
+evening and welcome them. I got a telegram from Tom when I came back from
+canoeing. I forgot to tell you."
+
+"Tom!" exclaimed Ruth, and for perhaps the first time in her life she
+seemed undesirous of hearing about Tom Cameron.
+
+Helen gave her a somewhat puzzled side glance as she found the telegram
+and gave it to her chum, who read:
+
+  "Vacation begins to-morrow. Will be with you next day. Tom."
+
+Helen giggled. "You can make up your mind that he knows Chess Copley has
+started for this neck of woods. Tom is becoming Mr. Jealous Jellaby. Did
+you ever?"
+
+"I am sorry Tom considers it necessary to take a vacation when he has
+only just begun work with your father, Helen."
+
+"There you go again!" exclaimed her chum. "I don't understand you at all,
+Ruth Fielding. Tom doesn't have to work."
+
+"It might be better if he did," said Ruth, and refused to discuss the
+point further that evening.
+
+The next day was just as lovely as that first one. Preparations were
+under way all over the island Mr. Hammond had rented for the making of
+the picture which Ruth had written. The continuity was being studied by
+Mr. Hooley, the director; and the principals had been furnished with
+their detail.
+
+The ordinary participants in the filming of a picture--the "extras"--seldom
+know much about the story. They merely appear in certain scenes and do what
+they are told. As the scenes are not made in sequence these actors of the
+smaller parts have little idea of the story itself.
+
+Ruth, under the advice of Mr. Hammond, had chosen a certain series of
+incidents relating to early French-Canadian history, and it began with an
+allegory of the bringing of the Christian religion to the Indians by the
+first French priests. This allegory included the landing of the French
+upon the shore of a rocky island where they were met by the wondering
+Indians, and Mr. Hooley's assistant had chosen the spot for this scene to
+be "shot," not far from the place where the company had its headquarters.
+
+Ruth paid little attention to the locations until the moment arrived for
+the camera work. In fact, after supplying the detailed script she had
+little to do with the preparation of the picture until the scenes were
+made. She had never made continuity, as it is called, for that is more or
+less of a mechanical process and is sure to interfere with the creative
+faculty of the screen writer.
+
+In the afternoon of this day Helen engaged a motor-boat, and she and Ruth
+set out for the Copley island, which was some miles away, toward
+Alexandria Bay. Caretakers and servants had been at work there for some
+time, it was evident, for the lawns were neatly shaved, the gardens in
+full growth, and the family were already comfortably settled in their
+summer home.
+
+Chess Copley must have been on the watch (could it be possible that he
+had inside information about this early visit of Helen and Ruth?) for he
+came running down to the dock before the gardener could reach that point
+to fasten the boat's line.
+
+"Hurrah!" he shouted. "I was just wondering if we would see you girls
+to-day; and if you hadn't come I should have got out our launch and tried
+to find your camp this evening."
+
+"Oh, hullo, Chess," Helen said coolly as she stepped ashore, refusing his
+assistance. "Where are the girls?"
+
+"There they are--waiting for you on the porch," he said, rather subdued
+it would seem by her bruskness.
+
+Helen started directly for the wide veranda of the villa-like house that
+topped the higher part of the island. There were several acres of grounds
+about the Copley house, for the whole island was cultivated to the
+water's edge. There was nothing wild left in the appearance of the
+property, save a few of the tall forest trees that had been allowed to
+stand and some huge boulders almost covered with climbing vines.
+
+Ruth gave Chess her hand--and he squeezed it warmly. She gave him a frank
+smile, and Chess seemed comforted.
+
+"Nell's dreadfully tart with a fellow," he grumbled. "She's nothing like
+she used to be. But you are kind, Ruth."
+
+"You should not wear your heart on your sleeve," she told him briskly, as
+they followed Helen Cameron toward the veranda.
+
+The two girls from the moving picture camp passed a pleasant evening with
+their New York friends. The Copley girls always managed to gather, Helen
+declared, "perfectly splendid house parties;" and they had brought with
+them several companionable girls and young men.
+
+Music and dancing filled the evening, and it was ten o'clock when the two
+chums from Cheslow sought their motor-boat and set out for the camp on
+the Chippewa Bay island. Chess Copley had kept by Ruth's side almost all
+the evening, and although Helen treated him so cavalierly, she seemed
+provoked at her chum for paying the young man so much attention.
+
+"I don't understand what you see in Chess," she said in a vexed tone to
+the girl of the Red Mill. "He's nothing much."
+
+"He is pleasant, and you used to like him," said Ruth quietly.
+
+"Humph!" Helen tossed her head. "I found him out. And he's not to be
+compared with Tommy-boy."
+
+"I quite agree with you--that is, considering Tom as a brother," observed
+Ruth, and after that refused to be led into further discussion regarding
+Chess Copley.
+
+It was not often that Ruth and Helen had a disagreement. And this was not
+really of importance. At least, there was no sign of contention between
+them in the morning.
+
+To tell the truth, there was so much going on, on this day, that the
+girls could scarcely have found time to quarrel. The sun was bright and
+the sky cloudless. It was an ideal day for out-of-door "shots," and the
+camera men and Mr. Hooley had the whole company astir betimes.
+
+The few real Indians, besides Wonota and Totantora, in the company, and
+all those "extras" who were dressed as aborigines, got into their
+costumes before breakfast. Soon after eight o'clock the company got away
+in barges, with launches to tow them through the quiet waterways.
+
+In a costume play like this that had been planned, the participants
+naturally make a very brilliant spectacle wherever they appear. But among
+the islands of Chippewa Bay there were few spectators at this time save
+the wild fowl.
+
+"And they," Helen said, "might be descendants of the very birds who
+looked on the actual first appearance of the white man in this
+wilderness. Isn't it wonderful?"
+
+When Mr. Hooley, megaphone in hand and stationed with the two cameras on
+one of the decked-over barges, had got his company in position and the
+action was begun, it was indeed an impressive picture. Of course, a scene
+is not made off-hand--not even an outdoor pageant like this. The detail
+must be done over and over again before the cranks of the cameras are
+turned. It was almost noon before Mr. Hooley dared tell the camera men to
+"shoot the scene."
+
+The flag-decorated barge bearing the Frenchmen to the rocky shore moved
+forward into focus in a stately way, while the Indians gathered in a
+spectacular group on the sloping shore--tier upon tier of dark faces,
+wearing nodding feather head-dresses, blankets, deerskin leggings, and
+other garments of Indian manufacture--all grouped to make a brilliant
+spectacle.
+
+Totantora, a commanding figure, and his daughter as _White Fawn_, the
+demure yet dominant princess of the Hurons, stood forth from the
+background of the other Indians in a graceful picture. Helen was
+delighted and could not help shouting to the Osage girl that she was
+"great"--a remark which elicited a frown from the director and an
+admonition from Ruth.
+
+Behind the grouped Indians was the greenery of the primeval forest with
+which this rocky island seemed to be covered. The cameras whirred while
+the barge containing the actors representing the Frenchmen pushed close
+into the shore and the whites landed.
+
+A boy carried ashore the great cross, and with him came a soldier bearing
+the lilies of France, the standard of which he sank into the turf. The
+detail of costume and armament had been carefully searched out by Ruth
+herself, and the properties were exact. She was sure that this part of
+the picture at least could not be criticised but to be praised.
+
+It was three o'clock before the party disembarked and went back to the
+camp for a delayed lunch. The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to
+the taking of several "close-ups" and an interior scene that had been
+built on the island rather than in the city studio of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation.
+
+The films taken earlier in the day were developed, and that evening after
+dinner Ruth and Helen joined Mr. Hammond and Mr. Hooley in the projection
+room to see a "run" of the strip taken at the island where the Frenchmen
+landed.
+
+"Do you know that that island is the one we landed on ourselves the other
+evening, Ruth?" Helen remarked, as they took their seats and waited in
+the darkness for the operator to project the new film.
+
+"Do you mean it? I did not notice. The island where I met that strange
+old man?"
+
+"The pirate--yes," giggled Helen. "Only we went ashore at the far end of
+it."
+
+"I never thought of it--or of him," admitted Ruth. "Poor, crazy old
+fellow--"
+
+The machine began its whirring note and they fell silent. Upon the silver
+sheet there took shape and actuality the moving barge with its banners
+and streamers and costumed actors. Then a flash was given of the Indians
+gathering on the wild shore--wondering, excited, not a little fearful of
+the strange appearance of the white men. The pageant moved forward to its
+conclusion--the landing of the strangers and the setting up of the
+banners and the cross.
+
+But suddenly Ruth shrieked aloud, and Mr. Hammond shouted to the operator
+to "repeat." The dense underbrush had parted behind the upper tier of
+Indians and in the aperture thus made appeared a face and part of the
+figure of a man--a wild face with straggling hair and beard, and the
+upper part of his body clad in the rags of a shirt.
+
+"What in thunder was that, Hooley?" cried Mr. Hammond. "Somebody butted
+in. It's spoiled the whole thing. I thought your men warned everybody off
+that island?"
+
+"I never saw that scarecrow before," declared the director, quite as
+angrily.
+
+But Ruth squeezed Helen's hand hard.
+
+"The King of the Pipes," she whispered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A SMELL OF SMOKE
+
+
+The discovery of the face and figure of the old man whom Ruth had once
+met and spoken with on the island thrust out of the undergrowth and
+showing through a good part of the length of film that had been made that
+first day, caused a good deal of disturbance. The King of the Pipes, as
+he had called himself, was entirely "out of the picture." His
+representation on the celluloid could not be removed. And he had been in
+focus for so many feet of the film that it was utterly impossible to cut
+it, and thus save the picture.
+
+"It is a wretched piece of business," Mr. Hammond said to Ruth, as they
+came from the projection room after seeing the reel run off again and
+again. "The entire scene will have to be made over. And, aside from that
+irremediable fault, I consider the work remarkably good. Mr. Hooley may
+never again be able to get it so good."
+
+Ruth and Helen had told him about the old crazy man--a hermit,
+perhaps--and Mr. Hammond had given instructions that before the retaking
+of the scene was tried the island should be searched for the King of the
+Pipes.
+
+"Whoever, or whatever, he is," the producer said, "he's got to be looked
+after while we are making this picture. He is likely to burst most
+unexpectedly into any of the outdoor scenes, and on any location, and
+break up the show. This is going to cost money, Miss Ruth."
+
+"I know it, Mr. Hammond. But it never crossed my mind that it was on that
+very island I had my meeting with the man."
+
+"When Hooley tries to shoot the picture again we must send somebody up
+into that island to watch for the old fellow. He'd better be under
+confinement, anyway, if he's crazy."
+
+"The poor old thing." Ruth sighed. "I don't think he means any harm--"
+
+"He's harmed us all right," grumbled the president of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation. "I tell you, a day's work like this--with such salaries as
+we pay, and supplies and all--mounts into real money."
+
+"Oh," said Ruth, "some of the film can be saved. All that until the
+Frenchmen land--"
+
+"We won't dare risk it. In a costume story like this somebody is sure to
+get his dress, or armor, or something, different next time from what it
+was to-day. And if we try to save any part of this piece of film the
+change will show up in the finished picture. Every critical spectator
+will see the break and will comment upon it. Might as well make up our
+minds to take the loss; but we must be sure that a similar accident does
+not occur again."
+
+"Will Mr. Hooley risk taking the scene over on that island?" asked Ruth
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Why not? It is a fine location--couldn't be beat. We've got to shoo that
+old man out of it, that's all."
+
+The girl had an idea that if she could meet the queer old man again she
+might be able to convince him that some other island would serve quite as
+well for his "kingdom" as that particular isle. At any rate, she hated
+the thought of his being abused or roughly treated.
+
+Soon after the fiasco in the projection room, Tom Cameron arrived by
+motor-boat from the town across the bay. Now, Ruth was secretly very glad
+to see Tom. She always would be glad to see his sunny face, no matter how
+or when. But she could not approve of his being here at the Thousand
+Islands at this particular time.
+
+Tom had grown up to be one of those young men who do not know what they
+want to do in life, and the reaction from the strain of his military life
+had, as was natural, intensified this tendency to drift. After the time
+that he had determined to be a soldier, then to go West and hunt Indians
+and grizzly bears, and then shifted to the desire to be a pirate or a
+policeman, Tom Cameron had really expressed very little taste for any
+commercial pursuit.
+
+He had made his mark in his preparatory school and college in several
+lines of athletics. But a boy in his position would scarcely become a
+professional baseball player or pull an oar for a living. To tell the
+truth, Tom had never shown much aptitude for his father's business. Dry
+goods did not interest him.
+
+Yet when he had come home after the armistice Ruth thought he was going
+to buckle right down to business with Mr. Cameron's firm. There seemed to
+be a super-abundant supply of energy in Tom that had to be worked off.
+And Ruth thought it would be worked off properly under the yoke of
+business. Besides, Mr. Cameron was getting no younger, and he ought to
+have the support of his only son in business affairs.
+
+But the last winter, since Ruth and the Cameron twins had returned from
+the Northwest, things had not gone with Tom quite as the girl of the Red
+Mill would have chosen.
+
+Yet she felt that it was not really her business to interfere. Indeed,
+she did not purpose to interfere. If she undertook to advise Tom it would
+please him only too well--that she knew, of course.
+
+For Tom considered Ruth quite as much his property as Helen--only in a
+slightly different way. And if Ruth showed in any manner that she
+considered Tom her property--well, it would be all off, to use one of
+Helen's favorite expressions.
+
+There was no engagement between Ruth and Tom--not even a tacitly
+recognized one. In times of stress and need Tom had proved himself to be
+a very good friend indeed, and Ruth fully appreciated this. But during
+this past winter he had been somewhat spoiled--or so the girl thought.
+
+In the first place, Helen was determined to make a hero of her handsome
+brother. Captain Cameron was pushed to the fore by his sister in every
+possible way and manner. Helen had many gay friends in New York--she had
+met them through the Stones, for Helen had often been with Jennie when
+Ruth was elsewhere and more seriously engaged.
+
+Naturally Tom had been one with his sister in gay parties, dances,
+theater groups, supper crowds, and all the rest. Business had gone by the
+board with Tom; and before Ruth realized it the young returned soldier
+had lapsed into a butterfly existence that busy Ruth did not approve.
+Especially, did she believe, was such an aimless life bad for Tom
+Cameron.
+
+She met him in the living room of the bungalow, however, with her usual
+warmth; perhaps "lack of warmth" would be the better expression. For
+although Ruth was always quietly cordial with most people, she was never
+"hail fellow, well met" with anybody, unless it was her own, dear, old
+girl friends of Briarwood Hall.
+
+She resisted, however, making any criticism upon Tom's presence in the
+moving picture camp. Everybody in the house--and there were several
+members of the company there besides Mr. Hammond and the director--greeted
+Tom Cameron cordially. He was a favorite with them all.
+
+And the minute Totantora heard of Tom's arrival, the Osage chief appeared
+at the door, standing with glittering eyes fixed on the ex-captain and
+unmoved expression of countenance while he waited to catch Tom's
+attention.
+
+"Bless my heart!" cried the rollicking Tom, "here's my old buddy!
+Totantora, how are you?"
+
+They shook hands, the Indian gravely but with an expression in his eyes
+that revealed a more than ordinary affection for the young white man. In
+France and along the Rhine Totantora, the Osage chief, had become the
+sworn follower of the drygoods merchant's son--a situation to cause
+remark, if not wonder.
+
+Tom had learned a few words of the Osage tongue and could understand some
+of Totantora's gutturals. What the chief said seemed at one point to
+refer to Ruth, who, quite unconscious, was talking with Mr. Hammond
+across the room. Tom glanced at Ruth's back and shook his head slightly.
+But he made no audible comment upon what the Indian said.
+
+He did not, indeed, see much of Ruth that night; but in one moment of
+privacy she said to Tom:
+
+"Do you want to make an early morning excursion--before Lazybones Helen
+is roused from her rosy slumbers?"
+
+"Bet you!" was Tom's boyish reply.
+
+"Six o'clock, then, at the dock. If you are there first rouse out Willie,
+the boatman, and offer him a five dollar bill from me to take us through
+the islands in the _Gem_. That's his boat."
+
+"I'll find him to-night and make sure," said Tom promptly.
+
+"You are a faithful servitor," laughed Ruth, and left him before Tom
+could take any advantage of her kindness.
+
+The appointment was kept to the letter and minute in the morning. Helen
+was still asleep when Ruth dressed and stole out of the bungalow. Not
+many of the people on the island, save the cooks and dining-room
+employees, were astir. But Tom and the boatman--and the _Gem_--were at
+the dock in readiness.
+
+Ruth gave Willie his instructions. He was to make a landing at the far
+end of the island on which the picture had been taken the day before. It
+was too early for any of Mr. Hooley's men to be over there looking for
+the old man whose face had spoiled several hundred feet of good film.
+Ruth wished, if possible, to first interview the strange man.
+
+She took Tom into her confidence at once about the King of the Pipes. She
+did not believe the man was so crazy that he ought to be shut up in an
+asylum. He was merely "queer." And if they could get him off the island
+and out of the way while the picture was being shot, he might then go
+back to his hermit life and play at being king all he wished to.
+
+"What a lark!" exclaimed Tom, looking at the matter a good deal as his
+twin sister did. "And you are constantly falling in with queer
+characters, Ruth."
+
+"You might better say they are falling in with me, for I am sure I do not
+intentionally hunt them up," complained Ruth. "And this poor old man has
+cost us money enough."
+
+"It is too bad," was Tom's comment.
+
+"Worse than that, perhaps Mr. Hooley will never again get as fine an
+allegorical picture as he did yesterday. They were all in the spirit of
+the piece when the shot was made."
+
+They arrived at the sloping stone beach and landed as Ruth and the girls
+had before disembarked. Ruth led Tom up the rough path into the woods
+beyond the table-rock. The trees stood thick, and the bushes were thorny,
+but they pushed through to an open space surrounding an old, gnarled,
+lightning-riven beech. The top of this monarch of the ancient forest had
+been broken off and the line of its rotted trunk and branches could be
+marked amid the undergrowth. But the staff of it stood at least thirty
+feet in height.
+
+"What a spread of shade it must have given in its day," said Tom. "All
+these other tall trees have grown up since the top broke off."
+
+"Quite so," agreed Ruth. "But where do you suppose that queer old man has
+his camp?"
+
+They looked all about the island, coming back at last to the riven beech.
+But they found no mark of human occupancy on the island.
+
+"I smell wood smoke, just the same," Tom declared, sniffing the air.
+"There is a fire somewhere near."
+
+They saw no smoke, however, nor did they find any cavity in the rocks
+that seemed to have been occupied by man or used as the rudest kind of
+camp.
+
+"Maybe he doesn't live on this island after all," said Tom. "He could get
+to half a dozen other islands from here in a light canoe. Or even on a
+raft."
+
+"He spoke as though he considered this particular island his kingdom,"
+rejoined Ruth. "This was the only place he warned me away from--not from
+the islands in general. I don't understand it at all, Tom. And I don't
+want the men to be unkind to him."
+
+"Well, it looks to me," observed her friend, "that if we cannot find him,
+they will be unable to find him as well. So I wouldn't worry, Ruth."
+
+But the girl went back to the Gem and sailed again to the headquarters of
+the moving picture company not at all satisfied as to the result of their
+undertaking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+BILBY AGAIN
+
+
+The work of picture making that day went without a hitch. Mr. Hooley sent
+several men into the woods above the spot on the shore of the "Kingdom of
+Pipes," as Helen insisted upon calling the island where the prologue of
+the picture was made, and they remained on watch there during the
+activities of the company below.
+
+When the film was developed and run off in the projection room that
+evening it was pronounced by all--even by Mr. Hammond--as good in detail
+as the spoiled reel.
+
+From that point the work went on briskly, for the weather remained
+perfect for picture taking. Ruth was busy; but she could give some time
+to enjoyment, too, especially in the evening; and that next evening when
+Chess Copley appeared in his own motor-boat, the _Lauriette_, she was
+glad to join a moonlight boating party which ventured as far as
+Alexandria Bay, where they had supper and danced at the pavilion,
+returning to the picture camp in the early hours of the morning.
+
+Ruth was Chessleigh's particular guest on this occasion, and Tom and
+Helen Cameron went in another launch.
+
+The moonlight upon the islands and the passages of silvery water between
+them was most beautiful. And Ruth enjoyed herself immensely. That is, she
+found the occasion enjoyable until they got back to the bungalow and had
+bidden the Copleys and their party good night. Then the girl of the Red
+Mill found her roommate rather irritable. Helen pouted and was frankly
+cross when she spoke.
+
+"I don't see what you find so interesting in Chess Copley," she observed,
+brushing her hair before the glass.
+
+"He is nice I think," replied Ruth placidly.
+
+"And you just ignore Tommy-boy."
+
+"I could not very well refuse Chess when he invited me into his launch. I
+did not know you and Tom were going in the other boat."
+
+"Well, I wasn't going with Chess. And I wouldn't let Tommy tag after
+you."
+
+"I wish you wouldn't be so foolish, Helen," sighed her chum.
+
+"If you act this way," declared the rather unreasonable Helen, "you'll
+spoil our whole visit at the Thousand Islands."
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed Ruth, for once showing exasperation, "you do not
+talk very sensibly, Helen. I have come here to work, not to play. Please
+bear that in mind. If you think I spoil your sport I will not join any
+other evening parties."
+
+The next evening when the Copley party came over to get acquainted with
+some of the moving picture people and arrange for a big dance on Saturday
+night, Ruth was as good as her word, and remained in Mr. Hammond's
+office, recasting certain scenes in her story that Mr. Hooley proposed to
+make next day.
+
+Helen was sure Ruth was "mad" and kept out of the way intentionally. She
+told Tom so. But she did not choose to relieve Chess Copley's loneliness
+when she saw him mooning about.
+
+Whenever Chess tried to speak to Helen in private she ran away from him.
+Whether it was loyalty to her brother, Tom, or some other reason that
+made Helen treat Copley so unkindly, the fact remained that Chess was
+plainly not in Helen's good books, although she made much of the two
+Copley girls.
+
+The next day Ruth was quite as busy, for the making of the picture was
+going ahead rapidly while the good weather lasted. This story she had
+written was more of a pageant than anything she had yet essayed. The
+scenes were almost all "on location," instead of being filmed under a
+glass roof.
+
+Helen and Tom did not seem to understand that their friend could not go
+off fishing or sailing or otherwise junketing whenever they would like to
+have her. But picture making and directors, and especially sunlight, will
+not wait, and so Ruth tried to tell them.
+
+It was Chess Copley, after all, who seemed to have the better
+appreciation of Ruth's situation just at this time. Before a week had
+passed he was almost always to be found at Ruth's beck and call; for when
+she could get away from the work of picture making, Chess turned up as
+faithfully as the proverbial bad penny.
+
+"You are not a bad penny, however, Chess," she told him, smiling. "You
+are a good scout. Now you may take me out in your motor-boat. If it is
+too late to fish, we can at least have a run out into the river. How
+pretty it is to-day!"
+
+"If everybody treated me as nicely as you do, Ruth," he said, rather
+soberly, "my head would be turned."
+
+"Cheer up, Chess," she said, laughing. "I don't say the worst is yet to
+come. Perhaps the best will come to you in time."
+
+"You say that only to encourage me I fear."
+
+"I certainly don't say it to discourage you," she confessed. "Going
+around like a faded lily isn't going to help you a mite--and so I have
+already told you."
+
+"Huh! How's a fellow going to register joy when he feels anything but?"
+
+"You'd make a poor screen actor," she told him. "See Mr. Grand to-day. He
+has an ulcerated tooth and is going to the Bay to-night to have it
+treated. Yet, as the French voyageur, he had to make love to Wonota and
+Miss Keith, both. Some job!"
+
+"That fellow makes love as easy as falling off a log," grumbled Chess. "I
+never saw such a fellow."
+
+"But the girls flock to see him in any picture. If he were my brother--or
+husband--I would never know when he was really making love or just
+registering love. Still actors live in a world of their own. They are not
+like other people--if they are really good actors."
+
+Copley's _Lauriette_ shot them half way across the broad St. Lawrence
+before sunset, and from that point they watched the sun sink in the west
+and the twilight gather along the Canadian shore and among the islands on
+the American side.
+
+When Chessleigh was about to start the engine again and head for the
+camp--and dinner--they suddenly spied a powerful speed boat coming out
+from the Canadian side. It cleaved the water like the blade of a knife,
+throwing up a silver wave on either side. And as it passed the
+_Lauriette_ Ruth and her companion could see several men in her cockpit.
+
+"There are those fellows again," Chess remarked. "Wonder what they are up
+to? That boat passed our island yesterday evening and the crowd in her
+then acted to me as though they were drunk."
+
+"I should think----Why!" exclaimed Ruth suddenly breaking off in what she
+was first going to say, "one of those men is a Chinaman."
+
+"So he is," agreed Chessleigh Copley.
+
+"And that little fat man--see him? Why, Chess! it looks like----"
+
+"Who is it?" asked the young fellow, in surprise at Ruth's excitement.
+
+"It's Bilby!" gasped Ruth. "That horrid man! I I hoped we had seen the
+last of him. And now he's right here where we are working with Wonota."
+
+She had said so much that she had to explain fully about Bilby, while
+they sat and watched the speed boat disappear up the river. Ruth was sure
+she had made no mistake in her identification of the rival picture
+producer who had made her so much trouble back at the Red Mill.
+
+"I must tell Mr. Hammond at once," she concluded. "If Bilby is here, he
+is here for no good purpose, I can be sure. And if he has a boat like
+that at his command, we must keep double watch."
+
+"You think he would try to abduct Wonota again?" queried Chess.
+
+"I would believe that fellow capable of anything," she returned. "I mean
+anything that did not call for personal courage on his part."
+
+"Humph!" murmured Chess thoughtfully. "I wonder what he was doing with
+the Chinaman in his party. You know, sometimes Chinamen are smuggled
+across from Canada against the emigration laws of the States."
+
+He headed the _Lauriette_ for the camp then, and they arrived there in a
+rather serious mood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE DANCE AT ALEXANDRIA BAY
+
+
+"You might have been mistaken, I suppose, Miss Ruth?" suggested Mr.
+Hammond, the president of the film corporation, sitting at his desk in
+the room of the main bungalow which he used as an office. "It was growing
+dark when that speed boat passed you and your friend, was it not?"
+
+"Not out on the river, Mr. Hammond. It was light enough for us to see the
+men in that boat plainly. Just as sure as one of them was a Chinaman, the
+short, fat man was Horatio Bilby."
+
+"It doesn't seem possible that the fellow would chase away up here after
+us when he so signally failed down below. My lawyer tells me that he had
+no real authority from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to secure Wonota's
+services, after all."
+
+"He is a man who would not need much authority to attempt any mean
+thing," said the girl hotly.
+
+"That may be true," admitted Mr. Hammond. "But it seems quite too
+sensational." He smiled, adding: "Quite too much like a movie plot, eh?"
+
+"You say yourself that he has obtained the production rights to those
+'Running Deer' stories that have appeared in the _Gotham Magazine_," said
+Ruth, with earnestness. "They are good stories, Mr. Hammond. I have read
+them."
+
+"Yes. I believe they are pretty good material for pictures. That is, if
+they were handled by a practical scenario writer like yourself."
+
+"It is too bad you did not get them."
+
+"Well, Bilby was ahead of us there. Somehow, he got backing and bought
+the picture and dramatic rights to the tales outright. He can find
+somebody besides Wonota to play _Running Deer_."
+
+"He seems to have set his heart on our Wonota."
+
+"Yes. He did make Totantora a whacking good offer. I must admit he did. I
+could not begin to see such a price for the girl's services. And on a
+mere speculation. But I pointed out to Totantora that, after all, a
+promise is only a promise. He and Wonota have already had considerable
+hard cash from us," and Mr. Hammond ended with a laugh.
+
+He was evidently not so much impressed by the possible danger of Bilby's
+presence in the Thousand Islands as Ruth could have wished. She
+determined herself, however, to be sharply on the watch for the
+reappearance of the coarse little fat man who had so troubled her and the
+Indians at the Red Mill.
+
+She took Totantora into her confidence, after speaking to Mr. Hammond,
+although she did not say a word to Wonota. Despite the natural stoicism
+of the Osage maiden, Ruth did not know but that Wonota might become
+nervous if she knew the plotting Bilby was near at hand.
+
+The chief listened to Ruth's warning with a certain savage anger in his
+look that warned Ruth not to push the suggestion of Bilby's determination
+to obtain possession of Wonota too far. The chief was not a patient man,
+and the possible threat against the safety of his daughter roused in him
+the instinct of defence.
+
+"Me watch," he said. "That fat man come here, me chase him away. Yes!"
+
+"Don't do him any harm, Totantora," warned Ruth. "But tell Mr. Hammond or
+me if you see him."
+
+Nobody saw Bilby immediately, however; and as several days passed Ruth
+began to wonder if, after all, she had not been mistaken in her
+identification of the fat man in the boat.
+
+Meanwhile, the making of the picture went on steadily; but something
+else--and something Helen Cameron at least considered of moment--was
+planned during this time.
+
+Many other summer residents of the Thousand Islands besides the Copleys
+had now arrived, and the gaiety of the season was at its height. There
+was one very large hotel at Alexandria Bay, and it was planned to use its
+ballroom for a "big war dance," to quote Helen. It was to be a costume
+dance, and everybody that appeared on the floor must be dressed in Indian
+costume.
+
+Wonota helped the chums and the actresses with the Alectrion Film
+Corporation who attended, in the getting up of their costumes and the
+staining of their faces and arms. The Osage girl herself wore a beautiful
+beaded robe, feather-trimmed and brilliantly dyed. It was her "coronation
+robe" in the picture she was helping to film. But Mr. Hammond, who
+likewise attended the dance, allowed the girl to wear this finery, which
+really was part of the "props" of the company.
+
+Launches were engaged from Chippewa Bay to take most of those from the
+camp who attended the dance, either as participants in the costume review
+or as spectators, but Chess Copley arranged to come for his particular
+friends in the _Lauriette_.
+
+Helen was tempted to refuse to go in the Copley launch; but when she saw
+Jean and Sara Copley beside their brother, she went aboard with Ruth and
+Tom. There actually was no friction between the two young men, although
+Tom usually addressed Chess by that opprobrious nickname, 'Lasses, while
+Chess retorted by scoffing at all the ex-captain's opinions and advice on
+any and all subjects.
+
+Really, had she not felt that she was partly the cause of this mild
+strife, Ruth would have laughed at the two. They were, after all, but
+grown-up boys.
+
+It was a gay party aboard the _Lauriette_, nevertheless. Even Wonota
+(whom Ruth was keeping with her) was gay. And she was so pretty in her
+beautiful costume that when they arrived at the hotel the young men at
+the dance vied in their attempts to have her for a partner on the floor.
+
+There was a fine band and the dancing floor was smooth. Even Mr. Hammond
+went on to the floor, having secured a costume, and Mother Paisley, who
+acted as chaperon for the moving picture girls, was as light as anybody
+on her feet and the embodiment of grace.
+
+"Actor folk nowadays," the old woman told Ruth once, "are not trained as
+they once were. I came of circus folk. My people had been circus
+performers in the old country for generations before my father and mother
+came over here. My husband was a trapeze performer.
+
+"And working on the bars makes one supple and limber beyond any other
+form of exercise. Afterward, while still a young girl, I was in the
+ballet. At least, when one has had my training, one brings to the
+speaking stage a grace and carriage that can scarcely be secured in any
+other way.
+
+"As for this moving picture business," she sighed, "I see these poor
+girls as awkward as heifers--and they are really learning very little.
+They depend upon the director to tell them how a lady should enter a
+room, and how to walk. But often the director has never seen a real lady
+enter a room! Directors of moving pictures are not masters of deportment
+as our old dancing masters were."
+
+Ruth always listened to strictures upon the moving picture art and gained
+what she could from such criticism. And the harshest critics the motion
+pictures have are the people who work in them. But, after all, Ruth had a
+vision.
+
+She felt that in spite of all the "great," "grand," "magnificent,"
+"enormous" pictures already advertised upon the billboards, the public
+was still waiting for a really well made and properly written and acted
+series of pictures that claimed neither more sensationalism than they
+possessed, nor were hastily and carelessly made.
+
+Ruth liked to work with Mr. Hammond, and he had been very kind and
+considerate of her. But she felt that, untrammeled, she would be able to
+make better pictures than she had made with him. She wanted a free hand,
+and she felt the insistence of the treasurer's office at her elbow. Money
+could be lavished upon anything spectacular--for instance, like this
+French-Indian picture they were making. But much had to be "speeded up"
+to save money in other phases of production.
+
+Mr. Hammond, like most of the other moving picture producers, thought
+only of the audience coming out of the theater with "ohs!" and "ahs!"
+upon their lips regarding the spectacular features in the film shown.
+Ruth wanted to go deeper--wanted to make the impression upon the minds
+and intelligence of the audiences. She felt that the pictures could be
+something bigger than mere display.
+
+But this is all aside from the fun they had at the costume dance. Ruth
+and Helen both danced with Mr. Hammond and Mr. Grand and with several
+others of the moving picture people, as well as with their own friends.
+Chess got the second dance with Ruth; and then he had the third; and then
+got the sixth. He might have gone on all the evening coming back to her
+and begging the favor had Ruth not insisted upon his devoting himself to
+some of his sisters' friends.
+
+But, at the same time, Ruth was somewhat piqued because Tom Cameron did
+not come near her all the first part of the evening. She could not
+understand what the matter really was with him--why he acted in so offish
+a manner.
+
+After that sixth dance (and Ruth had danced them all with one partner or
+another) she sent Chess away from her definitely. She went in search of
+Tom. The orchestra began playing for the next dance. Ruth looked keenly
+about the brilliant assembly. She knew Tom's costume--it was distinctive
+and could not be mistaken. But she could not mark it at all in the
+throng.
+
+Two or three men asked her to dance, but she pleaded fatigue and
+continued to walk about the edge of the ballroom. Finally, in an alcove,
+sitting at an empty table, and with no companion, she spied the recreant
+Tom.
+
+"Why, Tom!" she cried cheerfully, "are you sitting out this dance too?
+And the music is so pretty."
+
+"The music is all right," he agreed.
+
+"Don't you want to dance?"
+
+"No. I do not want to dance," he answered sourly.
+
+"Not--not even with me, Tom?" she ventured, smiling rather wistfully at
+his averted face.
+
+"With nobody. I am waiting for Helen and the rest of you to get enough of
+this foolishness and go home."
+
+"Why, Tom! You--you are not ill?" she ventured, putting out a hand to
+touch his shoulder yet not touching it.
+
+"Not at all, Ruth," he said, and now he glanced up at her. His look was
+cold. "Not at all."
+
+"You are not yourself," she said, more composedly. "What are you thinking
+of?"
+
+"I am thinking," said Tom, looking away again and with the same
+moodiness, "that I was a fool to leave the army. That was my job. I
+should have stuck to it. I should have used my commission and father's
+influence to stay in the army. But it's too late now. I guess I had my
+chance and didn't know enough to use it."
+
+He arose abruptly, bowed stiffly, and walked away. If Tom had actually
+slapped her, Ruth could have felt no more hurt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE KINGDOM OF PIPES
+
+
+Ruth Fielding at first felt only hurt; then she felt angry. She was no
+longer the timid, sensitive girl who had faced Jabez Miller when she
+first came to the Red Mill with a tremulous smile, to be sure, but tears
+standing thick in her eyes. No, indeed!
+
+The present Ruth Fielding, a young woman of purpose and experience, not
+only could hide her feelings--especially if they were hurt ones--but
+possessed a saving sense of humor. And to her mind, just a moment later,
+Tom Cameron's very military looking shoulders and stride seemed rather
+funny.
+
+He had hurt her; but then, he had hurt her as a boy might. It was true,
+perhaps, Tom was not grown up. Ruth considered that she was--very much
+so!
+
+There he was, daring to complain because his army career had ended so
+suddenly--wishing that he had remained in uniform. And how would his
+father and his sister have felt if he had done so!
+
+"He's a great, big booby!" Ruth whispered to herself. Then her smile came
+back--that wistful, caressing smile--and she shook her head. "But he's
+Tom, and he always will be. Dear me! isn't he ever going to grow up?"
+
+So she hid her hurt and accepted the first partner thereafter who
+offered; but it was not Chess. Secretly she knew what the matter with Tom
+was. And she was too proud to let the ex-captain see that she cared.
+Nevertheless she was sorry that the party from down the river broke up as
+they did when the time to go home came.
+
+She found herself in the Copley's launch again, with Chess' sisters and
+the members of the house party the Copleys were entertaining at their
+island. This dividing of the clans made it possible for Chess after
+letting the others out at the Copley dock, to take Ruth to the moving
+picture island alone.
+
+It was a lovely, soft, moonlight night. The haze over the islands and the
+passages between could not be called a fog, but it was almost as
+shrouding as a fog. When Chess ran the launch outside into the main
+stream, where the current was broad and swift, the haze lay upon the
+rippling surface like a blanket.
+
+They were going very swiftly here, for it was with the current. Suddenly
+Chess shut off the engine. The "plop" of the exhaust ceased. They drifted
+silently on the bosom of the St. Lawrence.
+
+"I don't see why I am treated so, Ruth," Chess suddenly burst out. "Do
+you know, I'm awfully unhappy?"
+
+"You poor boy!" said Ruth in her warm-hearted way. "I think you are
+over-sensitive."
+
+"Of course I am sensitive. I shall always be when I am--am--interested in
+any person and their treatment of me. It is congenital."
+
+"Dear, dear!" laughed Ruth. "They have discovered that even incipient
+congenital idiocy can be cured by the removal of the adenoids. But I
+don't suppose such an operation will help you?"
+
+"Oh, don't tease a fellow," complained her friend.
+
+He reached for the throttle, then hesitated. Somewhere in the mist ahead
+was the throb of another engine.
+
+"Who's this?" muttered Chess.
+
+"Maybe it is Tom--looking for us," said Ruth, chuckling.
+
+"The gall of him," exclaimed the heated Copley. Then he made a gesture
+for silence. A long, quavering "co-ee! co-ee!" came through the mist and
+from the south.
+
+"From one of the islands," said Chess quickly.
+
+"What island is that over there?" demanded Ruth, in a whisper. "Isn't it
+the one we took the first picture on?"
+
+"It sure is," agreed the young fellow, but wonderingly.
+
+"The Kingdom of Pipes," murmured Ruth.
+
+"What's that?" asked Chessleigh.
+
+Ruth repeated Helen's name for the rocky island on which Ruth had met the
+queer old man. "That call came from the island, didn't it?" she asked.
+
+"I believe it did. What's going on here?"
+
+"Hush!" begged Ruth. "That launch is coming nearer."
+
+As she spoke, a moving object appeared in the mist. There was no light
+upon this strange craft. Chessleigh shuttered his own cockpit lamp
+instantly.
+
+"Good boy," acclaimed Ruth. "There is something going on here----"
+
+They heard the call from the island again. There was a low reply from the
+strange launch--a whistle. Then the launch pushed on and was hidden by
+the mist again from the curious eyes of Ruth and her companion.
+
+But they knew it had gone close to the island, if it had not really
+touched there. Its engine was stilled. All they heard for a time was the
+lapping of the waves.
+
+"I'd like to know what it means," grumbled Chess.
+
+Ruth agreed. "Let's wait a while. We may hear or see something more."
+
+"Won't see much, I guess," replied her companion.
+
+"Never mind. Let the boat drift. We're all right out here in the current,
+are we not?"
+
+"Guess so. It beats my time," said her friend. "They say there is a lot
+of smuggling done along the border."
+
+"Do you say so?" gasped Ruth, clasping her hands and almost as excited as
+Helen might have been. "Smugglers! Think of it!"
+
+"And bad eggs they are."
+
+"Of course there is no danger?"
+
+"Danger of what?" he asked.
+
+"Wouldn't the smugglers hurt us if we caught them?"
+
+"Don't know. I've got a loaded pistol in the cabin. Guess I'll get it
+out," said Chess.
+
+"I guess you won't!" Ruth exclaimed. "We'll go right away from here
+before we get into a fight!"
+
+"Humph!" grunted Chess. "You don't suppose they would welcome any spies
+if they are smugglers, do you?" he asked.
+
+"But what do they smuggle? Diamonds? Precious stones?"
+
+"Don't know. Maybe. There is a heavy internal revenue tax on diamonds,"
+Chess said.
+
+"Goodness! wouldn't Helen like to be here."
+
+"She'd want to go ashore and take a hand in it," grinned Copley. "I know
+her."
+
+"Yes, Helen is brave," admitted Ruth.
+
+"Humph! She's foolish, you mean," he declared. "Whatever and whoever
+those fellows are, they would not welcome visitors I fancy."
+
+Their launch had been drifting by the island, the upper ridge and trees
+of which they could see quite plainly. Suddenly a breath of wind--the
+forecast of the breeze that often rises toward daybreak--swooped down
+upon the river. It split the mist and revealed quite clearly the upper
+end of the island where Ruth had interviewed the queer old man, and which
+Copley's launch had now drifted past.
+
+A light showed suddenly, and for a few moments, close to the water's
+edge. It revealed enough for the two in the drifting launch to see
+several figures outlined in the misty illumination of the light.
+
+There was the bow of the mysterious boat close against the landing place.
+At least three men were in the boat and on the shore. Ruth could not be
+sure that either of them was the old man she had spoken with.
+
+But she and Chess Copley saw that they were unloading something from the
+boat--square, seemingly heavy boxes, yet not so heavy that they could not
+be passed from hand to hand. One was about all the weight a man might
+easily lift.
+
+"What do you suppose those boxes are?" whispered Ruth, as the Copley
+launch drifted into the mist again and the end of the island and the
+other boat were blotted out of sight.
+
+"Give it up. Provisions--supplies. Maybe they are going to camp there.
+Lots of people camp out on these smaller islands."
+
+"The King of the Pipes will have something to say about that," laughed
+Ruth. "One thing sure about it," she added the next moment, as Chess
+started his engine again. "Those boxes don't contain diamonds."
+
+"I should say not!"
+
+"So if we saw smugglers they are smuggling something besides precious
+stones," said the girl gaily. "Won't Helen be interested when I tell
+her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A DEMAND IS MADE
+
+
+Helen had gone to bed when Ruth went into their bedroom that morning, and
+either she was asleep or did not want to speak to her chum. Ruth felt
+that, after what had gone on at the ball at Alexandria Bay, she had
+better not wake Helen up to tell her about the strange launch that had
+landed at the Kingdom of the Pipes.
+
+And in the morning the attitude of both Helen and Tom closed Ruth's lips
+on all subjects. The twins were plainly offended. Why? Because Ruth had
+shown ordinary interest in other people besides themselves!
+
+At least, that is how Ruth saw it. She thought it very silly for Helen to
+be jealous. Tom's jealousy was another matter; but he had brought the
+situation on himself.
+
+For once Ruth was determined not to give in, as she so often did when
+Helen showed spleen. Fortunately, Ruth was busy with her picture work, so
+she had good reason to excuse herself from much association with the
+Cameron twins during the next two days.
+
+Then something happened to give them all an entirely different topic of
+thought and conversation. That day had been spent in taking close-ups and
+scenes under the canvas and glass roof of the make-shift studio that had
+been built at the camp. The great pageant of historical times along the
+St. Lawrence was moving swiftly on its way. The scenes of a picture are
+seldom taken in any sequence at all, but Mr. Hooley had gone so far now
+that the bulk of the scenes had been filmed; and as they had been run off
+in the little projection room, both Mr. Hammond and Ruth had expressed
+their approval of almost every finished length of celluloid.
+
+The work was practically over for the day at four o'clock and the actors
+in their costumes--especially the Indians, including Wonota and her
+father--made a brilliant picture as they wandered about the lawns and in
+and out of the several bungalows on the island.
+
+From the direction of Chippewa Bay appeared a chugging motor-launch that
+came directly to the dock. It was not one of the hired launches used by
+the picture company, nor were those in the launch men who had anything to
+do with Mr. Hammond's corporation.
+
+But when Ruth idly looked into the launch from her seat with Helen and
+Miss Keith and Mrs. Paisley on the porch of their house, the girl of the
+Red Mill got up suddenly, uttering an astonished exclamation:
+
+"That horrid man again!"
+
+"Hoity-toity!" exclaimed Mrs. Paisley. "What man deserves such a title as
+that, Miss Fielding?"
+
+"That Bilby!" exclaimed Ruth. "I just felt it in my bones--like Aunt
+Alvirah--that that creature would annoy us again."
+
+"Then you are not disappointed," said Helen drily. "Is that the
+fellow--that big gawk in the blue suit?"
+
+"No, no! I don't know him," said Ruth. "The little fat man tagging after
+the big fellow."
+
+For two men from the launch had now stepped ashore. In accordance with
+orders from Mr. Hammond, the visitors were stopped at the head of the
+dock. Nobody was allowed on the island without invitation or a permit.
+
+"Let me tell you," said the man in blue pompously, "that I am a county
+officer. You'd better have a care, young fellow."
+
+"Say! I don't care if you are the King of the Yaps," said Willie, the
+boatman. "I have my orders. This is private property. Stay where you
+are--right where you are, mind!--till I send for the boss."
+
+"You send for them two Injuns--that is who our business is with," put in
+Bilby. "That Totantora and Wonota. I want to see them--not that Hammond."
+
+Ruth had run to another house to warn those very individuals to get out
+of the way and to keep out of sight until Bilby's visit was over. She did
+not know, of course, who the big man in blue was.
+
+The latter was inclined to be pompous and commanding, even when Mr.
+Hammond came down to the head of the dock to see him. It was evident that
+Bilby's money felt warm in the deputy sheriff's pocket, and he was
+determined to give the little fat man full weight for his cash.
+
+"This here business is something that can be settled without any row, Mr.
+Hammond--if that's your name," said the officer, puffingly.
+
+"It is my name, all right," returned the president of the Alectrion
+Corporation. "And I don't expect any row. What do you want--and that
+fellow behind you?"
+
+Horatio Bilby grinned rather sheepishly. "Well, you know, Mr. Hammond,
+all's fair in love and war."
+
+"This is certainly not love," said the moving picture man. "Now, what do
+you both want?"
+
+"You are ordered to bring two people into court," said the deputy
+sheriff, "and show cause why they shouldn't be handed over to Mr. Bilby
+pending certain proceedings to break their contract with you."
+
+"Blunt enough," admitted Mr. Hammond, but without excitement. "Let's see:
+You have a paper of some kind, I suppose, to serve on me?"
+
+"I've a summons for you," said the officer, drawing forth some papers,
+"and I propose to take the two Indians back to the Bay with me."
+
+"You can serve me, and I will arrange for my representative to appear for
+me in your court," said Hammond. "But Totantora, to whom I suppose you
+refer, is a citizen of the United States, and you will have to find him
+to serve him."
+
+"He's nothing but an Injun!" squealed Bilby, in wrath.
+
+"Being an Osage Indian, and owning properly surveyed oil lands in
+Oklahoma, the Government has acknowledged his citizenship," was the quiet
+reply. "He certainly is a good American and will doubtless answer to any
+court demand--if you can serve him legally."
+
+"You got him hid away somewhere?" demanded the deputy sheriff.
+
+"And the girl, too!" cried Bilby. "I want the girl more than I do the
+crazy old Indian."
+
+"You'll think he's crazy if he ever sets eyes on you again, Mr. Bilby,"
+was Mr. Hammond's warning. "He hasn't forgotten you."
+
+Bilby drew back--and he looked frightened, too. "I--I don't want him
+right now," he muttered.
+
+Hammond accepted the summons of the local court, glanced at it, and put
+it in his pocket.
+
+"I see I have five days' grace," he remarked. "All right. I will see that
+proper representation is made before the court."
+
+"But we want them Indians," said the deputy.
+
+"This island is private property. I have hired its use for a certain
+term. I will allow you on it only under proper legal motion. Have you a
+search warrant?" Hammond asked the deputy.
+
+"I ain't got a warrant. I don't need a warrant for a couple of Indians.
+They ain't got any standing in this community. I know Indians all right.
+You give 'em over."
+
+"I do not even acknowledge that the two individuals you demand are under
+my control. At least, I know very well that no United States court can
+touch the young woman, Wonota, except through her guardian. That guardian
+is her father. I don't see him here--do you?"
+
+"You'd better produce him," threatened the deputy.
+
+"You can't make me. Go back and get proper authority--if you can,"
+advised Mr. Hammond. "And don't come here again--either of you--without
+proper authority. Willie!"
+
+"On the job," said the boatman, grinning.
+
+"Don't let these fellows upon the island again--not even on the dock. Not
+unless they are armed with a proper warrant."
+
+He turned his back on the visitors and started toward the nearest
+bungalow.
+
+"You'll be sorry for this, Hammond!" shouted Horatio Bilby. "I'll get you
+yet, and don't you forget it."
+
+"To get me, as you call it, you will have to have both right and might on
+your side, Bilby. And just now you do not seem to have either," was the
+Parthian shot the president of the Alectrion Corporation sent over his
+shoulder.
+
+Willie hustled the deputy and the fat man back into their launch.
+
+"Go on away from here," advised Willie. "I know you, Tom Satchett--known
+you all my life. All you are fit for is to jump a few fishermen and game
+hunters that break the law. This job is too big for you. You're up
+against money and influence, both, this time."
+
+"I won't forget you, Willie," growled the deputy. "You'll want something
+of me some time----"
+
+"I want something of you right now," put in the boatman. "A good reason
+for punching you. Go on into your boat before I find it."
+
+So the pair retreated. But Ruth came to Mr. Hammond in some little
+disturbance.
+
+"What shall we do?" she demanded. "Suppose they take Wonota away before
+the picture is finished?"
+
+"They won't. At least, I don't believe the court will allow it. I will
+telegraph to a good lawyer and have him come up here and watch
+proceedings."
+
+"But, if it should happen, we would be in a bad fix, Mr. Hammond. Mr.
+Hooley says nobody could double for Wonota."
+
+"Let's not cross bridges until we come to them," returned her friend.
+
+But perhaps Mr. Hammond felt less confidence than he managed to get into
+his voice and appearance at that moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE YELLOW LADY
+
+
+There could be no further haste about the making of the picture, "The
+Long Lane's Turning." Although most of the big scenes were already shot,
+those that remained to do held in them the more poignant action of the
+piece and must be rehearsed over and over again.
+
+Much time is sometimes spent upon a single scene--a few feet of a reel.
+Infinite patience, repetition and experimenting go into the making of a
+pictured story. Infinite detail and a close attention to that detail make
+the successful picture.
+
+To stage a "big" scene may seem to be a marvelous feat of the director.
+But in a big scene, with a large number of actors, the latter are divided
+into groups, each group has its captain, and each individual actor has to
+follow the lead of his particular captain. The groups are trained and
+perfected in every little motion before they come into the real scene
+before the camera.
+
+Thus the allegorical picture that was a prologue to "The Long Lane's
+Turning" had been gone over and rehearsed again and again by the
+principal actors in it, even before the company left New York City.
+
+Now, with all these "big" scenes filmed, the more difficult work of
+making the individual scenes of action came to the fore. Wonota had to be
+coached over and over again in her scenes with Mr. Grand and Miss Keith.
+Both the latter were well-practised screen actors and could register the
+ordinary gamut of emotions as easily as they ate their breakfast or
+powdered their noses.
+
+With Wonota, however, it was different. In the first place, she came of a
+tribe of people in whom it was bred to smother all expression of
+emotion--even the most poignant. Wonota almost worshiped her father; but
+did she ever look upon Chief Totantora with a smile of pride or with
+affection beaming in her eyes?
+
+"Not so you'd notice it," said Helen, on one occasion. "Ordinarily, as
+far as her looks go, Totantora might be a stranger to her."
+
+"Is there any wonder, then," sighed Ruth, "that we find it so hard to
+make her register affection for Mr. Grand? And she already should have
+learned to do that in that first picture we took out West."
+
+"Maybe that's the reason," said Helen wickedly. "If she did not know Mr.
+Grand's foibles so well, she might the better show interest in him.
+Goodness knows he's handsome enough."
+
+"Better than that, he can act," said Ruth thoughtfully. "Not many of
+these handsome screen heroes can do that. But perhaps if Wonota did not
+disdain him so much (and she does, secretly) she could play up to him
+better."
+
+"Is there much more for her to do?" Helen asked, with renewed interest.
+
+"Several scenes--and some of them most important. Mr. Hooley can not give
+all his time to her. I am trying to coach her in them. But there is so
+much going on here at the island----"
+
+"Why not take her away to some other place and just pound it into her?"
+
+"Not to the Kingdom of Pipes!" laughed Ruth suddenly.
+
+"No. Let the old pirate have that place to his heart's content. But there
+are other islands."
+
+"True enough. Fourteen hundred of them."
+
+"Come on!" exclaimed the energetic Helen. "Let's get Willie and the _Gem_
+and go somewhere with Wonota. You've all day to hammer at her. Get your
+continuity and try to get it into Wonota's head that she is deeply and
+desperately in love with Grand."
+
+In spite of Helen's brusk way of speaking, Ruth decided that her idea
+might be well worth following. Helen took some knitting and a
+parasol--and a hamper. Ruth gathered her necessary books and script; and
+likewise got Wonota. Then they boarded the launch and Willie took them up
+the river to a tiny islet not far from the Kingdom of Pipes, after all.
+
+"I don't see anybody moving over there," Helen remarked, as Willie landed
+them at the islet selected. She was looking at the island on which Ruth
+had had her adventure with the King of the Pipes. "It looks deserted
+enough. We might have gone there just as well as not."
+
+"I feel as well satisfied to keep away from that queer old fellow," her
+chum said.
+
+"Who's that?" asked Willie, the boatman, overhearing their remarks.
+
+Ruth told him about the strange man, and Willie laughed.
+
+"Oh! That old jigger? Was he the fellow the boss wanted we should shoo
+off that island? Why didn't he say so? Old Charley-Horse Pond. We all
+know him about here."
+
+"Oh!" cried Helen. "Is he crazy?"
+
+"Not enough to make any difference. Just got a twist in his brain. Calls
+himself a king, does he? Mebbe he will be a duke or an emperor next time.
+Or a doctor. Can't tell. He gets fancies."
+
+"And of course he is not dangerous?" said Ruth.
+
+"Just about as dangerous as a fly," drawled Willie. "And not so much. For
+flies bite--sometimes, and old Charley-Horse Pond ain't even got teeth to
+bite with. No, Ma'am!"
+
+"But what are the 'pipes' he talks about? Why 'King of the Pipes'?"
+demanded the insistent Helen.
+
+"Got me. Never heard of 'em," declared Willie. "Now, you ladies all right
+here?"
+
+"All right, Willie," said Ruth as the _Gem_ was backed off the island.
+
+"I'll come for you at half past three, eh? That's all right, then," and
+the boatman was off.
+
+The three girls, really glad to be away from the crowd and the confusion
+of the moving picture camp, settled down to several hours of
+companionship. Helen could be silent if she pleased, and with her
+knitting and a novel proceeded to curl up under a tamarack tree and bury
+herself for the time being.
+
+Helen had not, however, forgotten the "inner woman," as she pronounced
+it. When lunch time came she opened the covered basket which she had
+brought in addition to the book and the knitting, and produced sandwiches
+and cake, besides the wherewithal for the making of a cup of tea over a
+can of solidified alcohol. They lunched famously.
+
+It was while they were thus engaged, and chatting, that the staccato
+exhaust of a motor-boat drew their attention to the Island of Pipes. From
+the other side, a boat was poking around into the passage leading to the
+American shore.
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed Helen, "the King of the Pipes isn't in that
+boat, is he?"
+
+"Not at all," Ruth assured her. "I see nobody who looks like him among
+those men--"
+
+"All are not men, Miss Ruth," interrupted Wonota, the keen-eyed.
+
+"What do you mean, Wonota?" gasped Helen, whirling around to gaze again
+at the passing launch.
+
+But Ruth did not say a word. She had been examining the boat closely. She
+saw it was the very speedy boat she and Chess Copley had seen out on the
+wider part of the river several weeks before. The launch was not moving
+rapidly now, but Ruth was sure that it was a powerful craft.
+
+It was Helen who marked the figure Wonota had spoken of in the boat. It
+certainly did not appear to be a man.
+
+"Why Ruth! See! That is a woman!"
+
+"A yellow-faced lady," said Wonota calmly. "I saw her first, Miss Ruth."
+
+All three of the girls on the island stared after the moving motor-boat.
+Ruth saw the woman. She was dressed plainly but in modern garments. She
+did not seem to be one of the summer visitors to the islands. Indeed, her
+clothing--such as could be seen--pointed to city breeding, but nothing
+was chosen, it would seem, for wear in such a place as this. She might
+have been on a ferryboat going from shore to shore of the Hudson!
+
+"She _is_ a yellow lady," Wonota repeated earnestly.
+
+"I should say she was!" exclaimed Helen. "What do you think of her,
+Ruth?"
+
+"I am sure I do not know what to say," the girl of the Red Mill answered.
+"Does she look like a white woman to you, Helen?"
+
+"She is yellow," reiterated Wonota.
+
+"She certainly is not an Indian," observed Helen. "What say, Ruth?"
+
+"She surely is not," agreed her chum.
+
+"A yellow lady," murmured Wonota again, as the boat drew behind another
+island and there remained out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+MAROONED
+
+
+"I wonder if the boat did come from that island over yonder?" Ruth
+murmured, after a few moments of thought.
+
+"For goodness' sake! what are you worrying about?" asked Helen Cameron.
+
+"I'm not worrying at all," Ruth returned, smiling. "But I am curious."
+
+"About that yellow lady?"
+
+"About what happens on that island the queer old man lives on."
+
+"You don't know that he really lives there," was the prompt rejoinder.
+
+"That is so. He may not be there now. But--"
+
+"But me no buts, unless you mean to go on," said Helen, as Ruth hesitated
+again.
+
+"It does seem queer," said Ruth thoughtfully. "Other people go there
+besides the King of the Pipes."
+
+"Indeed! We all went there when that allegory was staged."
+
+"And since then," said Ruth, and proceeded to tell the two girls what she
+and Chess Copley had seen early one morning.
+
+"Men landing boxes on the island?" cried Helen, while Wonota merely
+looked puzzled. "There is a camp there, like enough. And those men--and
+the woman--in the launch might have come from there, of course. When
+Willie comes back for us, let's sail around the island and see if we can
+spy where their tent is set up. For of course there is no house there?"
+
+"Tom and I found no habitation when we went to search for the old man,"
+admitted Ruth.
+
+"All right. It must be a tent, then," said her chum with conviction.
+"We'll see."
+
+But as it turned out, they made no such search that day. Indeed, Willie
+and the _Gem_ did not return for them. The camp launch was not the first
+craft that appeared. Ruth was again coaching Wonota after lunch when
+Helen spied something on the water that caused her to cry out, drawing
+the other girls' attention.
+
+"Who under the sun is this coming in the canoe?" Helen demanded. "Why! he
+is making it fairly fly. I never!"
+
+Wonota scarcely glanced in the direction of the distant moving picture
+camp, and she said composedly:
+
+"It is Chief Totantora. He comes for me."
+
+The Indian in the canoe caused the craft to tear through the water. No
+such paddling had the two white girls ever seen before. Not a motion was
+lost on the part of Chief Totantora. Every stroke of his paddle drove the
+craft on with a speed to make anybody marvel.
+
+"Something has happened!" gasped Ruth, standing up.
+
+"He comes for me," repeated Wonota, still calmly.
+
+"What for?" queried Helen, quite as much disturbed now as her chum.
+
+Before the Indian girl could have answered--had she intended to
+explain--the canoe came close in to the bank of the island, was swerved
+dexterously, and Totantora leaped ashore--a feat not at all easy to
+perform without overturning the canoe. It scarcely rocked.
+
+He stooped and held it from scraping against the rock, and shot up at his
+daughter several brief sentences in their own tongue. He paid no
+attention to Ruth, even, although she stepped forward and asked what his
+errand was.
+
+"I must go, Miss Ruth," said Wonota quickly. "Mr. Hammond has sent him.
+It was arranged before."
+
+"What was arranged?" demanded Ruth, with some sharpness.
+
+"We are going yonder," she pointed to the hazy shore of Grenadier Island
+that was in view from where they stood. "It is said by Mr. Hammond that
+yonder the man with the little green eyes--the fat man--cannot have us
+taken."
+
+"For goodness' sake!" gasped Helen, "she's talking of that Bilby, isn't
+she?"
+
+"What does it mean? Has Bilby come again?" cried Ruth, speaking directly
+to Totantora.
+
+"We go," said the chief. "Hammond, he say so. Now. They come for me and
+for Wonota with talking papers from the white man's court."
+
+"Then Mr. Hammond's lawyer could not do all Mr. Hammond expected," sighed
+Ruth. "The picture will be ruined."
+
+"I never heard of such a thing," cried Helen angrily. "I'd like to know
+what sort of courts and judges they have up here in these woods?"
+
+But Ruth wanted to know more. She held Wonota back as she would have
+stepped into the canoe.
+
+"Wait," she urged. "Tell me more, Totantora. Where are you taking
+Wonota?"
+
+It was the Indian girl who answered.
+
+"Over on that shore," said she, pointing again to the Canadian island,
+"these courts cannot touch us. Mr. Hammond told my father so. We go there
+to wait until the trouble is over. Mr. Hammond spoke of it before.
+Totantora is informed."
+
+"But it means delay and expense," cried Ruth.
+
+"How mean!" exploded Helen. "I'd like to do something to that Bilby."
+
+"Have you money--plenty of money?" Ruth demanded of the Indian.
+
+"I have money," said Wonota, touching the bosom of her blouse. "We do not
+need much. We shall live quietly there until Mr. Hammond sends for us. We
+will be faithful to you, Miss Ruth."
+
+She turned, with more impulsiveness than she usually showed, and kissed
+the white girl's cheek.
+
+"You are so good to me!" she cried. "I will not forget all you have
+taught me. And I will rehearse every day so to be perfect when Mr. Hooley
+wants me again."
+
+There was no way to stop her. Indeed, as Mr. Hammond had advised this
+sudden move, Ruth knew she had no right to interfere. It was evident that
+an emergency had arisen of which she, herself, knew nothing. In some way
+the enemy had forced Mr. Hammond's hand. Totantora and his daughter were
+in danger of being brought into court after all, and Mr. Hammond did not
+wish that to come about.
+
+The Indian girl stepped lightly into the canoe and picked up the extra
+paddle. Her father leaped in after her, pushed the light craft away from
+the rock, and seized his own paddle. In another moment the canoe shot
+away from the island and off toward the broad expanse of the open St.
+Lawrence.
+
+Helen and Ruth stared after them--then at each other. Naturally it was
+Helen who first regained her voice and gave expression to her amazement.
+
+"What do you know about that?" she demanded.
+
+"I--I don't know what to say," murmured Ruth.
+
+"Oh! I know what to say, all right," said the disgusted Helen. "It's no
+joke."
+
+Ruth herself admitted it was nothing to laugh about. She saw difficulties
+in the way of the completion of "The Long Lane's Turning" of which Helen
+knew but little--or of which she did not think.
+
+Ruth knew that there were scenes--some of them she had been studying with
+Wonota this day--that could not be changed nor eliminated. Wonota must be
+in them. No "double" could be used.
+
+In the first place, the Indian girl's personality was distinct. It could
+not easily be matched.
+
+Ruth knew that, even at that time, one of the most popular screen
+actresses, because of her inability longer to look the child, was using a
+double for all her "close-ups" when she was forced to play those childish
+parts that a hungry public of "movie fans" demanded.
+
+Nothing like this would save "The Long Lane's Turning." The throne room
+scene in Paris, which was yet to be photographed, was too delicate a
+matter to put in the hands of any double. Wonota was herself--even in
+this picture she was a distinct personality--and she must be shown to the
+very end of the last reel and the last "fade-out."
+
+The thoughts caused Ruth to feel very, very sober. Helen looked at her
+with some appreciation of her chum's despair; yet she could not
+appreciate the situation in full.
+
+Suddenly the lighter-minded Helen leaped to her feet from the bank on
+which she was sitting, and exclaimed:
+
+"My goodness, Ruth! do you realize that we are marooned?"
+
+"Marooned?" was the wondering rejoiner.
+
+"Yes. Just as though we had been put ashore here by a crew of mutineers
+and deserted--a pair of Robinson Crusoesses!"
+
+"Your English--"
+
+"Bother my English!"
+
+"It would surely bother Mrs. Tellingham--if she could hear it, poor
+dear."
+
+"Now, don't sidetrack me," remarked Helen. "Don't you see we are cast
+away on this desert isle with no means of getting back to the camp unless
+we swim?"
+
+"Willie will be after us."
+
+"But, will 'e?" asked the roguish Helen, punning on the boatman's name.
+
+"Do be sensible--"
+
+"Even good sense will not rescue us," interrupted Helen. "I'd like to get
+back to camp and hear all the exciting details. Totantora certainly can
+say less in a few moments than any person I ever saw. And Wonota is not
+much better."
+
+"It does not matter how much they said or how little. The fat is all in
+the fire, I guess," groaned Ruth.
+
+"Chirk up! Something is sure to turn up, I suppose. We won't be left here
+to starve," and Helen's eyes flashed her fun.
+
+"Oh, _you_!" began Ruth, half laughing too. Then she stopped and held up
+her hand. "What's that?" she whispered.
+
+The sound was repeated. A long-drawn "co-ee! co-ee!" which drained away
+into the depths of the forest-covered islands all about them. They were
+not where they could see a single isle known to be inhabited.
+
+"Who is calling us?" demanded Helen.
+
+"Hush!" commanded Ruth. "That is not for us. I have heard it before. It
+comes from the King of the Pipes' island--to be sure it does."
+
+"He's calling for help!" gasped Helen.
+
+"He is doing nothing of the kind. It is a signal." Ruth told Helen
+swiftly more of that early morning incident she and Chess Copley had
+observed when they saw the boxes carried ashore from the motor-boat.
+
+"Seems to me," grumbled Helen, "you have a lot of adventures with 'Lasses
+Copley, Ruth."
+
+"Your own fault that you don't," returned her chum promptly. "You could
+have been along. But you don't like Mr. Copley."
+
+"What has that to do with it?" rejoined Helen smartly. "I would go
+adventuring with any boy--even 'Lasses."
+
+"Don't call him that," commanded Ruth.
+
+"Pooh! He likes it. Or he used to."
+
+"He is a nice fellow," Ruth declared, with more earnestness than there
+really seemed to be necessity for.
+
+"I--de-clare!" murmured Helen. "Really! Does the wind sit in that
+quarter?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A DETERMINATION
+
+
+However the wind might sit and whatever may have been her secret opinion
+of Ruth Fielding's interest in Chessleigh Copley, Helen suddenly became
+mute regarding that young man.
+
+But, after a moment, she was not at all mute upon the subject of the King
+of the Pipes and what might be going on on the island where they believed
+the queer old man had his headquarters.
+
+"If it should be smugglers over there--only fancy!" sighed Helen
+ecstatically. "Diamonds and silks and lots of precious things! My, oh,
+my!"
+
+"Better than pirates?" laughed Ruth.
+
+"Consider!" cried her chum boldly. "I said that island looked like a
+pirate's den from the start."
+
+"Your fore-sight-hind-sight is wonderful," declared Ruth, shaking her
+head and making big eyes at her friend.
+
+"Don't laugh--Oh! What's that?"
+
+From over the water, and unmistakably from the rocky island on the summit
+of which the blasted beech stood--a prominent landmark--came the strange
+cry, "co-ee! co-ee!" which they had heard before.
+
+"Do you suppose that poor old man is calling for help?" hesitated Ruth.
+
+"Your grandmother's aunt!" ejaculated Helen, in disgust.
+
+"We-ell that is even a more roundabout relationship than that between
+Aunt Alvirah Boggs and me. Poor old soul, she is nobody's relation, as
+she often says, but everybody's aunt."
+
+"There goes the signal again, and here comes that boat!" exclaimed Helen
+suddenly.
+
+"What boat?" demanded Ruth, looking in the direction of the distant
+Canadian island, toward which the canoe, with Totantora and Wonota in it,
+had now disappeared.
+
+"Turn around--do!" exclaimed Helen. "This way. That is the same boat we
+saw going by some time ago. The boat with the yellow lady in it, as
+Wonota called her."
+
+"This is very strange," murmured Ruth.
+
+"But the yellow lady is not with those men now," said Helen.
+
+"I do not see any woman aboard," admitted her friend.
+
+The boat--going not so fast now--crossed their line of vision and finally
+rounded the end of the island on which the two chums believed the queer
+old man resided. At least, somebody had uttered the strange, shrill cry
+from that very spot.
+
+"Oh, dear! If we were not marooned here!" grumbled Helen.
+
+"What would you do?"
+
+"If we had a boat--even a canoe--we could follow that motor-launch and
+see if those pirates make a landing."
+
+"Pirates!" repeated Ruth.
+
+"Smugglers, then. Your own Chess Copley says they may be smugglers, you
+know."
+
+"I wish you would not speak in that way, Helen," objected Ruth. "He is
+not my Chess Copley----or anything else."
+
+"Well, he certainly isn't mine," retorted Helen, with more gaiety. "I
+can't say I approve of him--and I long since told you why."
+
+"I believe you are unfair, Helen," said Ruth seriously.
+
+"Dear me! if you don't care anything about him, why are you so anxious to
+have me change my opinion of 'Lasses?"
+
+"For your own sake," said her friend shortly.
+
+"I wonder! For _my_ sake?"
+
+"Yes. Because you are not naturally unfair--and Chess feels it."
+
+"Oh, he does, does he?" snapped Helen. "I hope he does. Let him feel!"
+
+This heartless observation closed Ruth's lips on the subject. The two
+girls watched the other island. They did not see the boat again. Nor did
+they see anybody on the island or hear any other cry from there.
+
+They both began to grow anxious. No boat appeared from the direction of
+the camp, and it was past the hour now when Willie was to have called for
+them with the _Gem_. Why didn't he come?
+
+"Of course, Mr. Hammond doesn't expect us to swim home," complained
+Helen.
+
+"Something must have occurred. Totantora's being sent off so suddenly
+really worries me. Perhaps Mr. Hammond himself was obliged to leave the
+camp and perhaps he went in the _Gem_, and Willie cannot return for us
+until later."
+
+"But where is Tom? Surely he must know all about this sudden trouble."
+
+"What was Tom going to do to-day?" asked Ruth quietly.
+
+"Oh, that's so! I had forgotten," said Tom's sister, in despair. "He was
+going around to Oak Point with some of the men. That's down the river,
+beyond Chippewa Point, and they could scarcely get back in the other
+motor-boat before dark."
+
+"That's the answer, I guess," sighed Ruth.
+
+"Then we are marooned!" ejaculated Helen. "I do think it is too mean--and
+my goodness! we ate every crumb of lunch."
+
+"The two 'Robinson Crusoesses,' then, may have to go on short rations,"
+but Ruth said it with a smile. "I guess we are not in any real danger of
+starvation, however."
+
+"Just the same, a joke can easily become serious when one is deserted on
+a desert island."
+
+"But you were looking for adventure," retorted Ruth.
+
+"Well!"
+
+"Now you have it," said Ruth, but soberly. "And worrying about it will
+not help us a particle. Might as well be cheerful."
+
+"You are as full of old saws as a carpenter's abandoned tool-chest," said
+Helen smartly. "Oh! What is this I hear? The smuggler's boat again?"
+
+They did hear a motor, but no boat appeared from the other side of the
+Kingdom of Pipes. The sound drew nearer. The motor-boat was coming down
+the river, through a passage between the island where the girls were and
+the American side.
+
+"Come on! I don't care who it is," cried Helen, starting to run through
+the bushes. "We'll hail them and ask them for rescue."
+
+But when she came in sight of the craft, to Ruth's surprise Helen did not
+at once shout. Ruth only saw the bow of the boat coming down stream
+herself; but suddenly she marked the small name-board with its gilt
+lettering:
+
+                               LAURIETTE
+
+"Here's Chess, I do believe!" she cried.
+
+"Humph!" grumbled Helen.
+
+"Now, Helen Cameron!" gasped Ruth, "are you going to be foolish enough to
+refuse to be taken off this island by Chessleigh Copley?"
+
+"Didn't say I was."
+
+"And don't be unkind to him!" pleaded Ruth.
+
+"You seem so terribly fond of him that I guess he won't mind how I treat
+him."
+
+"You know better," Ruth told her admonishingly. "Chess thinks a great
+deal of you, while you treat him too unkindly for utterance."
+
+"He'd better not think of me too much," said Helen scornfully. "His head
+won't stand it. Tom says 'Lasses never was strong in the deeper strata of
+college learning."
+
+Ruth was not to be drawn into any controversy. She called to the young
+man when, dressed in flannels and standing at his wheel and engine, he
+came into view.
+
+"Hurrah! Here's good luck!" shouted Chess, swerving the bow of the
+_Lauriette_ in toward the island instantly.
+
+"Hurrah! Glad you think it's good luck," said Helen sulkily. "I guess you
+never were marooned."
+
+"That's navy blue you've got on--not maroon," said Chess soberly. "Do you
+suppose I am color-blind?"
+
+"Smarty!"
+
+"Now, children, this is too serious a matter to quarrel over," admonished
+Ruth, but smiling because her chum showed, after all, interest enough in
+the young man to be "scrappy." "What do you suppose we have seen, Chess?"
+
+"I'd like to know first of all how you came here without a boat?"
+
+"My goodness, yes!" gasped Helen. "I'd almost forgotten about Wonota and
+Totantora."
+
+Ruth shook her head. "I am not likely to forget that," she said.
+
+She explained to the young man as they got into the launch and he pushed
+out from the shore about the difficulty that had arisen over the Indians.
+He was naturally deeply interested in Ruth's trouble and in the fate of
+the Indians. But on top of that Helen eagerly told about the speedy
+launch, the yellow lady, and their suspicions regarding what was going on
+at the island that they had nicknamed the Kingdom of Pipes.
+
+"I tell you what," Chess said, quite as eagerly as Helen, "I was coming
+over to take you all for a sail on the river to-night. Let's get Tom and
+just us four keep watch on that island. I believe there is something
+going on there that ought to be looked into."
+
+"I--I don't know that it is our business to look into it," suggested
+Ruth, doubtfully.
+
+But for once Helen agreed with Chess, and against Ruth's better judgment
+it was determined to come back to this locality after dinner and lurk
+about the mysterious island in the Copley launch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+BILBY'S TRUMP CARD
+
+
+Naturally, Ruth went in search of Mr. Hammond the moment she landed on
+the island where the moving picture company was established. But, as she
+saw that the _Gem_ was not at the dock, she scarcely expected to find the
+president of the company at hand--and in that expectation she was not
+mistaken.
+
+Mr. Hooley, the director, however, told her what he knew about the
+occurrence that had started Totantora so madly from the island in the
+canoe. Bilby and whoever it was that backed him in his enterprise were
+evidently determined to obtain the services of Wonota, the Osage
+princess, if it could be brought about.
+
+"Looks to me," said the director, "as though we were going to have some
+trouble finishing this picture, Miss Fielding."
+
+"We can't finish it without Wonota!" cried the girl.
+
+"You don't think you could rewrite the remaining scenes so that we can
+keep on to the conclusion?" he asked thoughtfully.
+
+"Why, Mr. Hooley! How about the throne-room scene? Wonota must appear in
+that. You say yourself that we cannot use anybody in her place."
+
+"How about cutting out that scene? Finish the play on this side of the
+water. Don't go to France at all."
+
+"Then the picture is spoiled!"
+
+"No picture is spoiled until it goes out of our hands, you know," and Mr.
+Hooley smiled satirically. "You know how it is in the picture business,
+Miss Fielding. Some unfortunate producer buys a script or a story. The
+scenario writer 'saves' the story by his work on the script. Then the
+continuity man 'saves' it a second time. Then the director 'saves' it
+after he gets it into his hands. We know that the star performer always
+'saves' it again. And then the film cutter and the title writer each
+'save' it.
+
+"Most pictures are 'saved' in this way by the omniscience of all who work
+on it so that, when it is finally produced, the writer seldom recognizes
+more than a glimmer of his original idea in the final product.
+
+"You are much better treated than most picture writers, you know very
+well. And here you have a chance to 'save' your own work," and Mr. Hooley
+finished with a laugh.
+
+"It is no laughing matter," she told him. "I wanted this to be a really
+big picture. And I do not want to cut out Wonota. Without that
+throne-room scene it will fall flat."
+
+"We should have taken it in New York," grumbled Mr. Hooley. "I felt it at
+the time. But Mr. Hammond contracted for so many weeks' use of this
+island and the time is running out already."
+
+"And Wonota and Totantora are gone!"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Do you know where they have gone?"
+
+"Haven't the least idea. But Mr. Hammond knows."
+
+"He went to town?" asked Ruth thoughtfully.
+
+"He has gone to confer with the lawyers and see if they can get the court
+to vacate the injunction issued against our use of Wonota. Bilby and the
+sheriff came again. They had a warrant this time. It called for the
+production of Wonota. Luckily you had her off the island at the time.
+They searched every nook and cranny, and meanwhile Totantora got away.
+They wanted him too."
+
+"I think that Bilby is too mean for words!"
+
+"Well, I take it that it was his trump card. He must have some powerful
+influence behind him. But--"
+
+"But what, Mr. Hooley?" asked Ruth eagerly.
+
+"I can see how we might get over the difficulty if the courts will not
+listen to reason."
+
+"Oh! Do tell me!"
+
+"We can move the whole company over the Canadian border, and before Bilby
+can do anything over there we'll have finished 'The Long Lane's Turning.'
+That's the only way I see out of the mess."
+
+"But think of the expense!"
+
+"Sure! I'm thinking of that all the time," grumbled Hooley. "And don't
+you forget that the boss never allows me to lose sight of it. Your
+interest in this picture is greater than mine, Miss Fielding; but my job
+is sort of tangled up in it, too. Mr. Hammond is a good man; but he is a
+good business man first of all. I am afraid that you will be obliged to
+make some changes in the remaining scenes so as to overcome the
+difficulty of losing Wonota."
+
+"I will not do it!" cried the girl, this time in anger.
+
+"Better read your contract. If you won't do it, somebody else will have
+to. You know, we've got a man at the studio who could change Hamlet into
+a slap-stick comedy over night, if the emergency arose."
+
+"I will not agree to have my picture ruined," said Ruth, almost in tears.
+
+"That isn't the way to look at it," Hooley observed more kindly. "Just
+see that you save your story yourself instead of letting some other
+person do it for you. That's the answer, I fear."
+
+Ruth had no appetite for dinner that evening, but she was obliged to meet
+her friends and the actors and actresses who ate at her table with at
+least an appearance of cheerfulness.
+
+It was impressed upon her mind more deeply than ever before, however,
+that her arrangement with the Alectrion Film Corporation was not wholly
+satisfactory. She had learned so much now about the making of a screen
+picture that often her advice in the directing of the action was accepted
+with admiration by Mr. Hooley. Mr. Hammond was not afraid to go away and
+leave the two to film the most important scenes in a script.
+
+And why should she be tied to certain agreements that cramped her?
+Especially in a case of this kind. For the sake of saving expense Mr.
+Hammond was likely to insist that the artistic part of "The Long Lane's
+Turning" should be sacrificed.
+
+Ruth felt that on her part she would spend twenty-five thousand dollars
+more (if she had it to spend) in shipping the whole company over the
+border and making the remainder of the picture in Canada.
+
+"I am going to be in a position some time where I shall have the say as
+to every detail of the picture," she told herself. "I want to be my own
+manager and my own producer. Otherwise I shall never be happy--nor will I
+ever be sure of making worth-while pictures."
+
+For Ruth took this career of hers very seriously indeed. Because she did
+so, perhaps, the fact that Tom Cameron seemed to consider his work so
+lightly caused Ruth to criticise the young man harshly. That could only
+be expected.
+
+Tom did not return for dinner. Nor did Mr. Hammond come back to
+headquarters. Chess Copley was eager to get the girls out in his
+_Lauriette_ again.
+
+"Pooh! it's nothing much, I guess," said Helen, seemingly having lost her
+first interest in the smugglers and the King of the Pipes. "And, anyway,
+I shall not go unless Tom is with us."
+
+"Why, Helen!" cried Ruth, "I thought you were so eager."
+
+"Well, perhaps. If Tom went."
+
+"But we promised Chess."
+
+"You promised him. He wants to do it because you are going."
+
+"Now, Helen, you know--"
+
+"I know just what I am saying. I have no interest in 'Lasses Copley. You
+have."
+
+"You are the most exasperating girl!" exclaimed Ruth, in some warmth.
+
+They were in their room freshening their toilets for the evening.
+
+"I don't seem to suit you any more than Tom does," said her chum coolly.
+
+"I declare, Helen! you go too far."
+
+"I shan't go too far this time--without Tom." Helen laughed in a
+provoking way. "You can run along with your Chessleigh if you like. Not
+me!"
+
+"That is just what I will do," said Ruth quietly, but with flashing eyes.
+"I would not insult him by refusing--now. I will tell him you have a
+headache and cannot come."
+
+"Do as you like," was the ungracious reply. "You are crazy about Chess, I
+guess."
+
+"I believe you are jealous, Helen Cameron!" cried Ruth, in wonder.
+
+"I don't know why I should be," returned Helen lightly. "I've no interest
+in Chess Copley. And I haven't had since--"
+
+"Since when, I'd like to know?"
+
+"Since I found him out. So now! That's enough. I am not going. Unless, of
+course, Tom returns and wants me to go along with you and Chess."
+
+What more was there to say? Ruth did not wish to disappoint Chessleigh.
+She felt that Helen Cameron had no reason for treating the young man as
+she did.
+
+So, as she had done before, and without much interest in the evening
+sailing party, Ruth left the bungalow to join the waiting Chessleigh at
+the dock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+SUSPENSE
+
+
+Tom and his party in the other motor-boat had not appeared, nor had the
+_Gem_ come back from the town of Chippewa Bay with Mr. Hammond. Why
+should not Ruth and Chessleigh spy about among the islands for a time?
+
+It was not now moonlight; and there was some haze which gave a
+smouldering effect to the stars peering through it. But these soft, hazy
+nights had their own charm and Ruth had come to love them.
+
+Especially on the water. Amid the tamarack-clothed islets the motor-boats
+crept in and out in a delightful way. To lie on the cushions in the
+cockpit of the _Lauriette_ and bask in the pearly starlight was an
+experience the girl from Cheslow was not likely to forget.
+
+To-night, when the _Lauriette_ got away from the moving picture camp,
+there were no other boats in sight. Chess dimmed his lights and the craft
+crept through the narrow passages between the islands, heading up stream.
+
+"My idea," he said, "is to land at the back of that island--"
+
+"The Kingdom of Pipes?" interrupted Ruth in surprise.
+
+"Yes. Where you say you landed before--twice."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"That is, if we see nothing or nobody about."
+
+"I don't think we'd better take any great risk--only two of us," observed
+Ruth, with her usual caution.
+
+"Of course, we won't walk right into danger."
+
+"I should hope not! And just what are we going for, anyway?" and she
+suddenly laughed.
+
+"Why, I'm curious about those fellows," said the young man. "And I
+thought you were."
+
+"I'm curious about the King of the Pipes. Charley-Horse Pond, Willie
+calls him."
+
+"Queer old boy, I guess," admitted Chess. "But I want to know more about
+those chaps who unloaded the boxes."
+
+"What could have been in the boxes? Surely there is no camping party on
+that island. At least, no pleasure party."
+
+"I fancy not. If you ask me about the boxes, I am puzzled. Yet, I've a
+glimmer of an idea--Are you sure that was a woman with them to-day in
+their boat?"
+
+"Wonota called her the yellow lady. And Wonota has good eyes."
+
+"With a yellow face, yes? And we saw a Chinaman in the boat that other
+time on the river," said Chess quickly.
+
+"Surely she wasn't a Chinese woman? Yet, she might have been."
+
+"Chinese women aren't usually smuggled over the border, I guess,"
+muttered the young fellow. "But Chinese men are."
+
+"Perhaps we should have reported it to the authorities," Ruth suggested.
+
+"Not until we are sure there is really something wrong. I don't want to
+be laughed at, you know."
+
+But Ruth just then had considered another phase of the matter.
+
+"Oh!" she cried. "There's Bilby! He was in it!"
+
+"In what?"
+
+"In that boat when we first saw it. When we saw the Chinaman, you know,
+out on the Canadian side of the river. If there is anything wrong about
+these men--and the King of the Pipes--Bilby is mixed up with them."
+
+"I guess you are right, Ruth. Maybe that fellow is into more queer games
+than just trying to grab your Osage princess."
+
+"But more than that," said Ruth much worried now, "he may have so many
+friends on the Canadian side that he can trace Wonota and her father over
+there on Grenadier Island."
+
+"Better warn Mr. Hammond when he comes back from town," suggested her
+friend. "That Bilby seems to be universally troublesome. I'll say he is!"
+
+They kept quiet after that, for the outline of the rocky island, with the
+blasted beech visible at its summit, came into view. Nothing stirred upon
+the island, nor was there any other boat in sight.
+
+"Had we better venture ashore?" breathed Ruth, again in doubt.
+
+"Come on. Let's try it. I've got an electric torch in my pocket. We can
+find our way all over the island with that."
+
+It was true that the girl of the Red Mill felt some trepidation, but she
+had confidence in her companion's muscle and courage if not in his
+caution. Besides, she was very curious about the queer old man and the
+doings on his island.
+
+Chess shut off the engine of the _Lauriette_ some distance from the
+island; but first he had gone above the rocky landing, so that the
+sluggish current between the islands drifted the motor-boat back upon
+that strand.
+
+He went forward and, with a line in his hand, leaped ashore the moment he
+could do so, and drew the _Lauriette_ in to the rock. Then he passed the
+line around the very sapling to which Ruth had once fastened the canoe.
+
+"Come on!" he whispered, offering his hand to the girl.
+
+She leaped ashore. They were both wearing canvas, rubber-soled, low shoes
+which made no noise on the stones. Chess drew forth the electric torch
+and tried it, turning the spot of light on the ground at their feet. It
+worked perfectly.
+
+In his right-hand jacket pocket he carried an entirely different article,
+but he did not mention that fact to Ruth. She would not have gone with
+him had she known of the presence of the pistol. The possession of
+firearms would have, to her mind, at once taken the matter out of the
+realm of mere adventure into that of peril, and Ruth was not seeking such
+an experience.
+
+She only half believed in the smugglers. She had seen some men in a boat
+at the island, but she doubted if it meant anything more than a fishing
+party. Those boxes taken ashore meant nothing much to her, if they did
+suggest some particularly interesting situation to Chess.
+
+In fact, Copley had not fully taken Ruth into his confidence. He had
+reason to suspect that whoever might be on this island were law-breakers,
+and he really had no right to bring Ruth here. Tom Cameron would not have
+done it.
+
+Copley was serious, however, in his intention of finding out if possible
+who was on the island; and when they had passed up the rough path to the
+round table-stone, Ruth had got over her little shivery feeling and was
+as eager as Chess himself.
+
+They passed carefully through the fringe of brush and reached the open
+space where the blasted beech tree stood. The faint starlight illumined
+the space, so that Chess did not need to use the torch in his left hand.
+There was no tent set up here nor any other mark of human habitation.
+
+Ruth knew that there was scarcely any other place on the island where a
+camp could be established. Had the people they had seen landing from the
+speedy launch gone away for good and taken their camp equipment with
+them?
+
+Suddenly Copley seized her wrist. His touch was cold and betrayed the
+fact that he was nervous himself.
+
+"Listen!" he whispered, his lips close to Ruth's ear.
+
+Helen would have immediately been "in a fidget," and said so. But Ruth
+could restrain herself pretty well. She nodded so that Copley saw she
+heard him and was listening. They waited several moments.
+
+"There!" breathed the young fellow again.
+
+"What is it?" Ruth ventured.
+
+"Somebody talking. Listen!"
+
+There was a human voice near by. It sounded close to them, and yet its
+direction Ruth could not decide upon. There was a hollow, reverberating
+quality to the sounds that baffled determination as to their origin. But
+it was a human voice without doubt.
+
+Ruth could not, however, understand a word that was spoken. The tones
+were first high, then low, never guttural, and possessed a certain
+sibilant quality. Whether the words spoken were English or not, was
+likewise a mystery.
+
+Ruth and Chessleigh stood first in one place, then in another, in that
+circle about the big beech tree. The young man had gone all around the
+tattered trunk and found no opening. If it was hollow, there was no way
+of getting into it near the ground, nor was there any ladder by which one
+might scale the huge trunk to the top.
+
+"That's no hide-away," mouthed Chess, his lips close at Ruth's ear again.
+"And it seems to me the sound doesn't come from overhead."
+
+"More as though it came up from the ground," returned Ruth, in the same
+low voice. "Do you suppose we are standing on the roof of a cavern, Chess
+Copley?"
+
+"It might be," agreed the young fellow. "But if it is a cavern, where
+under the sun is the mouth of it? How do they get in or out? It beats my
+time!"
+
+Ruth quickly acknowledged that the mystery was beyond her comprehension.
+The sing-song sounds--for such they seemed to be--went on and on,
+meaningless for the two listeners, who could not distinguish a single
+word.
+
+"Think that's your King of the Pipes?" asked Chessleigh finally.
+
+"I don't know. If it is, there must be something more the matter with him
+than Willie says there is. He sounds crazy--that is the way it sounds to
+me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A FAILURE IN CALCULATION
+
+
+"What shall we do now?" asked Ruth finally, and in a whisper.
+
+"Let's go down to that place where we saw the boat land the other
+morning," returned her companion. "I'd like to look about there a bit."
+
+"Do you think it is wise?"
+
+"I don't know about the wisdom of it," chuckled Chessleigh. "But I do
+know that I'm not at all satisfied. Some people are here on the island,
+and I'd like to know where they are."
+
+"I am afraid we will get into trouble."
+
+"If it is only that old man----"
+
+"We don't know that it is. He must be talking to somebody--if that is his
+voice we hear."
+
+"Maybe he is only talking to himself. I don't hear anybody else," replied
+the young fellow. "Come on. Let's see the thing through, now we have
+started."
+
+Indeed Ruth wanted to see it through. She was quite as curious as her
+companion. So she made no further objection.
+
+Pushing through the brush, they climbed carefully down the slope on the
+outer side of the island. The landing where they had fastened their own
+boat was on the inner side of the island, while this side fronted the
+broad expanse of the river.
+
+They could see the hurrying current, glinted here and there by the soft
+starlight. Everything looked ghostly about them. The dim silvery light
+made it possible for them to pick their way without stumbling. They made
+little noise in reaching the shore.
+
+There was a little indention here--a tiny cove. The shore was shelving,
+and of sand and gravel. Chess pointed silently to the unmistakable marks
+of a boat's bow in several places.
+
+"That boat has been here more than once," he whispered.
+
+Ruth breathed "Yes," but said no more.
+
+Up-stream of the cove was a great mass of rock--not one rock, but several
+huddled together and the cracks between overgrown with brush and vines.
+Chess brought into use the electric torch again.
+
+He shot the spotlight into the crannies. Was there a path there between
+two of the big boulders? He drew Ruth's attention to it with a touch on
+her arm. She saw that some of the bushes were broken--the vines torn away
+and dead.
+
+"Somebody has been here," she murmured.
+
+"Of course. That is what we came to find," said the young man. "We are on
+the verge of a discovery, Ruth."
+
+"I hope we are not on the verge of trouble," she returned, in the same
+low tone.
+
+"Don't have a bit of fear," he told her, in a louder voice.
+
+He was about to mention the loaded pistol in his pocket; then thought
+better of it. But he went ahead, venturing into the narrow passage
+between the two boulders.
+
+The ray of the torch showed the way. It played on the ground at their
+feet and upon the rocky sides of the passage. Was that an abrupt end to
+the passage ahead of them, or a sharp turn in it? Chess pressed on, Ruth
+trying to peer over his shoulder, although to do this she had to stand on
+tiptoe.
+
+"By jove!" uttered the young man in surprise, "I believe it is a cavern.
+It's the entrance to a cave."
+
+"Then those voices did come from a cavern. Be careful, Chess--do!"
+
+He had reached the turn in the passage. A jutting shelf of rock roofed
+them over. The young man shut off the lamp and they were in darkness. He
+thrust forward his head to peer around the corner.
+
+As he did so, without the least warning, something swished through the
+air and Ruth heard the sound of a dull blow. Chess pitched forward, with
+a groan of pain, falling to his knees.
+
+Ruth uttered a scream. She did not try to retreat, but seized the young
+man by the shoulders and dragged him back.
+
+Her brave act saved the young fellow from receiving a second and heavier
+blow. A club was being wielded in the hands of a powerful man who had met
+them in the passage!
+
+Chess was speechless and apparently in a confused state of mind. The
+electric torch had fallen from his hand. He seemed struggling to get
+something out of his jacket pocket, but before he could accomplish this a
+light flashed up in the tunnel ahead.
+
+The same sing-song, chattering voice they had heard so faintly on the
+summit of the island broke out close at hand. In the red, flickering
+light of a burning pine torch the frightened girl saw a man in a
+broad-brimmed hat and loose, flapping upper garment bending over Chess
+with a club again raised to strike.
+
+"Don't hurt him! Don't hit him again!" she cried.
+
+Other voices--all speaking in that strange, sing-song tongue--broke out,
+and Ruth suddenly realized that these enemies that confronted them were
+Chinese.
+
+In the red light she saw clearly now, under the round, broad-brimmed hat,
+the yellow face and slanting eyes of the man. Ruth did not understand
+it--she could not imagine why these Orientals should be here on the
+island. But she realized fully that the calculations of Copley and
+herself had gone astray. They were in peril--serious peril.
+
+The leading Chinaman glared into Ruth's frightened face and his thin lips
+curled back from his yellow teeth in a snarl like that of a rabid dog.
+His very look was enough to turn the girl cold. She trembled, still
+striving to drag the half-senseless Chessleigh back.
+
+The Chinaman uttered a long, jabbering howl, turning his face over his
+shoulder as though speaking to those who crowded behind him in the
+passage. Ruth might still have escaped, but she would not desert her
+injured companion.
+
+Suddenly there was a stir in the passage and the big Chinaman was thrust
+aside. Another figure pushed forward--a ragged, bushy-haired figure. It
+was the King of the Pipes!
+
+"Hush!" he commanded in his old way.
+
+He waved the Chinaman back. He seemed to have some authority, for the
+burly Chinaman obeyed. The old man thrust his face forward and peered
+with his wild eyes into Ruth's countenance.
+
+"Hush!" he whispered. "What did I tell you? I know you, of course. I told
+you that I could not divide my kingdom with any one. It was quite useless
+for you to come here again.
+
+"And see what has come of it," he added. "The Pipes have seen you. They
+know your intentions. They will never in this world stand for a divided
+kingdom. I shall have to cut off your head. Too bad! Too bad!"
+
+He seized Ruth's wrist. She tried to draw away from him, but he was much
+more powerful than she had supposed. One quick jerk and she was fairly
+dragged over the crouching figure of Copley and around the corner of the
+narrow passage.
+
+The head Chinaman darted forward and seized Chess. He likewise was
+dragged into the place. Amid the chattering of several high, sing-song
+voices, and only half seeing what was being done because of the
+flickering torchlight, Ruth knew that she was being hurried into a tunnel
+of some size that ran back into the island.
+
+It was rocky all about her--on both sides as well as under foot and
+overhead. It was a natural tunnel, not one made by man. The figures
+flitting before her were gnomelike. She saw clearly only the old man who
+led her, holding her tightly by the arm. She knew that the Chinaman was
+dragging Chess behind them, as though that unfortunate young man was a
+sack of potatoes.
+
+This outcome of their innocent adventure was entirely different from
+anything Ruth had dreamed of. If she did not exactly fear the queer old
+man who called himself the King of the Pipes, she certainly did fear the
+men who were with him in this cavern.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+IN THE CHINESE DEN
+
+
+It was several minutes before Ruth could accustom her sight to the
+uncertain, flickering flame of the torches with which the cavern was
+illuminated. There was, too, a small fire on a stone hearth and above it
+a stone and cement chimney that portrayed ingenuity in its building.
+
+The cavern was a natural one, but man had made of it a not impossible
+habitation. She felt rugs under her feet as she was drawn along by the
+King of the Pipes, and when her eyes became accustomed to the half-gloom
+of the place she saw that there were several low tables and a couch or
+two, the latter likewise covered with rugs.
+
+Not only had some ingenuity been expended in fitting up the cave, but the
+furnishings must have occasioned the expenditure of considerable money.
+It was not at all the sort of place that she would have expected the
+queer old man to occupy on the lonely island.
+
+She was so much interested in Chessleigh's state, however, that she gave
+small attention to these other things. When she could break away from the
+King of the Pipes she flung herself down upon her knees beside the
+recumbent young man and raised his head in her arms.
+
+Chess had received a hard blow from the Chinaman's club. And he had not
+uttered a word. The latter fact caused Ruth more alarm than anything
+else. She feared that he was very badly injured, although he was not
+insensible.
+
+But there was no blood on his head and face. She passed her hand swiftly
+over his crown and found an unmistakable lump there, a lump raised by the
+blow. But, looking more closely into his half open eyes she saw more
+intelligence in their expression than she expected.
+
+Indeed, as she peered closely at him she distinctly saw him wink his left
+eye, and this act, with the bright look in his eyes, warned her that
+Copley was playing possum.
+
+Having been felled by the blow, and feeling himself out-matched by the
+Chinamen who had come jabbering to the scene, Chess had displayed much
+more helplessness than he need have shown. But Ruth decided that he was
+very wise to do this, and she was much relieved to discover this to be
+the fact. She did nothing to attract the attention of their captors to
+his real condition. She moaned over him, and made little pitying sounds
+as though she thought he had been very seriously hurt by the blow he had
+received.
+
+The King of the Pipes put his clawlike hand upon her shoulder again.
+
+"Let him alone. He will have to have his head off, of course. No hope for
+it. But I will try to postpone your decapitation until the thirty-first
+day of June, which comes when there are two Sundays in the same week. Eh?
+Isn't that shrewd? As King of the Pipes I have to show great astuteness.
+Oh, great astuteness!"
+
+"I am sure you will help us, sire," murmured Ruth, standing up once more
+and looking appealingly at the queer old man.
+
+"Well, I will do what I can. But, remember, we kings can't do what we
+once could. Seems to me I told you that before. The war did the business
+for us. And I would not dare suggest taking a consort. The Pipes would
+never stand for it."
+
+"Whom do you call 'the Pipes'?" Ruth asked wonderingly.
+
+"Look about you. See them? Already they are beginning to smoke up again.
+And it is a dirty smell. I have to go out and roam about the island to
+get away from it. Dreadful! To give up my throne room to nasty little
+brass pipes. Ugh!"
+
+While he was speaking the girl stared about her, now better able to see
+the place and the people in it. There were at least half a dozen men. And
+all were Chinamen, as far as she could see, although not all were dressed
+in blouse and loose trousers and wadded slippers--the usual costume of
+the un-westernized Chinaman.
+
+Two of the men were lying down, and there were tiny lamps sputtering on
+the low stools, or tables, set close to their heads. They held
+long-stemmed pipes with small brass bowls, and had begun to smoke
+something that had a very pungent and disagreeable odor.
+
+Ruth's mind had begun to clear. She remembered the heavy boxes she and
+Chess had seen brought ashore, and the Chinaman in the speed launch, and
+then the yellow-faced woman being taken on this very day toward the
+American shore. The whole puzzle began to fit together like a piece of
+patchwork.
+
+Chinamen; a high-powered boat going back and forth across the St.
+Lawrence; a hidden cave on this supposedly uninhabited island; the heavy
+boxes; the smoking of this vile paste which she now saw a third Chinaman
+dip out of a tiny bowl, on a stick, and drop into his pipe in the form of
+a "pill."
+
+_Opium!_
+
+If these men--and the white men of the speed launch--did any smuggling it
+was not diamonds they smuggled. It was opium. And they were probably
+running Chinese across the border as well. Ruth knew that she was in a
+very serious predicament when she had swiftly thought this out, if she
+had not realized it before.
+
+What would these evil-looking yellow men do to her--and to poor Chess?
+The latter, she was relieved to feel, was biding his time. But what
+chance was likely to arise which would lead to their escape from this
+cavern?
+
+She looked about the place. Two of the yellow men were between her and
+the passage through which she and her companion had been dragged. If she
+wanted to, she could not make a dash for liberty.
+
+She turned again to the bedraggled and ragged-haired old man, curiosity
+about whom had led to this predicament. The King of the Pipes was
+watching her with eyes that glittered like a bird's.
+
+"Hush!" he whispered, moving nearer again. "You cannot escape. The Pipes
+are very strong and very agile. They would not let you. To tell the
+truth, they fear so much for my safety that I haven't the freedom myself
+that I would sometimes like."
+
+"Can't you leave this place?" Ruth asked softly.
+
+"Hush!" he warned her in his usual stealthy way. "Don't speak of it. Of
+course a king can do no wrong, and naturally a king can do as he pleases.
+Otherwise, what is kingship? But it is always well to bow to the
+peculiarities and the prejudices of one's subjects. They do not like me
+to leave the throne-room at certain times. So I do not attempt to do so.
+When you met me before, my dear, there was nobody on the island but
+myself. But to-night you see how many are here, and more yet to come."
+
+"More Chinamen?" she whispered.
+
+"No. Perhaps no more of the Pipes," and she thought he showed involuntary
+disgust of the opium-smokers. "But other subjects of mine who must be
+catered to. Oh, dear, yes! Being a king is not all it is cracked up to
+be, I assure you."
+
+For some reason Ruth felt more alarm because of this last statement of
+the poor old man than of anything that had gone before. She realized that
+he, of course, really had no influence with the opium smugglers. But she
+began to understand that there were other men coming here who might be
+more savage than the Chinamen.
+
+She remembered that there had been several white men in the launch when
+she had observed it, and that on one occasion Horatio Bilby had been one
+of them. Now, Ruth felt not only a great distaste for Bilby, but she
+feared him exceedingly.
+
+It might be that the red-faced fat man who had so fretted Mr. Hammond and
+her about Wonota, had only crossed the river in the launch as a
+passenger. He might have no close connection with the opium smugglers.
+
+But knowing Bilby as she did, Ruth could imagine that he might be mixed
+up in almost any illegal business that promised large returns in money.
+If he would attempt to steal the Indian girl, why would he not join hands
+with opium smugglers and Chinese runners, if he saw a possibility of gain
+in those industries?
+
+She wished she might talk to Chess and learn just what was working in his
+mind at that moment. She was quite sure that he was by no means as
+stunned as he appeared to be.
+
+She approved of his feigning, for as long as these men did not seek to
+injure her, why should he incur their further notice? He lay on the rug,
+quite as though he was helpless; but she knew he was alert and was ready,
+if occasion arose, to show much more agility than the Chinamen or the old
+King of the Pipes dreamed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE TWINS' ALARM
+
+
+It was fully an hour after the _Lauriette_ had chugged away from the dock
+at the island where the moving picture company was established that the
+motor-boat which had been to Oak Point returned with Tom Cameron aboard.
+
+Tom, with the other men who had been exploring and fishing all day, was
+ravenously hungry, but he went around to the veranda of the chief
+bungalow where his twin sister and Ruth stayed to see how they were
+before even going to wash and to see if he could bribe one of the cooks
+to set out "a cold snack."
+
+Tom found Helen on the porch, alone. At a glance, too, he saw that she
+was not in a pleasant mood.
+
+"What's gone wrong?" demanded Tom. And with a brother's privilege of
+being plain-spoken, he added: "You look cross. Go in search of your
+temper."
+
+"Who says I've lost it?" demanded Helen sharply.
+
+"I Cagliostro--Merlin--wizard that I am," chuckled Tom. "I am still
+little Brighteyes, and I can see just as far into a spruce plank as the
+next one."
+
+"Well, I am mad, if you want to know," sniffed Helen.
+
+"Where's Ruth?"
+
+"She's whom I am mad at," declared the girl, nodding.
+
+"I don't believe it," said Tom soothingly. "We could not really be mad at
+Ruth Fielding."
+
+"Don't you feel that way yourself--the way she acts with Chess Copley?"
+
+"I wouldn't mind punching 'Lasses' head," returned Tom. "But that's
+different."
+
+"Is that so? What do you know about their being out on the river together
+right now? Humph!"
+
+"Where have they gone?" asked her brother. "Why aren't you with them? Are
+they alone?"
+
+This brought out the full particulars of the affair, and Tom listened to
+the end of a rather excited account of what had happened that
+afternoon--both on the island where Helen and Ruth had been "marooned"
+and here at the camp--together with the suspicions and curiosity about
+the island which had been dubbed the Kingdom of Pipes. Nor did it lack
+interest in Tom's ears in spite of his sister's rather excited way of
+telling it.
+
+"But look here," he asked. "Why didn't you go with Ruth and 'Lasses?"
+
+"Humph! They didn't want me," sniffed Helen.
+
+"Now, Helen, you know better. Ruth never slighted you in the world. I
+know her better than that."
+
+"Well, she makes too much of Chess Copley. She is always praising him up
+to me. And I don't like it. I'll treat him just as I want to--so there!"
+
+Tom looked rather sober at this. He hesitated a moment. He wanted to ask
+his pettish sister a question, but evidently did not know how to go about
+it.
+
+"It can't be helped now, I suppose. They will be back after a while.
+Where were they going besides to that crazy fellow's island?"
+
+"Just there. That's all."
+
+"Come on and watch me eat. I'm starved."
+
+"Thanks! I watched the pythons fed at the zoo once," said Helen with
+unwonted sharpness. "I will sit here till the scene of savagery is over.
+You can come back."
+
+"You are in a fine mood, I see," observed Tom, and went off chuckling.
+
+Nevertheless, he was not feeling very happy himself over the thought that
+Ruth and Chess Copley were out on the river together.
+
+"Looks mighty fishy," muttered Tom Cameron. "I could punch 'Lasses' head,
+the way I feel."
+
+These thoughts seemed to take Tom's appetite away. To his sister's
+surprise, he returned in a very few minutes to the front porch of the
+bungalow.
+
+"I told you that you had boa-constrictor habits," she gasped. "Why, Tom
+Cameron! you must have swallowed your supper whole."
+
+"I didn't swallow as much as I expected," returned the young man,
+smiling. But he grew serious again. "How long was Chess going to stay out
+in his boat?" he asked.
+
+"You don't suppose that I saw him go?" asked Helen, with surprise.
+
+"Do you know that it is after eleven o'clock?" said her brother. "If they
+went no further than that crazy man's island, what do you suppose is
+keeping them?"
+
+"Mercy's sake! is that the time, Tommy-boy? Why, the crazy man himself
+must be keeping them! Do you suppose the King of the Pipes has captured
+Ruth and Chess?"
+
+"Don't try to be funny," advised Tom. "It may be no laughing matter."
+
+"Well, I like that!"
+
+"I don't think that Chess would keep her out so late if everything was
+all right. Sure they were not going to Copley Island?"
+
+"Sure. The girls have gone away. There's no fun going on there."
+
+"Well, of course the motor-boat may have broken down. Such things
+happen," said Tom reflectively.
+
+"Now you have got me stirred up," cried Helen. "I had no idea it was so
+late. And Ruthie does not believe in late hours."
+
+"She would not stay out on the river with me half the night, that is
+sure," grumbled Tom.
+
+"Oh, Tommy-boy!" exclaimed his sister, "I don't believe she cares so much
+for Chess. I really don't."
+
+"Well, that is not here nor there. What's to be done? Where's Mr.
+Hammond--or Willie?"
+
+"They haven't got back from Chippewa Bay with the _Gem_."
+
+"This clumsy old _Tamarack_ is too big for me to handle alone. And the
+boys have all gone to bed by this time."
+
+"The canoes aren't too big for us to handle," Helen said.
+
+"Us?"
+
+"Yes. I insist on going, too, if you start out to look for the
+_Lauriette_. And it will look better too. If we are simply paddling
+about, there being nothing the matter with Chess and Ruth, they won't be
+able to laugh at us. Come on!" exclaimed Helen, picking up her sweater.
+"I am a loyal sister, Tom Cameron."
+
+"Right-o!" he agreed, more cheerfully. "I suppose there really is nothing
+the matter. Yet, whatever else Chess Copley is, he's not the sort of
+fellow to keep a girl out till midnight on the river when there is nobody
+else along."
+
+"Humph! Do you think Ruth is a mere chit of a flapper? You are
+old-fashioned, Tommy-boy. The day of the chaperon is about over."
+
+"You know it isn't over in our set, and never will be," he returned. "You
+girls have a lot of freedom, I admit. But there are limits."
+
+"Baa!" was Helen's utterly impudent remark.
+
+They ran down to the shore and got out one of the canoes. Helen was
+familiar with the use of the paddle and served her brother as a good
+second. They drove the canoe out into the open river, but only just for a
+look up its expanse.
+
+There was no motor-boat in sight or hearing--not even the distant lights
+of one. The current was so strong that the Cameron twins went back among
+the islands where the water was smoother. Besides, it was much more
+romantic, Helen said wickedly, among the islands, and Chess and Ruth were
+more likely to remain in the tortuous passages.
+
+The two laid a pretty direct course, however, for the Kingdom of Pipes.
+As they spied it, and drew nearer, Tom suddenly stopped paddling and held
+up his hand.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded his sister, likewise raising her paddle out
+of the water.
+
+"Listen," warned Tom.
+
+Faintly there came the noise of a motor-boat to their straining ears.
+
+"Here they are!" shrilled Helen.
+
+"Will you be still?" demanded her brother. "That's not Copley's boat.
+It's a deal bigger craft. She's on the other side of the island."
+
+Helen leaned forward and caught at his sleeve. "Look there!" she
+whispered. "There is the _Lauriette_."
+
+She had been the first to see the outline of the Copley launch moored
+close to the shore of the island at its upper end.
+
+"They've gone ashore," said Tom. "Where can they be? If that other boat
+is approaching this island----"
+
+"Oh, Tom! The pirates!"
+
+"Oh, fudge!"
+
+"The smugglers, then. Chess said he believed there were smugglers here."
+
+"What do they smuggle?" demanded Tom with some scorn.
+
+"I don't know. He did not seem very clear about it."
+
+"Just the same," Tom observed, sinking his paddle again in the water,
+"there may be trouble in the air."
+
+"Trouble on the river, I guess you mean," giggled Helen.
+
+But she giggled because she was excited and nervous. She was quite as
+alarmed as Tom was over the possibility that Chess and Ruth had got into
+some difficulty on the King of the Pipes' island.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+TROUBLE ENOUGH
+
+
+Returning to Ruth Fielding in the cavern: Although her heart beat rapidly
+and she really was fearful, she showed little perturbation in her
+countenance and manner after she had talked with Charley Pond, if that
+was the real name of the King of the Pipes.
+
+Just how mentally disturbed the old man was it was difficult for the girl
+to judge. But she feared that he had, after all his claims, absolutely no
+influence with the Chinamen.
+
+She believed that the leader of the Orientals was the heavy-set Chinaman
+who had struck Chessleigh Copley down with the club. The others--some
+smoking the little brass pipes, and others not smoking--were probably men
+who were endeavoring to get into the States without the knowledge of the
+emigration authorities. Indeed, they were already in New York. This
+island was south of the American line. But from the Kingdom of Pipes to
+any city where the Chinamen would be safe from apprehension was a pretty
+big jump.
+
+As for the opium--the smoke of which Ruth smelled now for the first
+time--she had no idea how that commodity might be handled or disposed of.
+She knew that it was valuable, even when imported for medicinal purposes.
+There was a heavy tariff on it, as well as restrictions upon the trading
+in it.
+
+If those boxes--each as heavy as a man could lift and which she and Chess
+had seen brought ashore on this island--contained opium, there might be
+many thousand of dollars' worth of the drug, in its paste form, here now.
+Perhaps it was hidden somewhere in this cave.
+
+Ruth had seated herself upon the end of one of the low tables. She knew
+that all the furniture in the cavern, including the rugs, must be of
+Chinese manufacture. There could be no doubt that the place was fitted up
+for the convenience of the Orientals.
+
+She looked about, trying to penetrate the obscurity of the place. Were
+there passages besides the one by which she and Chess had been dragged
+in? Were there other apartments in the cavern, shut off by some of the
+hanging rugs which she saw?
+
+Her principal thought, however, was of the possibility of escape. And she
+wished heartily that she and Copley could get out of the cave before the
+arrival of the "others" of whom the King of the Pipes had spoken. Whoever
+they might be--or whether Horatio Bilby was one of them--Ruth did not
+want to meet the smugglers and Chinese runners.
+
+She feared very much for her safety, and for that of her companion. The
+law-breakers would know immediately that their safety was threatened.
+They must know that if they allowed Ruth and Chess to depart from the
+cave, their presence here and what they were doing would be reported to
+the police. And men like Bilby, who would stoop to anything for money,
+were not likely to give over such a profitable business as the smuggling
+of opium without a fight.
+
+Just how much did Bilby and his companions care for the law? It was a
+question that created no little anxiety in Ruth's mind. And she wondered,
+too, what Chess thought about it.
+
+The young fellow lay upon the floor of the cavern, silent and immovable.
+She was quite sure, by the exceedingly knowing wink that he had given
+her, that he was neither panic-stricken nor seriously hurt. He was merely
+waiting to see what would turn up.
+
+And what would happen when the new chance did turn up? Already Chess was
+in opposition to at least seven Chinamen, if he attempted anything. And
+if those the old man had spoken of, likewise appeared, what could Copley
+do against such numbers?
+
+There was nothing Ruth, herself, could do. She sat quietly on the end of
+the low table and looked sadly about the dimly lighted place. This was
+certainly a situation from which her usually ingenious mind could invent
+no means of escape.
+
+Suddenly the old man who called himself the monarch of this island came
+from the corner where he had been standing, watching Ruth, and made his
+way swiftly to the entrance to the cave. The big Chinaman got up and
+looked at him. The King of the Pipes waved his hand and pointed through
+the passage.
+
+It seemed to be sufficiently clear--that gesture--for the Chinaman began
+to gabble to his friends. They scrambled to their feet--all but two who
+had fallen into a sluggish state after their indulgence in the use of the
+drug. They looked toward the cavern entrance. The King of the Pipes
+disappeared through the passage.
+
+Ruth stole a stealthy glance at Chess. She saw that he had moved. He was
+lying with his right hand covered by his body. There seemed an alertness
+about him--in posture and in gleaming, half-closed eyes--that startled
+Ruth. What had the young fellow in his mind to do. For what was he
+waiting?
+
+In a minute she heard the ring of quick steps upon the rock-floor of the
+tunnel.
+
+Ruth shrank away from the table and stood at her companion's head. What
+would the newcomers--Bilby, perhaps--do to Copley and to her?
+
+And it was Bilby! The little, red-faced, greenish-eyed man, projected
+himself into the cavern as though he had been shot out of a gun.
+
+"What's the matter here? What's going on, I want to know? That crazy-head
+is trying to tell me something--Ye gods! A girl?"
+
+He saw Ruth vaguely. Then he glanced down at the prostrate Copley.
+
+"Who knocked him out?" demanded Bilby.
+
+The burly Chinaman was the one he addressed, who answered in a form of
+English:
+
+"Allee same me. I get um, Mist' Blibly."
+
+"For mercy's sake!" whined Bilby, wringing his fat hands. "These people
+aren't police. They are some of the summer visitors. Now we _are_ in a
+mess!"
+
+"Allee same look-see," growled the Chinaman. He kicked Chessleigh, and
+not gently. "Number one sneakee--him! She----"
+
+He nodded violently toward Ruth, thus drawing Bilby's attention to the
+girl. Bilby strained his fat neck forward to see the girl more closely.
+There were other sounds coming from the passage.
+
+"What's doing, Mr Bilby?" asked a gruff voice.
+
+The fat little man was panting. He pointed waveringly at Ruth.
+
+"Here's a pretty mess," he gasped. "What between these Chinks and that
+crazy old duffer, they have got me in a nice mess. I know this girl. She
+belongs to that moving picture outfit. Now what are we going to do?"
+
+"Knock her in the head," was the advice of the growling voice.
+
+The advice probably was not intended to be followed. It was said perhaps
+to scare Ruth. But it excited somebody else besides the girl of the Red
+Mill.
+
+Before Bilby could reply or anybody else could speak, Copley came to his
+feet with all the suddenness of a jumping-jack. Bilby squealed and
+started back, falling against the gruff man who had followed him into the
+cave and who was evidently the boatman.
+
+"What's this?" ejaculated this man.
+
+But that was all he said. The Chinamen squealed in unison, and that was
+all from them. Bilby himself faintly groaned.
+
+"Put your hands up--all of you!" commanded Copley, and one of the most
+amazing things about the whole wild extravaganza was that the young
+fellow's voice was perfectly unshaken.
+
+Lads that have been in the army are apt to consider circumstances like
+these as meat and drink to them. Chessleigh had not served Uncle Sam in
+vain. He was as cool as the proverbial cucumber!
+
+"Put your hands up--all of you! There are ten shots in this magazine and
+every one of them will get its man. Quick! Up with 'em!"
+
+In all probability only one of the Chinamen understood this strictly
+American form of expression. But when the burly Chinaman elevated his
+yellow hands, his fellow countrymen did the same.
+
+As for Bilby and the boatman, they reached toward the roof of the cavern
+hastily. There was no hesitation on their part. Although Copley was
+alone, his unwavering attitude and the threat of the automatic pistol,
+played hob with such shreds of courage as the malefactors possessed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A LETTER COMES
+
+
+Nobody had come through the passage into the cave save Bilby and the
+boatman. Chess stood where he could keep half an eye, at least, upon the
+opening, and although the passage was filled with shadow he was quite
+sure there was nobody lurking there who was friendly to the law-breakers.
+
+"Just step around behind those two men and see if they are armed, Miss
+Ruth, will you?" went on Copley. "Take 'em from behind. Don't get in line
+with my pistol. For if I begin to shoot, somebody is bound to get hit.
+Keep your hands up, you fellows!" and he gestured toward the Chinamen.
+
+Even the two of their number who had been half-overcome with the fumes of
+opium had come to attention when Chess produced his pistol. The Chinamen
+huddled together at one side. The boatman and Bilby were opposite the
+doorway of the tunnel. Ruth promptly obeyed Chess and went around behind
+the last-named two of the enemy.
+
+Ruth hesitated a moment in the dusk there at the opening of the passage.
+She hated to touch either Bilby or the other man. But probably both of
+them were armed, and for the sake of safety their weapons must be taken
+from them.
+
+While she hesitated she heard a faint rustle in the passage. Then came
+the softest possible whisper:
+
+"Ss-st!"
+
+Ruth jumped and glanced over her shoulder. Was it friend or enemy who
+evidently tried to attract her attention by this sibilant sound?
+
+A figure moved in the gloom. Before she could cry any warning to Copley
+an arm was put firmly about her and Ruth was almost lifted to one side.
+She saw the gleam of a weapon in the other hand of her neighbor, and the
+point of this weapon was dug suddenly into the broad back of the gruff
+boatman who was Bilby's companion.
+
+"Don't get nervous, 'Lasses," came in Tom Cameron's voice. "We're all
+friends here. Ah! A nice automatic pistol from our friend, Mr. Bilby.
+Just so. Here, Nell!"
+
+But it was Ruth's hand that took the captured weapon, although Helen
+stood at her side squeezing her other hand and whispering:
+
+"My goodness, Ruthie, what a perfectly glorious experience! Are those the
+real smugglers?"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," replied her friend. Then she accepted the revolver
+extracted from the hip pocket of the boatman by Tom Cameron. "Where is
+the King of the Pipes?"
+
+"Taking the air. We heard the talk below here through the hollow tree. Do
+you know," whispered Helen, "that old beech is a regular chimney. And we
+saw the boat come here. Then we grabbed the King of the Pipes outside."
+
+"Tom did not hurt him, I hope?" murmured Ruth.
+
+"Not a bit of it. In fact, the queer old fellow said he was willing to
+abdicate in Tom's favor, and now, I suppose, Tommy-boy is King of the
+Pipes," and Helen, the irrepressible, grinned.
+
+The two ex-army men, however, took the matter quite seriously. Tom
+disarmed the Chinamen as well as the white men. And to search and disarm
+a squirming Oriental, they found not easy work.
+
+"But I disarmed enough Fritzies in Europe to learn my job pretty well.
+How's the weather, Sergeant?"
+
+"All right here, Captain Cameron," said Copley seriously.
+
+"Then I'll back out with this bunch of junk. Here's a pair of brass
+knuckles in the bunch. I'll use 'em on any of these fellows who try to
+run. We'll keep 'em hived up here till the police come. One fellow can
+hold 'em. Unless they try to climb up that hollow beech tree."
+
+"No fear," said Copley. "Get the girls out first."
+
+Tom had already loaded both Ruth and Helen down with the loot from the
+malefactors' pockets. He motioned to the girls to leave the cavern.
+
+"Hold on! Hold on!" Bilby cried. "I beg of you, don't leave me with these
+men. I only happen to be here by chance--"
+
+"A bad chance for you, then," said Chess Copley. "Don't listen to him,
+Captain Cameron."
+
+"No, don't listen to him," said Ruth severely. "I know he is worse than
+the others. Why, Tom! he is the man who has made us all that trouble
+about Wonota and my picture."
+
+"Sure," agreed Tom. "I know the snake. Go ahead, girls. Chess and I will
+follow you. And one of us will be right in this passage all the time," he
+added, addressing the two white men. "Don't make any mistake. We'll shoot
+if you try to come out until you are told to."
+
+The girls were already feeling their way through the darkness of the
+tunnel. At the turn Ruth kicked something, and, stooping, secured Chess'
+electric torch. She pressed the switch and the illumination allowed the
+two young men to overtake them with more certainty, Chess backing out
+with his pistol trained on the opening into the cavern.
+
+When once the four friends were around the turn and out of hearing of the
+prisoners, Tom Cameron began to chuckle.
+
+"This is no laughing matter!" exclaimed his sister. "I am so excited I
+don't know what to do."
+
+"Keep right on," said Ruth. "I want to get home just as soon as I can. I
+don't believe I shall care hereafter to leave the island until we are
+through with the picture and can go back to the Red Mill. What are you
+laughing about, Tom Cameron?"
+
+"I don't know how 'Lasses is fixed," said the amused Tom. "But my pistol
+isn't loaded. It is my old service automatic and needs repairing,
+anyway."
+
+"Don't fret, Cameron. Mine is loaded all right," said Chess grimly.
+
+"Then you stay and guard the cave," said Tom.
+
+"You bet you! You couldn't get me away from here until you have sent for
+the sheriff and he comes for the gang. I believe we have done a good
+night's work."
+
+"Oh, you were wonderful!" Helen burst out. "And Ruth says they knocked
+you down and hurt you."
+
+"I shall get over that all right," returned Chess quietly.
+
+But when they were out of the passage and on the open shore Helen
+insisted upon fussing around Chessleigh, bathing the lump on his head,
+and otherwise "mothering" him in a way that secretly delighted Ruth. Tom
+looked at his sister in some amazement.
+
+"What do you know about that?" he whispered to Ruth. "She was as sore at
+him as she could be an hour ago."
+
+"You don't know your own sister very well, Tom," retorted Ruth.
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Tom Cameron. "Perhaps we fellows don't understand any
+girl very well."
+
+But Ruth was not to be led into any discussion of that topic then. It was
+agreed that she and Helen and Tom should hurry back to the motion picture
+camp at once.
+
+"The King of the Pipes won't bite you," Tom said to Chess. "Only don't
+let him go back into the cave. Those fellows might do him some harm. And
+the sheriff will want him for a witness against the gang. He is not so
+crazy as he makes out to be."
+
+The night's adventures were by no means completed, for Ruth and Helen
+could not go to bed after they reached the bungalow until they knew how
+it all turned out. Mr. Hammond had returned before them, and Willie and
+Tom started at once for Chippewa Bay in the _Gem_.
+
+The capture of Bilby in connection with the smugglers and Chinese runners
+delighted the motion picture producer.
+
+"That will settle the controversy, I believe," Mr. Hammond said to the
+two girls. "Bilby's attempt to annoy us must fall through now. We will
+get Totantora and Wonota back from Canada and finish the picture
+properly. But, believe me! I have had all the experience I want with
+freak stars. The expense and trouble I have been put to regarding Wonota
+has taught me a lesson. I'd sell my contract with Wonota to-morrow--or
+after the picture is done--for a song."
+
+Ruth looked at him steadily for a moment.
+
+"Do you mean that, Mr. Hammond?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+Helen laughed. "I guess Ruth is thinking of singing that song. Ruth
+believes in Wonota."
+
+"If I could carry the tune," her chum said, more lightly. "We'll talk of
+that later, Mr. Hammond."
+
+"Oh, I would give you first chance, Miss Ruth," said the producer. "By
+the way," and he turned to his desk. "I brought mail from the town. Here
+are several letters for you, Miss Ruth, and one for Miss Cameron."
+
+The girls began to open their letters as soon as they reached their room.
+But it was Helen's single epistle that created the most excitement.
+
+"It's from Carrie Perrin," she said to Ruth. Then, in a moment, she
+uttered a cry that drew Ruth's full attention. "Listen to this! What do
+you know about this, Ruth?"
+
+"What is it, my dear?" asked her chum, in her usual composed manner.
+
+"Just think of that!" cried Helen, in tears. "And I have treated him so
+hatefully. He'll never forgive me in this world, I suppose. It is about
+Chess," she sobbed, and handed her chum the letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE HEART'S DESIRE
+
+
+"And what do you think of this, Nell? I've wormed out of Bill Kenmore the
+truth about that mean joke the boys played on us last spring when we were
+all at Jennie Stone's. Excuse! I suppose I should say Madame Marchand's.
+To think of Heavy Stone being an old married woman now!
+
+"Well, Bill Kenmore always did have a crazy streak--and he wasn't
+shell-shocked in France, either. You remember the time you went away down
+town in answer to a telegram, thinking it was somebody who needed you
+very much, and you walked into that place and found the boys all dressed
+up and ready to give you the 'ha, ha!'?
+
+"I know it got you awfully mad--and I don't blame you. Chess was there, I
+know. But he didn't even know what the row was all about. Bill engineered
+the whole thing, and he thinks still that it was an awfully good joke.
+His ideas of humor must have originated in the Stone Age.
+
+"I made him tell me all about it, he thinking I would be amused. Then I
+turned him right out of our parlor and told him not to call again. I hear
+that he thinks I am a regular cat!
+
+"But who wouldn't be cattish with a fellow who has no more sense? Anyhow,
+we know the truth now. Perhaps Chess Copley is not very sharp, but I
+couldn't think of his doing anything really mean. So now you know. If
+Chess is up there at the Thousand Islands you can tell him from me, at
+least, that 'all is forgiven.' Sounds like a newspaper personal, doesn't
+it?"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ruth stopped reading there, and looked brightly at her chum.
+
+"What do you think of that?" asked the latter, wiping her eyes.
+
+"Well, my dear, I shouldn't cry about it," said Ruth. "I think it is an
+occasion to be joyful."
+
+"But, Chess--"
+
+"Is of a forgiving nature, I think," Ruth said. "At any rate, I would not
+let the matter stand between me and a nice boy friend any longer. I could
+never suspect Chess of doing an unkind thing."
+
+"But I have wronged him!" cried Helen, who was, after all, tender-hearted.
+
+"Do you know," said her friend, "I believe you can make it up to him very
+nicely, if you want to, Helen?"
+
+The _Gem_ returned to the island just at daybreak. The girls ran down to
+the dock to meet the returned young men and Willie. Chess Copley had come
+to get his own motor-boat, and the report they made of the end of the
+smuggling affair was very satisfactory.
+
+The sheriff and his posse in a big motor-boat had gone to the Kingdom of
+Pipes and relieved Chess of his duty as guardian of the cave. The
+Chinamen, who were hiding there until they could be shipped into the
+States dressed in feminine garments, were all handcuffed, together with
+the owner of the launch and Horatio Bilby, and loaded into the sheriff's
+launch.
+
+"And you should have heard Bilby squeal," said Tom. "There is one bad egg
+who is likely to pay a considerable penalty for his crimes. He'll not get
+out of the mess very easy."
+
+"What of the King of the Pipes?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Poor old Charley-Horse Pond," Willie, the boatman, said, "will be
+detained as a witness. Already he has got a new name for himself. He
+isn't 'King of the Pipes' any longer."
+
+"What do you mean?" Ruth inquired, for she was interested in the queer
+old man and his fate.
+
+"He told me that he was Major André," chuckled Willie. "He is a Number
+One spy. The sheriff knows him well and knows there isn't a mite of harm
+in him."
+
+Later it came out that the old man had been living on the island for some
+time, having found the cave there. The smugglers of opium and the Chinese
+found him there and made use of him. But when the court proceedings came
+on, Pond was merely used by the prosecution as a witness. His
+harmlessness was too apparent for the court to doubt him.
+
+That particular day had to be a day of rest for Ruth and her friends, for
+they had had no sleep the night before. But while they slept Mr.
+Hammond's representative went in search of Totantora and Wonota and the
+two Osage Indians were brought back to the moving picture camp before
+night.
+
+The work of making the last scenes of "The Long Lane's Turning" was taken
+up at once, and until the last scene was taken Ruth and her associates
+were very busy indeed. The Cameron twins spent most of the ensuing time
+with the Copleys and the other summer visitors. And it was noticeable
+that Helen was attended by Chess Copley almost everywhere she went.
+
+Tom saw this with some wonder; but he found very little opportunity to
+talk to Ruth about it. And when he tried to question Helen regarding her
+change toward Chess, she quite ignored the subject.
+
+"Looks to me," Tom said to himself, "as though I was shut out in the
+cold. I wish I hadn't come up here. I might as well be slaving in that
+old office. Gee, I'm an unlucky dog!"
+
+For Tom, no more than Helen, could not see that Ruth's attitude toward
+the matter of strenuous occupation for a wealthy young man was a fair
+one. Tom certainly had none of Uncle Jabez Potter's blood in his veins.
+
+The big scene at the end of the picture--the throne room of the French
+king--was as carefully made as the other parts of the picture had been.
+And because of Ruth's coaching Wonota did her part so well that Mr.
+Hooley was enthusiastic--and to raise enthusiasm in the bosom of a
+case-hardened director is no small matter.
+
+"The Boss is rather sore on the whole business," Hooley said to Ruth. "It
+has been an expensive picture, I admit. We have gone away over the studio
+estimate.
+
+"But that is not my fault, nor your fault, nor the Indian girl's fault.
+Mr. Hammond is not to be blamed either, I suppose, for feeling worried.
+The motion picture business is getting to that stage now where lavish
+expenditure must be curtailed. I fancy Mr. Hammond will make only
+five-reel program pictures for some time. And where will your big feature
+pictures come in, Miss Fielding?"
+
+"The program pictures are sure-fire, I suppose," the girl admitted. "But
+it doesn't take much of a story to make those. Nor does it give the stars
+as good a chance."
+
+"Well, lean years may be coming. We shall all have to draw in our horns.
+Remember me, Miss Fielding, if you decide to produce with some other
+firm. I like to work with you, and I have a more or less elastic contract
+with the Alectrion Corporation."
+
+Ruth actually did have an idea for the future. It was in embryo as yet.
+But, as will be seen in the next volume of this series, entitled, "Ruth
+Fielding Treasure Hunting; Or, A Moving Picture that Became Real," it led
+the girl of the Red Mill into new fields and drew her and her friends
+into new adventures.
+
+The last scene being completed, Ruth and Helen packed their trunks. But
+Helen was to ship hers to the Copley's island up the river, where she
+would stay for a week or so before returning to Cheslow. Ruth was going
+back to the Red Mill, and after that she was not sure of her movements.
+
+Tom would accompany her home. She was glad of this, for she knew that,
+once at home, he must of necessity take up his work again with his
+father. Tom Cameron, however, confessed that he "hated" the dry goods
+business.
+
+Chess Copley showed his appreciation of Ruth's kindness and friendship in
+a very pretty way indeed. He came to her secretly with a jeweler's box in
+his hand.
+
+"You know, Ruth, you have been just like a sister to me since you have
+been up here. I think as much of you as I do of Sara and Jean--I declare
+I do! And I know Helen--or--or anybody, won't mind if you wear this
+little trinket. When you wear it remember you've got a good friend whose
+initials are engraved on the inside."
+
+Ruth accepted the present frankly, for she liked Chess. But she did not
+know how beautiful the bracelet was until after Copley had disappeared in
+his _Lauriette_. It was more costly than Ruth thought a present from that
+source should be.
+
+So, rather doubtful, she said nothing to Tom Cameron about the bracelet,
+although she wore it. She knew that she would have refused such a present
+from Tom himself. But, then--there was a difference!
+
+She did not intend to be rushed into any agreement with Tom Cameron that
+would at all interfere with her freedom. She still had her career in
+mind.
+
+They got back to Cheslow early in July. And how glad Aunt Alvirah was to
+see her pretty. As for Uncle Jabez, his interest was in the commercial
+end of the picture Ruth had made.
+
+Was it going to make money when it was distributed? How much money had
+Ruth already drawn in advance royalties? And a multitude of other
+questions of that character came from the old miller's lips.
+
+"And when do you begin on another of them pictures, Niece Ruth?" he
+added. "You ain't going to stop now, when there is so much to be made in
+'em?"
+
+"I do not know exactly what I shall do next," she told him, shaking her
+head. "But I think I shall try to make my next picture under different
+circumstances. But as I don't really know, how can I tell you?"
+
+"Never mind, my pretty," put in Aunt Alvirah, "you are here with us now,
+and that means a lot. You certainly deserve a rest," and the old woman
+placed an affectionate hand on Ruth's shoulder.
+
+At this the girl of the Red Mill smiled.
+
+"Maybe I do," she replied, "after all those strenuous happenings on the
+St. Lawrence."
+
+THE END
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+    or Jasper Parole's Secret
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOODHALL
+    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 Days 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
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
+    or Doing Her Bit for Uncle Sam
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
+    or The Hunt for a Lost Soldier
+
+RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
+    or A Red Cross Worker's Ocean Perils
+
+RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
+    or The Hermit of Beach Plum Point
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
+    or The Indian Girl Star of the Movies
+
+RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+    or The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands
+
+RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING
+    or A Moving Picture that Became Real
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH
+    or The Lost Motion Picture Company
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS
+    or The Perils of an Artificial Avalanche
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers        New York
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE BETTY GORDON SERIES
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+Author of the Famous "Ruth Fielding" Series
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+A series of stories by Alice B. Emerson which are bound to make this
+writer more popular than ever with her host of girl readers.
+
+1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM
+    or The Mystery of a Nobody
+
+At the age of twelve Betty is left an orphan.
+
+2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON
+    or Strange Adventures in a Great City
+
+In this volume 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 to-day.
+
+4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL
+    or The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+Seeking the treasure of Indian Chasm makes an exceedingly interesting
+incident.
+
+5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP
+    or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne
+
+At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery involving
+a girl whom she had previously met in Washington.
+
+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 make a
+fascinating story.
+
+8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH
+    or Cowboy Joe's Secret
+
+Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers        New York
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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.
+
+2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL
+    or Leading a Needed Rebellion
+
+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! The girls wired for the head
+to come back--and all ended happily.
+
+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. They could tell nothing of themselves, and Billie and her chums
+set to work to solve the mystery of their identity.
+
+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
+have 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.
+Billie befriended Hulda and the mystery surrounding the girl was finally
+cleared up.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers        New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence, by 
+Alice B. Emerson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE ***
+
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+"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+<title>
+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence, by Alice B. Emerson.
+</title>
+
+<style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
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+    .figleft          {padding: .5em .5em 0 0; float: left;}
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+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence
+       The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: June 15, 2008 [EBook #25802]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' title='' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='text-align:center;'>
+THE CAMERAS WHIRRED WHILE THE BARGE PUSHED CLOSE INTO<br />
+SHORE.<br />
+&#8220;Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page 80
+<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:2.2em; margin-top:1em;'>Ruth Fielding</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.6em;'>on the</p>
+<p style=' font-size:2.2em; margin-bottom:1em;'>St. Lawrence</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:1em;'>OR</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>THE QUEER OLD MAN OF</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-bottom:1em;'>THE THOUSAND ISLANDS</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-bottom:1em;'>BY</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1.6em; margin-bottom:1em;'>ALICE B. EMERSON</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1em; font-variant:small-caps;'>Author of &#8220;Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,&#8221; &#8220;Ruth</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1em; font-variant:small-caps;'>Fielding in the Great Northwest,&#8221; &#8220;Betty</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1em; font-variant:small-caps;'>Gordon series,&#8221; etc.</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:2em;'><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-emb.jpg' alt='' title='' /><br />
+<p class='caption' style='text-align:center;'>
+
+<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1em; margin-top:2em;'>NEW YORK</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:2em;'>PUBLISHERS</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class="centerbox bbox">
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 237px;">
+<img src="images/books.jpg" width="237" height="35" alt="Books for Girls" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.4em;margin-top:-1em;'>By ALICE B. EMERSON</p>
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em;'>RUTH FIELDING SERIES</p>
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:0.8em;'>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.</p>
+
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST</p>
+<p class='book'>RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em;'>BETTY GORDON SERIES</p>
+
+<p class='book'>BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM</p>
+<p class='book'>BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON</p>
+<p class='book'>BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL</p>
+<p class='book'>BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL</p>
+<p class='book'>BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP</p>
+
+<p style='text-align:center; font-variant:small-caps;'>Cupples &amp; Leon Co., Publishers, New York</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' margin-top:1em;'>Copyright, 1922, by </p>
+<p>Cupples &amp; Leon Company</p>
+<p>Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='minor' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>Printed in U. S. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em; margin-bottom:1em;'>Contents</p>
+</div>
+
+<table border='0' width='400' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'>
+<tr>
+  <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>CHAPTER</span></td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>I&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>&#8220;<span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Here Comes The Bride&#8221;</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#I__HERE_COMES_THE_BRIDE'>1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>II&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Rift In His Lute</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#II_A_RIFT_IN_HIS_LUTE'>10</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>III&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Rice And Old Shoes</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#III_RICE_AND_OLD_SHOES'>18</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>IV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Bilby</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IV_BILBY'>27</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>V&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Trouble In Prospect</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#V_TROUBLE_IN_PROSPECT'>37</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>VI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>An Abduction</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VI_AN_ABDUCTION'>45</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>VII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Expediency</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VII_EXPEDIENCY'>54</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>VIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>At Chippewa Bay</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VIII_AT_CHIPPEWA_BAY'>63</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>IX&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Film Mystery</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IX_A_FILM_MYSTERY'>73</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>X&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Smell Of Smoke</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#X_A_SMELL_OF_SMOKE'>83</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Bilby Again</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XI_BILBY_AGAIN'>93</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Dance At Alexandria Bay</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XII_THE_DANCE_AT_ALEXANDRIA_BAY'>100</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Kingdom Of Pipes</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIII_THE_KINGDOM_OF_PIPES'>109</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XIV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Demand Is Made</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIV_A_DEMAND_IS_MADE'>116</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Yellow Lady</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XV_THE_YELLOW_LADY'>124</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XVI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Marooned</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVI_MAROONED'>131</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XVII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Determination</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVII_A_DETERMINATION'>140</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XVIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Bilby&#8217;s Trump Card</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVIII_BILBY_S_TRUMP_CARD'>148</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XIX&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Suspense</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIX_SUSPENSE'>156</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XX&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Failure In Calculation</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XX_A_FAILURE_IN_CALCULATION'>164</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>In The Chinese Den</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXI_IN_THE_CHINESE_DEN'>171</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Twins&#8217; Alarm</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXII_THE_TWINS__ALARM'>178</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Trouble Enough</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIII_TROUBLE_ENOUGH'>186</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXIV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>A Letter Comes</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIV_A_LETTER_COMES'>193</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>The Heart&#8217;s Desire</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXV_THE_HEART_S_DESIRE'>201</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a id='page_1' name='page_1'></a>1</span></div>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.6em; margin-top:2em;'>RUTH FIELDING ON THE</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.6em;'>ST. LAWRENCE</p>
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 0em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='I__HERE_COMES_THE_BRIDE' id='I__HERE_COMES_THE_BRIDE'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3>&#8220;HERE COMES THE BRIDE&#8221;</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The sudden joyous pealing of the organ could
+be heard upon the sidewalk before the stately
+church. As there was a broad canopy from the
+door to the curb, with a carpet laid down and
+motor-cars standing in line, it took no seer to
+proclaim that a wedding was in progress within.
+</p>
+<p>Idlers halted to wait for the appearance of
+the wedding party, which was about to come
+forth. Some of the younger spectators ran up
+the steps and peered in at the door, for there
+was only a lame, old, purblind sexton on guard,
+and he, too, seemed vastly interested in what was
+going on inside.
+</p>
+<p>One glance down the main aisle of the great
+edifice revealed a much more elaborate scheme
+of decoration than usually appears at a church
+wedding. Its main effect was the intertwining
+of French and American flags, and as the bridal
+party turned from the altar the horizon blue uniform
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span>
+of the soldier-bridegroom was a patch of
+vivid color that could not be mistaken.
+</p>
+<p>The bride in her white gown and veil and
+wreath made, it may be, even a more prominent
+picture than did her husband. But that was
+only to be expected perhaps, for a girl on her
+wedding day, and in the church, is usually the
+focus of all eyes.
+</p>
+<p>It must be confessed (even her dearest friends
+must confess it) there was another reason why
+she who, only a moment before had been Jennie
+Stone, quite filled the public eye.
+</p>
+<p>In the first place, Jennie was a well-built girl,
+and upon her well-built frame there had always
+been since her childhood days a superabundance
+of flesh. And getting married had not changed
+sweet, jolly, funny Jennie Stone in the least! Instead
+of coming back down the aisle of the church
+with modestly downcast eyes (which is usually a
+hypocritical display of emotion), Jennie smiled
+at her friends and beamed proudly upon the figure
+in horizon blue at her side.
+</p>
+<p>And she might well be proud of Major Henri
+Marchand, for he was in the very best sense a
+soldier and a gentleman, and there gleamed a bit
+of color on his breast that had been pinned there
+by Marshal Foch&#8217;s own hand. As he was still
+in active service and had only been given leave
+to come to America for his bride, this might be
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span>
+considered the last military wedding that the old
+church was likely to see&mdash;perhaps for many years.
+</p>
+<p>The groom&#8217;s French uniform, and even the
+olive gray of the best man and two or three other
+men in the party at the altar, had lent their touch
+of color to the picture. But it was the bride&#8217;s attendants,
+however, that made the party so well
+worth looking at&mdash;especially to the greater number
+of young women and girls in the pews.
+</p>
+<p>Jennie Stone was a popular girl, and had
+friends galore. Many of those girl friends had
+come from a distance to see their beloved &#8220;Heavy
+Stone&#8221; (as she had been nicknamed in the old
+Briarwood Hall days) married to the man she
+had met in France while she was engaged in
+those useful and helpful occupations into which
+so many American girls entered during the war.
+</p>
+<p>Besides, Jennie was the first of the old Briarwood
+Hall set to be married, and this was bound
+to be a gala occasion. This was no &#8220;weepy&#8221;
+wedding, but a time of joy. And the bridal party
+coming down the aisle made as brilliant a picture
+as had ever been seen in the old church.
+</p>
+<p>The maid of honor in pink was as refreshing
+to look upon as a bouquet of arbutus. She had
+always been a pretty, winsome girl. Now she
+was developing into a handsome young woman,
+as all Ruth Fielding&#8217;s friends declared. In her
+present filmy costume with its flowery picture hat
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span>
+the girl of the Red Mill had never looked better.
+</p>
+<p>The young man at her side in the uniform of
+an American captain with his black curls and
+dark face, made a splendid foil for Ruth&#8217;s beauty.
+Behind him walked his twin sister&mdash;as like Tom
+Cameron as another pea in a pod&mdash;and Ann
+Hicks, both in rose-color, completing a color
+scheme worthy of the taste of whoever had originated
+it. For the sheer beauty of the picture, this
+wedding would long be remembered.
+</p>
+<p>In the very last pew, on the aisle, sat an eager
+old colored woman&mdash;one of those typical
+&#8220;mammies&#8221; now so seldom seen&mdash;in an old-fashioned
+bonnet and shawl. She was of a bulbous
+figure, and her dark face shone with perspiration
+and delight as she stared at the coming bride
+and groom.
+</p>
+<p>Jennie saw Mammy Rose (the old woman had
+been a dependent of the Stone family for years),
+and had the occasion been much more serious
+than Jennie thought it, the plump girl would
+surely have smiled at Mammy Rose.
+</p>
+<p>The old woman bobbed up, making an old-time
+genuflection. She thrust out a neat, paper-covered
+parcel which she had held carefully in her
+capacious lap all through the ceremony.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Miss Janie&mdash;ma blessed baby!&#8221; she whispered.
+&#8220;I is suttenly glad to see dis here day!
+Heaven is a-smilin&#8217; on yo&#8217;. And here is one o&#8217;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span>
+ma birfday cakes yo&#8217; liked so mighty well.
+Mammy Rose done make it for her chile&mdash;de
+las&#8217; she ever will make yo&#8217; now yo&#8217; is goin&#8217; to
+foreign paths.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Another girl than Jennie might have been confused,
+or even angered, by the interruption of the
+procession. But Jennie could be nothing if not
+kind. Her own hands were filled with her
+bouquet&mdash;it was enormous. She stopped, however,
+before the old woman.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;As thoughtful for me as ever, Mammy Rose,
+aren&#8217;t you?&#8221; she said pleasantly. &#8220;And you
+know all my little failings. Henri,&#8221; she said to
+her husband.
+</p>
+<p>But the courtly young Frenchman had quite as
+great a sense of <i>noblesse oblige</i> as his bride. He
+bowed to the black woman as though she was the
+highest lady in the land and accepted the parcel,
+tied clumsily with baby ribbon by the gnarled
+fingers of Mammy Rose.
+</p>
+<p>They moved on and the smiling, yet tearful, old
+woman, sank back into her seat. If there was
+anything needed to make this a perfect occasion,
+it was this little incident. The bride and groom
+came out into the smiling sunshine with sunshine
+in their hearts as well as on their faces.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I knew,&#8221; whispered Helen Cameron to Ann
+Hicks, who stalked beside her in rather a mannish
+way, &#8220;that Heavy Stone could not even be
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span>
+married without something ridiculous happening.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Ridiculous&#8217;?&#8221; repeated the Western girl,
+with something like a catch in her throat.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, it <i>might</i> have been ridiculous,&#8221; admitted
+Helen. &#8220;Only, after all, Jennie is real&mdash;and
+so is Major Marchand. You couldn&#8217;t feaze
+him, not even if a bomb had been dropped in the
+church vestibule.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They were crowding into the motor-cars then,
+and merrily the wedding party sped back to the
+big house on Madison Avenue, which had been
+garnished for the occasion with the same taste
+that marked the color-scheme of the bride&#8217;s attendants.
+The canopied steps and walk, the footmen
+in line to receive the party, and the banked
+flowers in the reception hall were all impressive.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;My!&#8221; whispered the irrepressible Jennie to
+Henri, &#8220;I feel like a prima donna.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are,&#8221; was his prompt and earnest agreement.
+</p>
+<p>They trooped in at once to the breakfast table.
+The spacious room was wreathed with smilax and
+other vines&mdash;even to the great chandelier. The
+latter was so hidden by the decorations that it
+seemed overladen, and Tom Cameron, who had a
+quick eye, mentioned it to Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wonder if those fellows braced that thing
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span>
+with wires? Florists sometimes have more sense
+of art than common sense.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush, Tom! <i>Nothing</i> can happen to spoil
+this occasion. Isn&#8217;t it wonderful?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But Tom Cameron looked at her rather
+gloomily. He shook his head slightly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I feel like one of those pictures of the starving
+children in Armenia. I&#8217;m standing on the
+outside, looking in.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It is true that Ruth Fielding flushed, but she
+refused to make reply. A moment later, when
+Tom realized how the seating of the party had
+been arranged, his countenance showed even
+deeper gloom.
+</p>
+<p>As best man Tom was directed to Jennie&#8217;s
+right hand. On the other side of Henri, Ruth
+was seated, and that placed her across the wide
+table from Tom Cameron.
+</p>
+<p>The smiling maid of honor was well worth
+looking at, and Tom Cameron should have been
+content to focus his eyes upon her whenever he
+raised them from his plate; but for a particular
+reason he was not at all pleased.
+</p>
+<p>This particular reason was the seating of another
+figure in military uniform next to Ruth on
+her other side. This was a tall, pink-cheeked,
+well set-up youth looking as though, like Tom,
+he had seen military service, and with an abundance
+of light hair above his broad brow. At
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span>
+school Chessleigh Copley had been nicknamed
+&#8220;Lasses&#8221; because of that crop of hair.
+</p>
+<p>He entered into conversation with Ruth at
+once, and he found her so interesting (or she
+found him so interesting) that Ruth had little
+attention to give to her <i>vis-à-vis</i> across the table.
+</p>
+<p>The latter&#8217;s countenance grew heavier and
+heavier, his dark brows drawing together and his
+black eyes smouldering.
+</p>
+<p>If anybody noticed this change in Tom&#8217;s countenance
+it was his twin sister, sitting on Ruth&#8217;s
+side of the table. And perhaps she understood
+her brother&#8217;s mood. Now and then her own eyes
+flashed something besides curiosity along the
+table on her side at Ruth and Chess Copley, so
+evidently lost in each other&#8217;s companionship.
+</p>
+<p>But it was a gay party. How could it be otherwise
+with Jennie at the table? And everybody
+was bound to second the gaiety of the bride. The
+groom&#8217;s pride in Jennie was so open, yet so very
+courteously expressed, that half the girls there
+envied Jennie her possession of Henri Marchand.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;To think,&#8221; drawled Ann Hicks, who had come
+East from Silver Ranch, &#8220;that Heavy Stone
+should grab off such a prize in the matrimonial
+grab-bag. My!&#8221; and she finished with a sigh.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;When does your turn come, Ann?&#8221; asked
+somebody.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Believe me,&#8221; said the ranch girl, with emphasis,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span>
+&#8220;I have got to see somebody besides cowpunchers
+and horse-wranglers before I make such
+a fatal move.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You have lost all your imagination,&#8221; laughed
+Helen, from across the table.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know. Maybe I used it all up, back
+in those old kid days when I ran away to be &#8216;Nita&#8217;
+and played at being &#8216;the abused chee-ild&#8217;. Remember?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, <i>don&#8217;t</i> we!&#8221; cried Helen and some of the
+other girls.
+</p>
+<p>Something dropped on Tom Cameron&#8217;s plate.
+He glanced up, then down again at the object
+that had fallen. It was a piece of plaster from
+the ceiling.
+</p>
+<p>Chess Copley likewise shot a glance ceilingward.
+</p>
+<p>There was a wide gap&mdash;and growing wider&mdash;on
+his side of the chandelier. A great piece of
+the heavy plaster was breaking away from the
+ceiling, and it hung threateningly over his own
+and Ruth Fielding&#8217;s head.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Look out, Ruth!&#8221; shouted Tom Cameron,
+jumping to his feet.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='II_A_RIFT_IN_HIS_LUTE' id='II_A_RIFT_IN_HIS_LUTE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3>A RIFT IN HIS LUTE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tom Cameron, no matter how desirous he
+might be of saving Ruth from hurt, could not
+possibly have got around the table in time. With
+a snarling, ripping noise the heavy patch of
+plaster tore away from the ceiling and fell directly
+upon the spot where the chairs of Ruth
+and Chess Copley had been placed!
+</p>
+<p>The screams of the startled girls almost
+drowned the noise of the plaster&#8217;s fall, but Ruth
+Fielding did not join in the outcry.
+</p>
+<p>With one movement, it seemed, Copley had
+risen and kicked his own chair away, seized Ruth
+about her waist as he did so, and so dragged her
+out from under the avalanche.
+</p>
+<p>It was all over in a moment, and the two stood,
+clinging to each other involuntarily, while the
+dust of the fallen plaster spread around them.
+</p>
+<p>For a moment Ruth Fielding had been in as
+perilous a situation as she had ever experienced,
+and her life had been rather full of peril and adventure
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span>
+since, as a girl of twelve, and in the first
+volume of this series, we met her as &#8220;Ruth
+Fielding of the Red Mill.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>At the time just mentioned, the orphaned Ruth
+had appeared at her great-uncle&#8217;s mill on the
+Lumano River, near Cheslow, in one of the New
+England States, and had been taken in by the
+miserly old miller rather under protest. But Aunt
+Alvirah Boggs, who was Uncle Jabez Potter&#8217;s
+housekeeper, had loved the child from the very
+beginning. And in truth the old miller loved
+Ruth too, only he was slow to admit it.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth&#8217;s first young friends at the Red Mill were
+the Cameron twins, and with Helen she had spent
+her schools days and many of her vacations, at
+Briarwood Hall, in the North Woods, at the seashore,
+in the West, in the South, Down East, and
+in other localities, the narrated adventures of
+which are to be found in the several volumes of the
+Ruth Fielding Series.
+</p>
+<p>In the book just preceding this present story,
+&#8220;Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest,&#8221; Helen
+was likewise with Ruth when she made her famous
+moving picture, &#8220;Brighteyes&#8221; in connection
+with the Alectrion Film Corporation, the president
+of which, Mr. Hammond, had first encouraged
+Ruth to turn her entire time and talent
+to the writing of moving picture scenarios.
+</p>
+<p>The fall before the time of this wedding party
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span>
+in which the girl of the Red Mill was taking part,
+fortune threw in Ruth&#8217;s way a charming young
+woman, a full-blood Osage Indian, in whom Mr.
+Hammond saw possibilities of development for
+screen acting. At least, to use the trite and bombastic
+moving picture phrase, Wonota, the Indian
+princess, &#8220;photographed like a million dollars.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The Great War&#8217;s abrupt conclusion brought
+Tom Cameron home just as eager as he had been
+for two years past to have Ruth agree to his plans
+for the future. As Ruth saw it (no matter what
+may have been her secret feeling for Tom) to do
+as Tom wished would utterly spoil the career
+on which she had now entered so successfully.
+</p>
+<p>Tom, like most young men in love, considered
+that a girl&#8217;s only career should be a husband and
+a home. He frankly said that he was prepared,
+young as he was, to supply both for Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>But their youth, in the first place, was an objection
+in the very sensible mind of Ruth. It was
+true, too, that a second objection was the fact
+that she wanted to live her own life and establish
+herself in the great career she had got into almost
+by chance.
+</p>
+<p>And then too Tom himself, since his return
+from France, had shown little determination to
+settle himself at work. Being the son of a
+wealthy merchant and possessing, now that he was
+of age, a fortune in his own right inherited from
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span>
+his mother&#8217;s estate, Tom Cameron, it seemed to
+Ruth, was just playing with life.
+</p>
+<p>Like many another young fellow so recently
+from the battlefield, it seemed as if he could not
+settle to anything. And his sister encouraged him
+in this attitude. Ruth secretly blamed Helen for
+this. And therefore her own attitude to Tom had
+grown more stern.
+</p>
+<p>It was now June&mdash;the June following the
+armistice&mdash;the loveliest and most accepted time
+for a bridal. The ceremony of Jennie Stone&#8217;s
+wedding to Major Henri Marchand had passed
+off, as we have seen, very smoothly. Even Tom,
+as best man, had found the ring at the right moment,
+and nobody had stepped on Jennie&#8217;s train.
+</p>
+<p>But this accident at the breakfast table&mdash;and
+an accident that might have resulted fatally for
+Ruth Fielding&mdash;threatened to cause not only excitement
+but to sober the whole party.
+</p>
+<p>In a moment, however, in spite of the dust rising
+from the broken plaster, the others saw that
+Ruth and Chess Copley were both safe. The
+latter was repeating, over and over and in much
+anxiety:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are all right, Ruth! I&#8217;ve got you. You
+are all right.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl herself was quite breathless. Copley
+held her in rather a close embrace, and for a
+much longer time than appeared necessary&mdash;to
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span>
+Tom Cameron at least. Tom had got around
+the table just too late to be of any assistance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We see you&#8217;ve got her, &#8217;Lasses,&#8221; Tom observed,
+rather tartly. &#8220;The close-up is shot.
+Break away.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>His words started the laughter&mdash;and there
+was much relief expressed in the laughter in
+which all about the table joined. People are apt
+to laugh when serious danger is over. But it
+might have been observed by his friends at
+another time that Tom Cameron was not usually
+tart or unkind of speech.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth said nothing, and Chess Copley flushed
+hotly. Jennie had got up with Henri in the moment
+of excitement, and now she quickly seized
+her goblet of grape-juice in which the party had
+previously toasted the bride and groom, and
+raised the glass on high.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hear! Hear!&#8221; cried Ann Hicks. &#8220;The
+bride speaks.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is a good omen,&#8221; declared Jennie clinging
+to Henri&#8217;s arm. &#8220;Our Ruth was wounded in
+France and has been in danger on many occasions,
+as we all know. Never has she more
+gracefully escaped disaster, nor been aided by a
+more chivalrous cavalier. Drink! Drink to Ruth
+Fielding and to Chessleigh Copley! They are
+two very lucky people, for that ceiling might have
+cracked their crowns.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span></p>
+<p>They drank the toast&mdash;most of them with much
+laughter.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Some orator, Jennie,&#8221; commented Helen.
+&#8220;We are just beginning to appreciate you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You will all be sorry that you did not treat
+me better&mdash;especially as a chee-ild,&#8221; returned
+the plump bride, with mock solemnity. &#8220;Think!
+Think how you all used to abuse my&mdash;my appetite
+at Briarwood Hall. It is only Mammy
+Rose who is kind to me,&#8221; and she pointed to the
+old colored woman&#8217;s gift that had a place of
+honor before her own plate and that of Major
+Marchand&#8217;s.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me give a toast,&#8221; cried Helen gaily. &#8220;Let
+us drink to Jennie&#8217;s appetite&mdash;long may it wave.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness me! Don&#8217;t speak of waves and appetite
+in the same breath, I beg. Remember we
+are going directly aboard ship from the house and&mdash;and
+I never was a good sailor. Waves!
+Ugh!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The fun went on while the serving people swept
+up the debris and removed those dishes that had
+been covered with dust.
+</p>
+<p>Aside, Ruth, taking for the moment little part
+in the chatter and merriment, for she had received
+a considerable shock, stood talking with Copley.
+Ruth had given him her hand again and Chess
+clung to it rather more warmly&mdash;so the watchful
+Tom thought&mdash;than was needful. But the girl felt
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span>
+that she really had a great deal to thank Copley
+for.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Jennie in her fun spoke quite truly,&#8221; Ruth
+said in a low voice. &#8220;You are a friend in need.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And I hope you consider me a friend indeed,
+Ruth,&#8221; rejoined the young fellow.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I certainly do,&#8221; agreed the girl of the Red
+Mill with her customary frank smile.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I am afraid,&#8221; Chess added, &#8220;that I am not
+considered in that light by all your friends, Ruth.
+Helen Cameron hasn&#8217;t spoken to me to-day.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No? Is it serious?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is serious when a fellow gets turned down&mdash;snubbed&mdash;and
+not a word of explanation offered.
+And, in the words of the old song, we were &#8216;companions
+once, but strangers now&#8217;.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, don&#8217;t mind. Helen usually gets over the
+mollygrubs very quickly.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Chess turned to see the other Cameron twin
+eyeing him with no great favor.
+</p>
+<p>However, the throng of guests who were invited
+to the reception began coming in, and for
+the next two hours the parlors were crowded with
+the many friends of the plump girl, who, as Helen
+had said, found this the greatest day of her life,
+and there was little time for much individual
+chat, though, it seemed to Tom, Chess Copley
+kept as close as possible to Ruth&#8217;s side.
+</p>
+<p>It was after Jennie had gone to put on her
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span>
+traveling dress, and the immediate wedding party,
+who were to accompany the bridal couple to the
+dock to see them embark, were hurrying out of the
+room to put on street clothes that Tom, in a low
+voice, demanded of Chess:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What are you trying to do&mdash;put a label on
+Ruth? Don&#8217;t forget she belongs to all of us.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Chess Copley had not won his commission in
+the war and wore only a sergeant&#8217;s chevrons.
+But the war was over and he could tell his captain
+just what he thought of him. And he did.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you know what you are, Tom Cameron?&#8221;
+he drawled, smiling a hard little smile. &#8220;You
+are a regular dog in the manger, and I&#8217;m frank
+to tell you so!&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='III_RICE_AND_OLD_SHOES' id='III_RICE_AND_OLD_SHOES'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3>RICE AND OLD SHOES</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is the greatest day in a girl&#8217;s life,&#8221; declared
+Helen Cameron, sitting on the edge of one of the
+twin beds in the room she and Ruth occupied
+while they were at the Stone house. She buckled
+her fingers around her knee to hold one limb
+crossed over the other&mdash;a very mannish and independent
+position. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know that I ever
+envied Heavy before in my life. But she has
+got something now that we haven&#8217;t, Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Cat&#8217;s foot!&#8221; exclaimed Ann Hicks from her
+chair. &#8220;Who&#8217;d want a Frenchman for a husband?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth laughed. &#8220;Not to say that Major
+Marchand is not a fine fellow, I agree with Ann
+that I don&#8217;t want a husband. Not&mdash;right&mdash;now!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh! Very well,&#8221; said Helen complacently.
+&#8220;But if you thought you&#8217;d never be able to get
+one&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shucks!&#8221; exclaimed Ann. &#8220;As though our
+Ruth couldn&#8217;t have all she wants if she wants
+them.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I really wish you would not speak plurally of
+them, Ann,&#8221; cried Ruth, laughing. &#8220;You will
+make me feel like the Queen of the Amazons.
+They say she keeps a masculine harem&mdash;like a
+bey, or a sultan, or something of that kind.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Be serious,&#8221; rejoined Helen. &#8220;I mean what
+I say. Jennie&#8217;s great day has arrived. And she
+is the first of all our old bunch that went to Briarwood&mdash;and
+surely of those who went to Ardmore
+College&mdash;to fetter herself to a man for life.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I shall never be fettered, even if I am
+married,&#8221; observed Ann. &#8220;I&#8217;d like to see myself!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If the right man comes riding by, Ann, even
+you will change your mind,&#8221; Ruth said softly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then I suppose the right man has never
+ridden up to the Red Mill and asked for you?&#8221;
+demanded Helen, with a glance at her chum that
+was rather piercing.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps he has,&#8221; said Ruth composedly, &#8220;but
+I wasn&#8217;t at home. Aunt Alvirah thinks I am almost
+never at home. And, girls, as I told you
+yesterday, I am going soon on another journey.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Ruth, I&#8217;ve been thinking of that!&#8221; Helen
+rejoined, with a sudden access of interest and excitement.
+&#8220;To the Thousand Islands! And at
+the loveliest time of all the year up there.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And that is only the truth,&#8221; said one of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span>
+other bridesmaids. &#8220;We spent last summer
+there.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Copleys always go,&#8221; Helen remarked
+quietly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No! Do you mean it?&#8221; cried Ruth, showing
+some surprise. &#8220;Well, indeed.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you will see a lot more of &#8217;Lasses Copley,&#8221;
+remarked Ann.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shall be glad if Chess Copley is there when
+and where we make this picture, for I think he
+is very nice,&#8221; was Ruth&#8217;s composed reply.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, he&#8217;s nice enough,&#8221; agreed Helen, rather
+grumblingly however. &#8220;I&#8217;ve got nothing to say
+against Chess&mdash;as a general thing.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you don&#8217;t seem to say much for him,&#8221;
+put in the Western girl curiously.
+</p>
+<p>But Helen said nothing further on that topic.
+Ruth broke in, answering one of the other girls
+who spoke of the forthcoming picture Ruth was
+going to make for the Alectrion Corporation.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course our famous Wonota is going to be
+in the picture. For she is famous already.
+&#8216;Brighteyes&#8217; appeared for two successive weeks
+in one of the big Broadway picture houses and we
+are making a lot of money out of its distribution.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But we know Wonota is a find for another
+very unmistakable reason,&#8221; she added.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;What is that?&#8221; asked Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Other producers have begun to make Wonota
+and her father offers. For Chief Totantora has
+become interested in the movie business too. Mr.
+Hammond used Totantora in a picture he made
+in Oklahoma in the spring; one in which Wonota
+did not appear. She was off at school at the time.
+We are going to make of the princess a cultivated
+and cultured young lady before we get
+through with her,&#8221; and Ruth laughed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A Red Indian!&#8221; cried somebody.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That makes no difference,&#8221; said Ruth placidly.
+&#8220;She is amenable to white customs, and is really
+a very smart girl. And she has a lovely disposition.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Especially,&#8221; put in Helen, who remembered
+the occasion clearly, &#8220;when she wanted to shoot
+Dakota Joe Fenbrook when he treated her so unkindly
+in his Wild West show. But, I wanted
+to shoot him myself,&#8221; she added, frankly.
+&#8220;Especially after he tried to hurt Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never mind him,&#8221; said her chum at that.
+&#8220;Joe Fenbrook is in the penitentiary now, and he
+is not bothering us. But other people are bothering
+Mr. Hammond about Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;How?&#8221; asked Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, as I said, there are other picture producers
+who have seen &#8216;Brighteyes&#8217; and would like
+to get the chief and his daughter under contract.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span>
+They have told Totantora that, as the contract
+with his daughter was made while she was not of
+age, it can be broken. Of course, the Indian agent
+agreed to the contract; but after Totantora returned
+from Europe, where he had been held a
+prisoner in Germany during the war, the guardianship
+of Wonota reverted to her father once
+more.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is rather a complicated matter,&#8221; went on
+Ruth, &#8220;and it is giving Mr. Hammond and his
+lawyers some trouble. There is a man named
+Bilby, who has been a picture producer in a small
+way, who seems to have some influence with the
+head of the Government Bureau of Indian Affairs.
+He seems to have financial backing, too,
+and claims to have secured a series of stories in
+which Wonota might be featured to advantage.
+And he certainly has offered Totantora and the
+girl much more money than Mr. Hammond
+would be willing to risk in a star who may, after
+all, prove merely a flash in the pan.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you mean by that?&#8221; asked Ann. &#8220;I
+thought she was a sure-fire hit.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No amateur screen actress&mdash;and that is all
+Wonota is as yet&mdash;is ever a &#8216;sure-fire hit&#8217;, as you
+call it,&#8221; said the practical Ruth. &#8220;Many a producer
+has been badly bitten by tying up a new actor
+or actress to a long-time contract. Because a girl
+films well and is successful in one part, is not
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span>
+an assurance that she can learn to be a really great
+actress before the camera.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;In &#8216;Brighteyes&#8217; Wonota merely played herself.
+I was successful in fitting my story to her
+individuality. But she cannot always play the
+same part. In this story we are about to do on
+the St. Lawrence, she will be called upon to
+delineate a character quite different from that of
+the heroine of &#8216;Brighteyes.&#8217;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dear me, Ruth,&#8221; sighed Helen, &#8220;what a business
+woman you are getting to be. Your career
+has really begun&mdash;and so promisingly. While I
+can&#8217;t do a thing but play the fiddle a little, daub
+a little at batik, and crochet!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And make most delightful fudge!&#8221; cried Jennie
+Stone, just then coming into the room in her
+traveling dress, fresh from the hands of her maid
+and Aunt Kate. &#8220;How do I look, girls?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The bride&#8217;s appearance drove everything else
+out of her friends&#8217; minds for the time being. It
+was two o&#8217;clock and the automobiles were at the
+door. The bridal couple, attended by bridesmaids,
+the best man, the ushers, and other close
+friends, departed for the dock amid showers of
+rice and a bombardment of old shoes which littered
+Madison Avenue for half a block and kept
+even the policemen on special duty for the occasion,
+dodging!
+</p>
+<p>They all trooped aboard the steamship where
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span>
+arrangements had been made to have the passports
+of the bride and groom examined.
+</p>
+<p>Mr. Stone had done everything well, as he
+always did. The bridal suite was banked with
+flowers. Even the orchestra belonging to the
+ship had been engaged specially to play. A
+second, though brief, reception was held here.
+</p>
+<p>The ship&#8217;s siren sent a stuttering blast into
+the air that seemed to shake the skyscrapers opposite
+the dock. The young folks trooped back
+to the pier. Tom did his best to escort Ruth;
+but to his amazement and anger Chess Copley
+pushed in front of him and Ruth took the sergeant&#8217;s
+arm.
+</p>
+<p>Helen came along and grabbed her brother
+with a fierce little pinch. Her eyes sparkled
+while his smouldered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess we are relegated to the second row,
+Tommy-boy,&#8221; she whispered. &#8220;I do not see what
+has got into Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not Ruth. The gall of that &#8217;Lasses!&#8221;
+muttered the slangy Tom.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you think he is at fault?&#8221; rejoined his
+sister. &#8220;Oh, Tommy-boy! you do not know &#8216;us
+girls&#8217;&mdash;no indeed you do not.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was a gay enough party on the dock that
+watched the big ship back out and being turned
+in the stream by the fussy tugs. The bride and
+groom shouted until they were hoarse, and waved
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span>
+their hands and handkerchiefs as long as they
+could be seen from the dock.
+</p>
+<p>If Helen and Tom Cameron were either, or
+both, offended by Ruth, they did not show it to
+the general company. As for the girl of the
+Red Mill, she enjoyed herself immensely; and
+she particularly liked Chess Copley&#8217;s company.
+</p>
+<p>It was not that she felt any less kindly toward
+Tom; but Tom had disappointed her. He
+seemed to have changed greatly during this past
+winter while she had been so busy with her
+moving pictures.
+</p>
+<p>Instead of settling down with his father in the
+offices of the great drygoods house from which
+Mr. Cameron&#8217;s fortune had come, Tom, abetted
+by Helen, had become almost a social butterfly
+in New York.
+</p>
+<p>But Chess Copley, although no sober-sides,
+had thrown himself heart and soul into the real
+estate business and had already made a tidy sum
+during the six months that had ensued since his
+discharge from the army.
+</p>
+<p>It was true, Chess was looking forward to
+taking a vacation at the Thousand Islands with
+his family. He told Ruth so with enthusiasm,
+and hoped to see her again at that resort. But
+Chess, Ruth felt, had earned his vacation, while
+Tom remained a mere idler.
+</p>
+<p>Chess accompanied the Cheslow young people
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span>
+to the Grand Central Terminal when they left
+the dock and there bade Ruth good-bye.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shall see you in a fortnight at the Thousand
+Islands,&#8221; he assured her, and shook hands again.
+&#8220;I shall look forward to it, believe me!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Tom hung about, gloomy enough, even after
+they boarded the train. But the girls were gay
+and chattering when they entered their compartment.
+Ann Hicks was going home with Helen
+for a brief visit, although she would be unable
+to go elsewhere with them during the early part
+of the summer, owing to previous engagements.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am determined to go to the St. Lawrence
+with you, Ruth,&#8221; declared Helen. &#8220;And I know
+Tommy-boy is aching to go.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I thought,&#8221; said Ruth rather gravely, &#8220;that
+he might really take to business this summer.
+Doesn&#8217;t your father need him?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Plenty of time for work, Tommy thinks,&#8221; rejoined
+Tom&#8217;s sister gaily.
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth did not smile.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='IV_BILBY' id='IV_BILBY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3>BILBY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The old, shingled Red Mill, which Jabez
+Potter had revamped each spring with mineral
+paint, was as brilliant a landmark on the bank of
+the Lumano River as ever it had been. In fact,
+it seemed as though Ben, the hired man, had got
+the red of the shingles and the trim a little redder
+and the blinds a little greener this last spring than
+ever they had been before.
+</p>
+<p>Overshadowed by great elms, with the yard
+grass growing thick and lush right up to the bark
+of the trees, the surroundings of the mill and
+farmhouse connected with it (at least, all of those
+surroundings that could be seen from the Cheslow
+road), were attractive indeed.
+</p>
+<p>Although the old house seemed quite as it
+always had been from without, many changes had
+been made inside since first Ruth Fielding had
+stepped out of Dr. Davison&#8217;s chaise to approach
+her great-uncle&#8217;s habitation.
+</p>
+<p>At that time Ruth had been less than a mote
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span>
+in the eye of Uncle Jabez. She was merely an
+annoyance to the miller at that time. Since
+then, however, she had many and many a time
+proved a blessing to him. Nor did Jabez Potter
+refuse to acknowledge this&mdash;on occasion.
+</p>
+<p>When Ruth began to do over the interior of
+the old house, however, Uncle Jabez protested.
+The house and mill had been built a hundred and
+fifty years before&mdash;if not longer ago. It was
+sacrilege to touch a crooked rafter or a hammered
+nail of the entire structure.
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth insisted that she be allowed to make
+her own rooms under the roof more comfortable
+and modern. Ruth had seen old New England
+farmhouses rebuilt in the most attractive way one
+could imagine without disturbing their ancient exterior
+appearance. She gathered ideas from
+books and magazines, and then went about replanning
+the entire inside of the mill farmhouse.
+But she began the actual rejuvenation of the
+aspect of the structure in her own rooms, and
+had had all the work done since her return from
+the war zone the year before.
+</p>
+<p>She now had a bedroom, a sitting room, a
+dressing room and bathroom up under the roof,
+all in white (Helen said &#8220;like a hospital&#8221;), and
+when one opened Ruth&#8217;s outer door and stepped
+into her suite it seemed as though one entered
+an entirely different house. And if it was a girl
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span>
+who entered&mdash;as Wonota, the Osage princess,
+did on a certain June day soon after Jennie Stone&#8217;s
+marriage&mdash;she could not suppress a cry of delight.
+</p>
+<p>Wonota had stayed before at the Red Mill
+for a time; but then the workmen had not completed
+Ruth&#8217;s new nest. And although Wonota
+had been born in a wigwam on the plains and had
+spent her childhood in a log cabin with a turf
+roof, she could appreciate &#8220;pretty things&#8221; quite
+as keenly as any girl of Ruth&#8217;s acquaintance.
+</p>
+<p>That was why Ruth&mdash;as well as Mr. Hammond
+of the Alectrion Film Corporation&mdash;believed
+that the Indian girl would in time become
+a successful screen actress. Wonota, though her
+skin was copper-colored, liked to dress in up-to-date
+clothes (and did so) and enjoyed the refinements
+of civilization as much as any white girl
+of her age.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is so pretty here, Miss Ruth,&#8221; she said to
+her mentor. &#8220;May I sleep in the other bed off
+your sitting room? It is sweet of you. How
+foolish of people wanting to see on the screen how
+poor Indians live in their ignorance. I would
+rather learn to play the part of a very rich New
+York lady, and have servants and motor-cars and
+go to the opera and wear a diamond necklace.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth laughed at her, but good-naturedly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;All girls are the same, I suppose, under the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span>
+skin,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But we each should try to
+do the things we can do best. Learn to play the
+parts the director assigns you to the very best
+of your ability. Doing that will bring you,
+quicker than anything else, to the point where
+you can wear diamonds and ride in your own
+motor-car and go to the opera. What does your
+father, Chief Totantora, say to your new ideas,
+Wonota?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The chief, my father, says nothing when I
+talk like that to him. He is too much of an old-fashioned
+Indian, I fear. He is staying at a country
+hotel up the road; but he would not sleep
+in the room they gave him (and then he rolled up
+in his blanket on the floor) until they agreed to
+let him take out the sashes from all three windows.
+He says that white people have white faces because
+they sleep in stale air.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps he is more than half right,&#8221; rejoined
+Ruth, although she laughed too. &#8220;Some white
+folks even in this age are afraid of the outdoor
+air as a sleeping tonic, and prefer to drug themselves
+with shut-in air in their bedrooms.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But one can have pretty things and nice
+things, and still remain in health,&#8221; sighed Wonota.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth agreed with this. The girl of the Red
+Mill tried, too, in every way to encourage the
+Indian maiden to learn and profit by the better
+things to be gained by association with the whites.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span></p>
+<p>There were several days to wait before Mr.
+Hammond was ready to send Mr. Hooley, the director,
+and the company selected for the making
+of Ruth&#8217;s new picture to the Thousand Islands.
+Meanwhile Ruth herself had many preparations
+to make and she could not be all the time with
+her visitor.
+</p>
+<p>As in that past time when she had visited the
+Red Mill, Wonota was usually content to sit with
+Aunt Alvirah and make beadwork while the old
+woman knitted.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s a contented creeter, my pretty,&#8221; the old
+woman said to Ruth. &#8220;Red or white, I never see
+such a quiet puss. And she jumps and runs to
+wait on me like you do.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!&#8221; exclaimed
+Aunt Alvirah, rising cautiously with the aid of a
+cane she now depended upon. &#8220;My rheumatism
+don&#8217;t seem any better, and I have had it long
+enough, seems to me, for it to get better,&#8221; she
+added.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Poor dear!&#8221; said Ruth. &#8220;Don&#8217;t the new
+medicine do any good?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Lawsy me, child! I&#8217;ve drenched myself with
+doctor&#8217;s stuff till I&#8217;m ashamed to look a medicine
+bottle in the face. My worn out old carcass can&#8217;t
+be helped much by any drugs at all. I guess, as
+my poor old mother used to say, the only sure
+cure for rheumatics is graveyard mould.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Aunt Alvirah!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t say it complainingly,&#8221; declared the little
+old woman, smiling quite cheerfully. &#8220;But
+I tell Jabez Potter he might as well make up his
+mind to seeing my corner of his hearth empty
+one of these days. And he&#8217;ll miss me, too, cantankerous
+as he is sometimes.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But Uncle Jabez was seldom &#8220;cantankerous&#8221;
+nowadays when Ruth was at home. To the miller&#8217;s
+mind his great-niece had proved herself to
+be of the true Potter blood, although her name
+was Fielding.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth was a money-maker. He had to wink
+pretty hard over the fact that she was likewise a
+money spender! But one girl&mdash;and a young one
+at that&mdash;could scarcely be expected (and so the
+old miller admitted) to combine all the virtues
+which were worth while in human development.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Keep a-making of it, Niece Ruth,&#8221; Uncle
+Jabez advised earnestly. &#8220;You never can tell
+when you are going to want more or when your
+ability to make money is going to stop. I&#8217;d sell
+the Red Mill or give up and never grind another
+grist for nobody, if I didn&#8217;t feel that perhaps
+by next year I should have to stop, anyway&mdash;and
+another year won&#8217;t much matter.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You get so little pleasure out of life, Uncle
+Jabez,&#8221; Ruth once said in answer to this statement
+of the old man.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Shucks! Don&#8217;t you believe it. I don&#8217;t know
+no better fun than watching the corn in the hopper
+or the stuns go round and round while the meal
+flour runs out of the spout below, warm and nice-smellin&#8217;.
+The millin&#8217; business is just as pretty a
+business as there is in the world&mdash;when once you
+git used to the dust. No doubt of it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can see, Uncle Jabez, that you find it so,&#8221;
+said Ruth, but rather doubtfully.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course it is,&#8221; said the old man stoutly.
+&#8220;You get fun out of running about the country
+and looking at things and seeing how other folks
+live and work. And that&#8217;s all right for you.
+<i>You</i> make money out of it. But what would I
+get out of gadding about?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A broader outlook on life, Uncle Jabez.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want no broader outlook. I don&#8217;t
+need nothing of the kind. Nor does Alviry
+Boggs, though she&#8217;s got to talking a dreadful lot
+lately about wanting to ride around in an automobile.
+At her age, too!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You should own a car, Uncle Jabez,&#8221; urged
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, stop that! Stop that, Niece Ruth! I
+won&#8217;t hear to no such foolishness. You show
+me how I can make money riding up and down
+the Lumano in a pesky motor-car, and maybe I&#8217;ll
+do like Alviry wants me to, and buy one of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span>
+contraptions.&#8221; &#8220;Hullo, now!&#8221; added the miller
+suddenly. &#8220;Who might this be?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth turned to see one of the very motor-cars
+that Uncle Jabez so scorned (or pretended to)
+stopping before the wide door of the mill itself.
+</p>
+<p>But as it was the man driving the roadster,
+rather than the car itself, Uncle Jabez had spoken
+of, Ruth gave her attention to him. He was a
+ruddy, tubby little man in a pin-check black and
+white suit, faced with silk on lapels and pockets&mdash;it
+really gave him a sort of minstrel-like appearance
+as though he should likewise have had his
+face corked&mdash;and he wore in a puffed maroon
+scarf a stone that flashed enough for half a dozen
+ordinary diamonds&mdash;whether it really was of the
+first water or not.
+</p>
+<p>This man hopped out from back of the wheel
+of the roadster and came briskly up the graveled
+rise from the road to the door of the mill. He
+favored Ruth with a side glance and half smile
+that the girl of the Red Mill thought (she had
+seen plenty of such men) revealed his character
+very clearly. But he spoke to Uncle Jabez.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I say, Pop, is this the place they call the Red
+Mill?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I calkerlate it is,&#8221; agreed the miller dryly.
+&#8220;Leastways, it&#8217;s the only Red Mill I ever heard
+tell on.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckoned I&#8217;d got to the right dump,&#8221; said
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span>
+the visitor cheerfully. &#8220;I understand there&#8217;s an
+Injun girl stopping here? Is that so?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Uncle Jabez glanced at Ruth and got her permission
+to speak before he answered:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know as it&#8217;s any of your business,
+Mister; but the Princess Wonota, of the Osage
+Nation, is stopping here just now. What might
+be your business with her?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So she calls herself a &#8216;princess&#8217; does she?&#8221;
+returned the man, grinning again at Ruth in an
+offensive way. &#8220;Well, I have managed a South
+Sea Island chief, a pair of Circassian twins, and
+a bunch of Eskimos, in my time. I guess I know
+how to act in the presence of Injun royalty. Trot
+her out.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Trot who out?&#8221; asked the miller calmly, but
+with eyes that flashed under his penthouse brows.
+&#8220;Wonota ain&#8217;t no horse. Did you think she
+was?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know what she is,&#8221; returned the man
+promptly. &#8220;It&#8217;s what she is going to be that interests
+me. I&#8217;m Bilby&mdash;Horatio Bilby. Maybe
+you&#8217;ve heard of me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have,&#8221; said Ruth rather sharply.
+</p>
+<p>At once Mr. Bilby&#8217;s round, dented, brown hat
+came off and he bowed profoundly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Happy to make your acquaintance, Miss,&#8221; he
+said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You haven&#8217;t made it yet&mdash;near as I can calkerlate,&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span>
+gruffly said Uncle Jabez. &#8220;And it&#8217;s
+mebbe a question if you get much acquainted with
+Wonota. What&#8217;s your business with her, anyway?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll show you, old gent,&#8221; said Bilby, taking a
+number of important looking papers from his
+pocket. &#8220;I have come here to get this princess,
+as you call her. The Indian Department has
+sent me. She is a ward of the Government, as
+you perhaps know. It seems she is held under a
+false form of contract to a moving picture corporation,
+and Wonota&#8217;s friends have applied to
+the Bureau of Indian Affairs to look into the
+matter and get at the rights of the business.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth uttered a cry of amazement; but Uncle
+Jabez said calmly enough:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And what have you got to do with it all,
+Mister&mdash;if I may be so curious as to ask?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The girl is given into my charge while her affairs
+are being looked into,&#8221; said Mr. Horatio
+Bilby, with an explanatory flourish which included
+both the miller and Ruth in its sweeping gesture.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='V_TROUBLE_IN_PROSPECT' id='V_TROUBLE_IN_PROSPECT'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3>TROUBLE IN PROSPECT</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding wished that Mr. Hammond
+was within reach; but she knew he was already
+on his way to the Thousand Islands, for which
+she herself expected to start the next day with
+Wonota and her father. She had not heard much
+about this Bilby; but what she had learned&mdash;together
+with what she now saw of him&mdash;impressed
+her not at all in his favor.
+</p>
+<p>In any event she was not willing to accept
+either Horatio Bilby or his declaration at face
+value. And she was glad to see that the hardheaded
+old miller was not much impressed by the
+man, either.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know much about this business, Mister,&#8221;
+said Uncle Jabez, with much calmness.
+&#8220;But it strikes me that you&#8217;d better see the girl&#8217;s
+father.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What girl&#8217;s father?&#8221; demanded the visitor,
+and now he seemed surprised.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wonota&#8217;s. Chief Totantora is the name he
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span>
+goes by. It strikes me that he ought to have
+a deal more to say about the girl than any Government
+department.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, he&#8217;s nothing but a blanket Injun!&#8221; ejaculated
+Bilby, with disgust.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mebbe so,&#8221; rejoined Uncle Jabez. &#8220;But his
+wearing a blanket (though I never see him with
+it on; he wears pants and a shirt when he comes
+here) don&#8217;t figger none at all. He still remains
+the girl&#8217;s father.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess you don&#8217;t know, Pop, that these Injuns
+are all wards of Uncle Sam.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mebbe so,&#8221; again observed the miller. &#8220;And
+I have sometimes thought that Uncle Sam ain&#8217;t
+always been any too good to his red relations.
+However, that isn&#8217;t to the point. The girl&#8217;s
+here. She&#8217;s sort of in my care while she is here.
+Unless Chief Totantora shows up and asks to
+have her handed over to you, I calkerlate you
+won&#8217;t get her.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;See here, my man!&#8221; exclaimed Bilby, at once
+becoming blusterous, &#8220;you&#8217;ll get into trouble with
+the Government if you interfere with me.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That doesn&#8217;t scare me none,&#8221; was the prompt
+reply of Jabez Potter. &#8220;Right now the Government
+of the United States don&#8217;t look so important
+to me as our local constable. I guess to get possession
+of the girl you will have to bring an officer
+with you to certify to all this you say you are.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span>
+Until you do, I might as well tell you, first as
+last, that you ain&#8217;t got a chance&mdash;not a chance!&mdash;to
+even see Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Mr. Bilby grew even redder in the face than
+nature seemed to have intended him to be. And
+his little greenish-gray eyes sparkled angrily.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll get into trouble, old man,&#8221; he threatened.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you let that bother you none,&#8221; rejoined
+the miller. &#8220;I&#8217;ve had so much trouble in my life
+that I&#8217;m sort of used to it, as you might say.
+Now, if that is all you got to offer, you might as
+well get back into that go-cart of yours and drive
+on.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Mr. Potter turned on his heel and went back
+into the mill, beckoning to Ruth to come with
+him. She did so&mdash;for a little way at least; but
+she soon stopped to peer out and watch the man,
+Bilby.
+</p>
+<p>When they were, as he thought, out of hearing,
+he gave vent to several grunts, kicked a pebble
+across the road, and scowled ferociously. He
+said something about &#8220;these rubes are smarter
+than they used to be.&#8221; He seemed convinced
+that he could do nothing further in the matter
+he had come upon. Not at this time, it was quite
+plain.
+</p>
+<p>He turned and climbed into the roadster. But
+he did not drive back toward Cheslow; instead he
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span>
+went up the river road, and Ruth Fielding remembered
+that Wonota&#8217;s father was stopping at
+the country inn which was only three or four miles
+up that road.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But nothing can happen because of that, of
+course,&#8221; the girl thought, as she entered the passage
+that led to the farmhouse from the mill.
+&#8220;Wonota is perfectly safe here, and surely Totantora
+can take care of himself with that little fat
+man, or with anybody else!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She entered the kitchen expecting to find the
+Indian girl at work with Aunt Alvirah in the old
+woman&#8217;s sunny corner of the great room. The
+old woman was alone, however.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where is Wonota?&#8221; Ruth asked.
+</p>
+<p>Before Aunt Alvirah could reply an automobile
+siren echoed outside of the house. Aunt Alvirah
+was smiling and waving at somebody and Ruth
+hurried to the window to look out.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s Helen come for you, my pretty, in that
+beautiful big car of hers,&#8221; said Aunt Alvirah.
+&#8220;Isn&#8217;t it fine to be rich?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait till I make a few more pictures, Aunty,
+and we&#8217;ll have a car too. If Uncle Jabez won&#8217;t
+buy one, I&#8217;ve made up my mind to get a car
+if it&#8217;s only to take you to drive once in a while.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It wouldn&#8217;t hurt Jabez Potter to buy a car,&#8221;
+declared the old woman. &#8220;She&#8217;s coming in
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span>
+Ruthie. Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!&#8221; she
+murmured, as she got up to receive the visitor.
+</p>
+<p>Helen swept into the house gaily. She always
+had a kiss for the little old woman who thought
+her, next to Ruth, the finest girl who ever lived.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re always a sight for anyone to look on
+with pleasure, Helen Cameron,&#8221; said Aunt Alvirah.
+&#8220;And you&#8217;re mighty smart in that long coat
+and cap.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And do you put on your coat and bonnet,
+Aunty,&#8221; cried Helen, patting her wrinkled cheek.
+&#8220;I&#8217;ve come to take you for a spin. And Ruth,
+too.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s Wonota,&#8221; suggested Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course. The princess shall join us,&#8221; Helen
+cried merrily. &#8220;Where is she? Tell her to
+leave her everlasting beadwork long enough to
+ride in the white man&#8217;s motor-car.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose,&#8221; said Ruth, starting for the stairway,
+&#8220;Wonota must be up in her own room.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no!&#8221; Aunt Alvirah called from her bedroom,
+to which she had hobbled for her cloak
+and bonnet. &#8220;I was just about to tell you, my
+pretty. Wonota has gone out.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where did she go?&#8221; and Ruth suddenly
+turned back, and with surprise if not exactly with
+a feeling of alarm.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She said she would walk up the road to see
+her father. She is quite fond of her father, I
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span>
+believe,&#8221; added Aunt Alvirah, coming back with
+her wrap and bonnet. &#8220;Of course, Indians have
+family feelings, if they do seem to hide &#8217;em so
+well.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am sorry she went out alone,&#8221; murmured
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pooh! she isn&#8217;t a child. And she&#8217;ll not lose
+her way, that&#8217;s sure,&#8221; laughed Helen. &#8220;Anyway,
+we&#8217;ll overtake her and give her a ride. Chief
+Totantora, too, if he will deign to step into the
+white man&#8217;s car.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth said no more. But after the visit of
+Bilby to the mill she could not help but feel some
+little anxiety. She remembered that Dakota Joe,
+in whose show Wonota had once worked, had
+tried his best to make trouble for her and Mr.
+Hammond because of the Osage maiden; and this
+Bilby was plainly a much shrewder person than
+the Westerner had been.
+</p>
+<p>She and Helen aided Aunt Alvirah out to the
+car. It was a heavy, seven passenger machine;
+but Helen could drive it as well as Tom himself.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And Tommy-boy,&#8221; she explained as she
+tucked the robe about Aunt Alvirah before following
+Ruth into the front seat, &#8220;went to town
+to-day with father.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope he will really get down to work now,&#8221;
+said Ruth softly, as Helen began to manipulate
+the levers.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Pooh!&#8221; exclaimed Helen carelessly. &#8220;Work
+was made for slaves. And Tom had a hard time
+over in France. I tell dad he ought not to expect
+Tommy-boy to really work for a long, long
+time to come.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you think that is right, Helen?&#8221; admonished
+her chum. &#8220;Idleness was never good for
+anybody.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t as though Tom was poor. He hasn&#8217;t
+got to toil and delve in an old office&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You know it isn&#8217;t that,&#8221; cried Ruth warmly.
+&#8220;But he should make good use of his time. And
+your father needs him. He ought to be idle now,
+not Tom.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Grandmother Grunt!&#8221; laughed Helen.
+&#8220;You&#8217;re twice as old as Aunt Alvirah right now.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;After what we have been through&mdash;after
+what the world has been through for five years&mdash;we
+all ought to be at work,&#8221; said Ruth rather
+severely. &#8220;And Tom is no exception.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, I never knew you to be hard on Tommy-boy
+before!&#8221; pouted Tom&#8217;s sister.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps I never had occasion to be hard on
+him before,&#8221; Ruth answered. &#8220;He is only one
+of many. Especially many of those who were
+over there in France. They seem to be so unsettled
+and&mdash;and so careless for the future.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Regular female Simon Legree, you are,
+Ruthie Fielding.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;But when Tom first came back he was as
+eager as he could be to get to business and to
+begin a business career. And lately, it seems
+to me, he&#8217;s had an awful slump in his ambition. I
+never saw the like.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, bother!&#8221; muttered Helen, and started the
+car.
+</p>
+<p>The car shot ahead, and in five minutes they
+passed the country inn, but saw nothing of either
+Wonota or the Indian chief. In a cove below the
+river bank, however, Ruth caught a glimpse of a
+small motor-boat with two men in it. And backed
+into a wood&#8217;s path near the highway was a small
+motor-car.
+</p>
+<p>Was it the smart roadster Mr. Horatio Bilby
+had driven to the Red Mill? Ruth could not
+be sure. But she did not enjoy the ride with
+Helen and Aunt Alvirah very much for thinking
+of the possibility of its being Mr. Bilby&#8217;s car so
+close to the inn where Chief Totantora was stopping.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VI_AN_ABDUCTION' id='VI_AN_ABDUCTION'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3>AN ABDUCTION</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The ride in Helen&#8217;s car was enjoyable, especially
+for Aunt Alvirah. How that old lady
+did smile and (as she herself laughingly said)
+&#8220;gabble&#8221; her delight! Being shut inside the
+house so much, the broader sight of the surrounding
+country and the now peacefully flowing Lumano
+River was indeed a treat.
+</p>
+<p>Helen drove up the river and over the Long
+Bridge, where she halted the car for a time that
+they might look both up and down the stream.
+And it was from this point that Ruth again caught
+a glimpse of the motor-boat she had before spied
+near the roadside inn.
+</p>
+<p>There was but one man in it now, and the boat
+was moored to the root of a big tree that overhung
+the little cove. Not that there was anything
+astonishing or suspicious in the appearance
+of the boat. Merely, it was there and seemed
+to have no particular business there. And the
+girl of the Red Mill recalled that Mr. Horatio
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span>
+Bilby&#8217;s motor-car was backed into the bushes near
+that spot.
+</p>
+<p>Had Mr. Bilby, who had announced that his
+business in this vicinity was to obtain possession
+of Wonota, anything to do with the men in the
+boat? The thought may have been but an idle
+suggestion in Ruth&#8217;s mind.
+</p>
+<p>Intuition was strong in Ruth Fielding, however.
+Somehow, the abandoned car being there near the
+inn where Totantora was staying and to which
+Wonota had gone to see her father, and the unidentified
+motor-boat lurking at the river&#8217;s edge
+in the same vicinity, continued to rap an insistent
+warning at the door of the girl&#8217;s mind.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Helen, let&#8217;s go back,&#8221; she said suddenly, as
+her chum was about to let in the clutch again.
+&#8220;Turn around&mdash;do.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What for?&#8221; asked Helen wonderingly, yet
+seeing something in the expression of Ruth&#8217;s face
+that made her more than curious.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I feel that everything isn&#8217;t right with Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wonota!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth, in low tones, told her chum her fears&mdash;told
+of Bilby&#8217;s call at the mill&mdash;mentioned the
+fact that the Indian girl was probably at this
+time at the roadside inn and that the rival moving
+picture producer was perhaps there likewise.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you know about that!&#8221; gasped
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span>
+Helen. &#8220;Is there going to be a real fight for the
+possession of Wonota, do you think?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And for Totantora too, perhaps. For he
+figures importantly in this picture we are about to
+make up on the St. Lawrence.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Fine!&#8221; exclaimed Helen Cameron. &#8220;There
+is going to be something doing besides picture
+making. Why, Ruth! you couldn&#8217;t keep me from
+going with you to-morrow. And I know Tommy-boy
+will be crazy to be in it, too.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth made an appealing gesture as Helen began
+to back and turn the car.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t frighten Aunt Alvirah,&#8221; she whispered.
+</p>
+<p>Helen was delighted with any prospect for action.
+It must be confessed that she did not
+think much about disappointment or trouble accruing
+to other people in any set of circumstances;
+she never had been particularly thoughtful for
+others. But she was brave to the point of recklessness,
+and she was at once excited regarding the
+suggested danger to her chum&#8217;s plans.
+</p>
+<p>Bilby had already, Ruth understood, offered
+more money to Wonota and Totantora for their
+services than Mr. Hammond thought it wise to
+risk in the venture. And, after all, the temptation
+of money was great in the minds of the
+Indians. It might be that Bilby could get them
+away from Ruth&#8217;s care. And then what would
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span>
+the Alectrion Film Corporation do about this
+next picture that had been planned?
+</p>
+<p>Aunt Alvirah made no complaint as to how or
+where the car went&mdash;as long as it went somewhere.
+She admitted she liked to travel fast.
+Having been for so many years crippled by that
+enemy, rheumatism, she seemed to find some compensation
+in the speed of Helen&#8217;s car.
+</p>
+<p>The inn was several miles away from the Long
+Bridge; but the road was fairly straight, and as
+the car went over the ridges they could now and
+then catch glimpses of the hotel. On the right
+were cornfields, the dark green blades only six
+or eight inches high; and scattered over them the
+omnipresent scarecrows which, in the spring, add
+at least picturesqueness to the New England
+landscape.
+</p>
+<p>Above the purring of the motor Aunt Alvirah
+raised her voice to remark to the chums on the
+front seat:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see it now&mdash;did it fall down?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did what fall down, Aunty?&#8221; asked Ruth,
+who, though troubled as she was by her suspicions,
+could not ignore the little old woman.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That scarecrow I see coming up. I thought
+&#8217;twas a gal picking up stones in that field&mdash;the
+one this side of the hotel. It had a sunbonnet
+on, and it was just as natural! But it&#8217;s gone.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see any scarecrow there,&#8221; admitted
+Ruth, turning to look.
+</p>
+<p>At that moment, however, the car she had seen
+parked in the bushes wheeled out into the highway
+ahead of them. It started on past the hotel.
+There was another figure beside that of the tubby
+Horatio Bilby on the seat. Ruth recognized
+Bilby at once.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who&#8217;s that?&#8221; asked Helen, slowing down involuntarily.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the man I spoke of,&#8221; explained Ruth,
+&#8220;I&mdash;I wonder who it is that&#8217;s with him?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A girl!&#8221; exclaimed Helen. &#8220;Do you suppose
+he has got Wonota?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wonota&mdash;with a sunbonnet on?&#8221; cried her
+chum.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I bet he&#8217;s running away with Wonota!&#8221; cried
+Helen, and started to speed up after the other
+car.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth laid a quick hand on her chum&#8217;s arm.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait! Stop!&#8221; she cried. &#8220;See what a curiously
+acting thing that is he has got beside him?
+Is&mdash;It can&#8217;t be a girl, Helen!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It certainly isn&#8217;t a boy,&#8221; declared her friend,
+with exasperation. &#8220;He&#8217;ll get away from us.
+That is a fast car he is driving.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait!&#8221; exclaimed Ruth again, and as Helen
+brought her machine to an abrupt stop Aunt Alvirah
+was heard saying:
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, ain&#8217;t that reediculous? Ain&#8217;t it reediculous?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is ridiculous?&#8221; asked Helen, looking
+back with a smile at the little old woman while
+Ruth opened the door and leaped out to the side
+of the road nearest the river.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, where are your eyes, Helen Cameron?&#8221;
+demanded Aunt Alvirah. &#8220;There&#8217;s that scarecrow
+now. That feller is a-running away with
+it!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Helen flashed another look along the road.
+The figure beside Bilby on the seat had been set
+upright again. Now the girl saw that it was
+nothing but a figure. It was no girl at all!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What under the sun, Ruth&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth was not in hearing. She had dashed
+into the bushes and to the spot where she had
+previously seen the roadster belonging to Horatio
+Bilby parked. The bushes were trampled all
+about. Here and there were bits of torn cloth
+hanging to the thorns. Yonder was a slipper
+with rather a high heel. She recognized it as
+one belonging to Wonota, the Osage girl, and
+picked it up. The Indian maid was really attempting
+the fads, as well as the fancies, in apparel
+of her white sisters!
+</p>
+<p>But what had become of the girl herself? She
+certainly would not have removed one of her
+pumps and thrown it away. Like Aunt Alvirah
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span>
+and Helen, Ruth knew that the figure beside Bilby
+in the car was not the missing Indian girl. He
+had attempted to use the scarecrow he had stolen
+from the cornfield across the road to bewilder anybody
+who might pursue him.
+</p>
+<p>And this very attempt of the rival picture producer
+to foul his trail impressed Ruth that something
+serious regarding Wonota and her father
+was afoot. If the Indian girl had not gone with
+Bilby, where had she gone? And where was
+Totantora?
+</p>
+<p>Ruth could not believe that either Wonota or
+her father would prove faithless to their contract
+with Mr. Hammond&mdash;not intentionally, at
+least. She hesitated there in the trampled bushes
+for a moment, wondering if she ought not first
+to go on to the hotel and make inquiries.
+</p>
+<p>Then she heard something thrashing in the
+bushes not far away. She started, peering all
+about, listening. The noise led her to the head
+of a gully that sloped down toward the river&#8217;s
+edge. It was bush-bestrewn and the way was
+rough. Ruth plunged down the slant of it,
+and behind the first clump of brush she came upon
+a man struggling on the ground.
+</p>
+<p>His ankles and his wrists were lashed, and when
+the girl turned him over she was amazed to see
+that he was most cruelly gagged with a piece of
+stick and a handkerchief.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Totantora!&#8221; she screamed. &#8220;What is the
+matter? Where is Wonota?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>His glaring eyes seemed almost popping from
+their sockets. His copper-colored face was a
+mask of demoniacal rage. His dignity as an Indian
+and his feelings as a father had been outraged.
+Yet, Ruth was positive that the figure in
+the roadster beside Horatio Bilby was not
+Wonota, the chief&#8217;s daughter.
+</p>
+<p>Her strong and nimble fingers had gone to
+work almost at once upon the cord that held the
+Indians wrists. She loosened them in a few
+moments.
+</p>
+<p>Totantora leaped to his feet, drew a clasp-knife
+from the pocket of his trousers, snapped it
+open, and slashed through the cords about his
+ankles.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where is Wonota? What has happened?&#8221;
+Ruth cried.
+</p>
+<p>The Indian slashed the handkerchief that held
+the gag in place, dragged it out, and cast it away.
+He made no reply to Ruth&#8217;s question, but lifting
+up his head sent a long and quavering cry through
+the grove&mdash;a cry that might have been the war-whoop
+of his tribe generations before.
+</p>
+<p>However, Ruth knew it was a signal to his
+daughter that he was free and was in pursuit. If
+Wonota was where she could hear!
+</p>
+<p>Speaking not at all to the anxious Ruth, Totantora
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span>
+started down the gully to the riverside.
+The girl followed him, running almost as wildly
+as did the Indian chief.
+</p>
+<p>Bounding out into the more open grove at the
+edge of the stream, Totantora uttered another
+savage yell. Ruth heard, too, the <i>put, put, put</i>, of
+a motor-boat. When she reached the water the
+boat she had previously observed was some few
+yards from the bank. There were two men in
+it now, and Ruth saw at first glance that Wonota,
+likewise bound and gagged, lay propped up
+against the small over-decked part of the launch.
+</p>
+<p>The Indian chief halted not even to kick off
+his moccasins. He ran to the edge of the bank
+and, the water being deep, dived on a long slant
+into the river. He rose almost instantly to the
+surface, and with a long, swift side-stroke followed
+after the motor craft, which was now gaining
+speed.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VII_EXPEDIENCY' id='VII_EXPEDIENCY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3>EXPEDIENCY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Up in the Big North Woods Ruth Fielding
+had seen loons dive and swim (and of all the
+feathered tribe, loons are the master divers) and
+she had wondered at the birds&#8217; mastery of the
+water. But no loon ever seemed more at home
+in that element than did the Indian chief.
+</p>
+<p>Totantora tore through the water after the escaping
+motor-boat as though he, too, were propelled
+by a motor. And his motor was more
+powerful, in a short race at least, than that driving
+the launch in which Wonota was held prisoner.
+</p>
+<p>Before the men who had abducted the Osage
+maiden could get their boat out of the little cove,
+Totantora reached the stern of it. He rose
+breast high in the water and clutched the gunwale
+with one hand. One of the men swung at
+him with a boathook; but the other picked up his
+canvas coat and managed to smother the chief&#8217;s
+head and face in it for a minute.
+</p>
+<p>Totantora flung himself backward and dragged
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span>
+the canvas coat out of the man&#8217;s hand. Indeed,
+he came near to dragging the man himself into
+the water.
+</p>
+<p>The coat did not retard the Indian much. He
+grabbed it with both hands, spread it abroad, and
+then plunged with it under the stern of the motor-boat.
+At once the propeller ceased turning and
+the boat lost headway. Totantora had fouled
+the propeller blades with the canvas jacket, and
+the abductors could not get away.
+</p>
+<p>The Indian lunged for the gunwale of the
+boat again. One of the men was now attending
+to the mechanism. The other beat at Totantora&#8217;s
+hands with the boathook.
+</p>
+<p>In a flash the chief let go of the rail with one
+hand and seized the staff of the implement.
+One powerful jerk, and he wrenched the boathook
+from the white man&#8217;s grasp. The latter fell
+sprawling into the bottom of the boat. With a
+display of muscle-power at which Ruth could
+not but marvel, Totantora raised himself over the
+gunwale of the boat and scrambled into it.
+</p>
+<p>The second white man turned on him, but the
+Indian met him stooping, seized him around the
+waist, and tossed him, seemingly with scarcely an
+effort, into the water. The other abductor
+scrambled forward to get out of his reach. The
+chief bent for a minute over his daughter, and
+then Ruth saw that the girl was free and that she
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span>
+stood up, unhurt. It was all over so quickly that
+it left Ruth breathless.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Miss Ruth! Miss Ruth!&#8221; cried the Indian
+girl. &#8220;I am all right. My father, Chief Totantora,
+would not let these bad white men carry me
+away a captive.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth waved her hand to the younger girl. But
+she watched the white man who was swimming
+for the shore. She was not afraid of him&mdash;any
+more than the Indian chief was fearful of the
+other white man perched in the bow of the motor-boat.
+</p>
+<p>The swimmer reached the bank, caught hold of
+an overhanging bush, and dragged himself out of
+the river. He was a hang-dog looking sort of
+fellow, anyway; and in his saturated condition his
+appearance was not improved. He lay panting
+for a minute like an expiring fish, and Ruth looked
+down at him perhaps more contemptuously than
+she realized.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, who you looking at?&#8221; he growled at
+length.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I suppose I am looking at one of Mr. Horatio
+Bilby&#8217;s choice assistants,&#8221; Ruth returned scornfully.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Huh? What do you know about Bilby?&#8221; demanded
+the fellow, evidently much surprised.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know nothing very good of him, I am sure,&#8221;
+the girl of the Red Mill replied coolly. &#8220;And I
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span>
+am quite confident that you are a fit companion for
+him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The fellow sat up and leered at her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I ain&#8217;t such a mighty fine sight just now, I
+guess,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But there are worse than me.
+I didn&#8217;t know there were any white folks interested
+in this business.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You make a perfectly proper distinction,&#8221;
+Ruth told him. &#8220;Bilby is not a white man&mdash;not
+in his business ethics I am sure. I want to warn
+you that those Indians have powerful friends and
+you would do well to have nothing more to do
+with them.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I get you,&#8221; growled the fellow. &#8220;But take it
+from me; that Injun don&#8217;t need no friends. He
+can take care of himself. He&#8217;s as strong as a
+bull.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And with a temper you would best not ruffle.
+I do not know what Bilby&#8217;s scheme was, or how
+he got you into it. But take my advice and keep
+out of any further association with Bilby in this
+matter.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t have to warn me and my partner,&#8221;
+said the fellow. &#8220;We got enough right now. Is
+he coming ashore?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He turned to look at the boat, and then leaped
+to his feet in some fear. Totantora, by leaning
+well over the stern of the boat, had dragged the
+torn coat out of the propeller, and now he was
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span>
+coolly examining the mechanism with the evident
+idea of starting the boat. The Indian seemed
+familiar with the driving power of such a craft.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think he will bring his daughter ashore,&#8221;
+Ruth said composedly. &#8220;If I were you I would
+not cross him further.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I ain&#8217;t going to, Miss,&#8221; said the fellow, now
+on his feet. &#8220;I see Jim is keeping as far away
+from him as he can. Jim can&#8217;t swim.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Go aside somewhere. When they reach the
+bank I will try to take Totantora and the girl
+away with me. Do nothing to cross him, for
+the temper of an Indian is not easily quelled. It
+just simmers and may break out again at any
+time.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Believe me,&#8221; said the fellow, starting off
+through the bushes, &#8220;I ain&#8217;t aiming to have another
+run-in with him. Not with my bare hands.
+I hope he don&#8217;t smash the boat, that&#8217;s all.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will do all I can to pacify Totantora,&#8221; said
+Ruth, and she really was somewhat anxious on
+this point, for the grim countenance of the Indian
+chief threatened further reprisal.
+</p>
+<p>He was busy with the engine for a time; but by
+and by the regular popping of the exhaust revealed
+the fact that everything was all right with
+it. The boat described a circle and came back
+into the cove and to the place where Ruth stood
+on the bank.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span></p>
+<p>The second white man, who was younger and
+looked less like a drowned rat, remained in the
+bow, staring back in apprehension at the Indian.
+The moment he could do so, this man leaped
+ashore.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say nothing to him,&#8221; advised Ruth. &#8220;I will
+try to take them both away. And, as I have
+warned your companion, have nothing more to do
+with Bilby or his schemes. These Indians are my
+friends, and they have other friends who are
+much more powerful than I am, I can assure you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Miss,&#8221; said the man, politely enough.
+&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to mix in with that redskin. I
+guess not!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Wonota stepped ashore and Ruth gave her the
+shoe she had lost. Her father followed her. He
+turned as though to set the boat adrift, but Ruth
+laid her hand upon his wet sleeve.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let it alone, Totantora. I hope you will be
+advised by me. We will go right away from
+here. Instead of waiting until to-morrow, let us
+leave here to-night and start for the North.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Wonota said something to her father in their
+own tongue, and he looked at Ruth more peacefully.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;White lady is always my friend, I know; and
+Wonota&#8217;s friend,&#8221; he observed. &#8220;But these bad
+men tried to steal Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tell me how it happened,&#8221; Ruth put in, hoping
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span>
+to change his trend of thought and determination.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will tell you, my friend,&#8221; said the Indian
+girl. &#8220;A little fat man came in a car when Chief
+Totantora and I were walking in the road. He
+got us to sit down yonder and talk to him. He
+is one of those who have tried to get Chief Totantora
+and me to go away from you to make pictures.
+He offers much money. And while we
+talked, those other two men crept up behind us
+and they all seized Chief Totantora and me. We
+were bound and our mouths closed before we
+knew how many, or how few, our enemies were.
+Then my father was left in the wood and I was
+carried to the boat. I do not know what became
+of the little fat man.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I saw him drive away,&#8221; Ruth said. &#8220;It made
+me suspicious. I had already seen and talked
+with the fat man, whose name is Bilby. Don&#8217;t
+forget that name, Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will remember,&#8221; said the Indian girl, composedly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He may make some other attempt to get possession
+of you. Some attempt by aid of the
+courts.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The white man&#8217;s law is very strange,&#8221; muttered
+Totantora.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But we will get ahead of Bilby before he
+can do anything else,&#8221; Ruth went on. &#8220;Miss
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span>
+Cameron&#8217;s car is outside in the road. Go to the
+hotel and change your clothes, Totantora, and
+I will take both you and Wonota back to the
+Red Mill. Until we get away for the North
+I shall not want you out of my sight.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The Indian shook himself much as a dog might.
+A lighter expression flickered over his dark face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shall not suffer cold from a wetting,&#8221; he
+said. &#8220;It is nothing. I have nothing at the hotel.
+We will go now.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on, then,&#8221; rejoined Ruth, promptly.
+&#8220;It is best that we get away before Bilby can
+learn that his plan to make Wonota a captive
+miscarried. Hurry!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She swept them in her earnestness out to the
+road where Helen and Aunt Alvirah saw them
+with considerable surprise&mdash;particularly because
+of the saturated condition of the Indian.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I declare, Ruth!&#8221; cried Helen, &#8220;you do manage
+to get into such perfectly lovely rows. What
+is the matter?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth postponed all explanation for a later
+time. On their way back to the Red Mill she
+did explain to Helen, however, that she intended
+to take the two Indians to Cheslow and get a
+train for Albany that evening.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will fool Bilby and whoever is aiding him.
+We will get away.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you go to-night, so do I!&#8221; exclaimed her
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span>
+chum. &#8220;You can&#8217;t lose me, Ruth Fielding. I
+can see that we are going to have perfectly
+scrumptious times before this picture you are going
+to make is finished.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope we&#8217;ll fool Bilby&mdash;leave him behind,&#8221;
+sighed Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The worst of it is, we must leave Tommy-boy
+behind,&#8221; said Tom&#8217;s twin. &#8220;Won&#8217;t he be sore
+when he hears about it!&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VIII_AT_CHIPPEWA_BAY' id='VIII_AT_CHIPPEWA_BAY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3>AT CHIPPEWA BAY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen pronounced that exodus from the Red
+Mill &#8220;some hustle;&#8221; and really it was but a brief
+time that Ruth allowed for packing, dressing, and
+getting to Cheslow for the eight-forty-five train,
+bound north. This was a through train with sleeping
+cars, and stopped at Cheslow only on special
+occasions. Ruth determined that this was one of
+those occasions.
+</p>
+<p>She hustled Ben, the hired man, off to town
+ahead, and by the good offices of Mercy Curtis a
+compartment and berth were obtained on that
+especial train. Mercy kept the wires hot arranging
+this for her friend.
+</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, Helen rushed home in her car,
+packed her trunk and bag, had them loaded into
+the front of the car, and drove up the road again
+to the Red Mill where she picked up the two
+Indians and Ruth. Uncle Jabez and Aunt Alvirah
+were sorry enough to see Ruth go; but this
+trip promised not to be a long one, for the picture
+should be made in five or six weeks.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span></p>
+<p>The Cameron&#8217;s chauffeur had been instructed by
+Helen to &#8220;burn up the road,&#8221; for there was none
+too much time before the train was due, and he
+did as he was ordered. Indeed, there were ten
+minutes to spare when they reached the station
+platform, and the girls spent that time chatting
+with Mercy Curtis leaning out of her window
+of the telegraph office.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So, you are off on your travels again,&#8221; said
+the lame girl. &#8220;I wish I was a butterfly of fashion,
+too.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Butterfly,&#8217;!&#8221; scoffed Helen. &#8220;Ruth, at
+least, is no butterfly. She might be called a busy
+bee with more truth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah-ha, Miss Helen!&#8221; returned Mercy, shaking
+her finger, &#8220;you are the improvident grasshopper&mdash;no less.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Helen giggled. &#8220;Tom says that that old proverb,
+&#8216;Go to the ant, thou sluggard;&#8217; should read:
+&#8216;Go to the ant and slug her.&#8217; He does not love
+work any more than I do.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Again Ruth&#8217;s expression of countenance was
+one of disapproval, but she made no comment on
+Tom. The train thundered toward the station,
+slowing down as though resenting being stopped
+in its swift career for even a few moments.
+</p>
+<p>Mr. Curtis, the station master, made a point
+himself of seeing that the baggage of the party
+was put into the baggage car. The conductor
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span>
+and porter helped the girls aboard, and they
+found their sections.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth was determined that Wonota should not
+get out of her sight again, and the Indian girl
+was to occupy a berth in the stateroom. Totantora
+was to have had the berth; but when he saw
+it made up and noted the cramped and narrow
+quarters offered him, he shook his head decidedly.
+He spent the night in the porter&#8217;s little room at
+the end of the car, and the porter, when he found
+out Totantora was an Indian chief, did not dare
+object for fear of being scalped!
+</p>
+<p>The party reached Hammond the following
+afternoon. Here they alighted instead of at
+Redwood, the more popular station of those wishing
+to reach the Thousand Islands by way of the
+electric road to Alexandria Bay. Ruth and her
+party were going direct to Chippewa Bay, for
+it was upon some of the more northern of the
+fourteen hundred or more isles that constitute
+the &#8220;Thousand Islands&#8221; that Mr. Hammond had
+arranged for the film company&#8217;s activities at this
+time.
+</p>
+<p>A big touring car was waiting for the party,
+for one of the telegrams Ruth had caused to be
+sent the evening before was to Mr. Hammond,
+and they were glad to leave the Pullman and get
+into the open air. Totantora, even, desired to
+walk to Chippewa Bay, for he was tired of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span>
+white man&#8217;s means of locomotion. Ruth and
+Wonota would not hear to this.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess we have eluded Bilby,&#8221; said the girl
+of the Red Mill; &#8220;but I shall not feel that Wonota
+is safe, Totantora, unless you are near her
+at all times. You must keep watch of your daughter.
+She is a valuable possession.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>For once Totantora smiled&mdash;although it was
+grimly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A squaw did not use to be counted for much
+in my nation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But Wonota is not like
+the old squaws.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wonota is quite an up-to-date young woman,
+let me tell you, Mr Totantora,&#8221; Helen told him
+briskly.
+</p>
+<p>The party remained over night at a small hotel
+at Chippewa Bay; but in the morning Ruth and
+her companions entered a motor launch and were
+transported to an island where the film producing
+company had been established in several bungalows
+which Mr. Hammond had rented for the
+time of their stay.
+</p>
+<p>The water between the small islands was as
+calm as a mill pond; but the party caught glimpses
+from the launch of the breadth of the St. Lawrence,
+its Canadian shore being merely a misty
+blue line that morning. The rocky and wooded
+islands were extremely beautiful and as romantic
+in appearance as the wilderness always is. Now
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span>
+and then a privately owned island, improved by
+landscape gardening into a modern summer estate,
+offered contrast to the wilder isles.
+</p>
+<p>The girls spent most of the day in getting settled.
+No work on the new picture could be done
+for a couple of days, and Helen, naturally, looked
+for amusement. There were canoes as well as
+motor boats, and both the chums were fond of
+canoeing. Wonota, of course, was mistress of
+the paddle; and with her the two white girls selected
+a roomy canoe and set out toward evening
+on a journey of exploration among the closer
+islands.
+</p>
+<p>One of the largest islands in the group was in
+sight&mdash;Grenadier Island; but that they learned
+was beyond the American line. They saw it only
+from a distance, keeping close to the New York
+shore as they did on this brief voyage. The tall
+tamaracks and the other trees crowded some of
+the islands until they seemed veritable jungles.
+</p>
+<p>Some few, however, were bold and precipitous
+in the extreme. &#8220;Just the sort of place for
+pirate dens and robber caves,&#8221; Helen declared,
+shivering gleefully.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What a romantic puss you are,&#8221; laughed
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, those cracks in the rock yonder look so
+dark and dismal. And there <i>might</i> be dark-skinned
+men with red bandanas bound around
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span>
+their heads, and knives in their belts, along with
+the rest of the scenery, Ruthie,&#8221; complained
+Helen.
+</p>
+<p>Wonota stared at her. &#8220;Do you mean, Miss
+Helen, that there are cholos&mdash;are greasers&mdash;in
+these woods? My geography book that I study
+shows this country to be far, far from Mexico.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, my aunt!&#8221; chuckled Helen. &#8220;She thinks
+nobody but Mexicans can wear gay handkerchiefs
+bound about their noble brows. Wait till you see
+sure-enough pirates&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is perfect nonsense, Wonota,&#8221; said Ruth,
+warningly. &#8220;Helen is only in fun.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah,&#8221; said the practical Indian maid, &#8220;I understand
+English&mdash;and American; only I do not
+always grasp the&mdash;er&mdash;humor, do you call it?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good!&#8221; applauded Ruth. &#8220;Serves you right,
+Helen, for your silly nonsense.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Indians&#8217; fun is different,&#8221; explained Wonota,
+not wishing to offend the white girl.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are a pair of old sober-sides, that is what
+is the matter,&#8221; declared Helen gaily. &#8220;Oh, Ruth!
+drive the canoe ashore yonder&mdash;on that rocky
+beach. Did you ever see such ferns?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They brought the canoe carefully in to the
+shore, landing on a sloping rock which was moss-grown
+above the mark of the last flood. Ruth
+fastened the tow-rope to the staff of a slender sapling.
+Wonota got out to help Helen gather
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span>
+some of the more delicately fronded ferns. Ruth
+turned her back upon them and began climbing
+what seemed to be a path among the boulders and
+trees.
+</p>
+<p>This was not a very large island, and it was
+well out from the American shore, but inside the
+line between the States and Canada. Although
+the path Ruth followed seemed well defined, she
+scarcely thought the island was inhabited.
+</p>
+<p>As they had paddled past it in the canoe there
+had been no sign of man&#8217;s presence. It had been
+left in the state of nature, and nothing, it seemed,
+had been done to change its appearance from the
+time that the first white man had seen it.
+</p>
+<p>Some rods up the ascent Ruth came to an open
+place&mdash;a table of rock that might really have been
+a giant&#8217;s dining-table, so flat and perfectly shaped
+it was. She could look down upon Helen and
+Wonota, and they looked up and called to her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Look out for the pirates!&#8221; shouted Helen,
+with laughter.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth waved her hand, smiling, and, crossing
+the rock, parted the brush and stepped out of
+sight of her friends. Two steps she took through
+the clinging bushes when a most surprising figure
+started up before her.
+</p>
+<p>There was plenty of light, even if the sun had
+gone down. She was not uncertain at all as to
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span>
+the nature of the figure that confronted her&mdash;that
+of a man.
+</p>
+<p>She saw almost instantly that the old man&#8217;s
+brown eyes were more like a child&#8217;s in expression
+than like an angry man&#8217;s. He grinned at her, but
+the grimace was involuntary or meaningless.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he whispered. &#8220;Hush!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth remained both quiet and speechless, looking
+into his wrinkled old face calmly. She
+thought he must be a beggar from his clothing,
+but she could not imagine him a robber, nor even
+one of Helen&#8217;s &#8220;pirates.&#8221; As she said nothing
+the old man repeated his sibilant warning:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am &#8216;hushing&#8217; just as hard as I can,&#8221; whispered
+the girl in return, and smiling a little now.
+&#8220;Why must I &#8216;hush&#8217;?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he said again, quite as earnestly.
+&#8220;You are in danger of your life, young woman.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not from you, I am sure,&#8221; she returned.
+&#8220;You would not try to hurt me.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he repeated, looking back over his
+shoulder into the thicker wood. &#8220;They may come
+at any moment now. And although I am their
+king, they would kill you. You see, kings aren&#8217;t
+as powerful now as they used to be before the
+war.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So I understand,&#8221; agreed Ruth soberly. &#8220;But
+who are you king of&mdash;or what?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I am King of the Pipes,&#8221; whispered the old
+man. &#8220;You don&#8217;t know what that means,&#8221; he
+added, scanning her puzzled face. &#8220;No. And
+that&#8217;s the secret. You cannot be told.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh,&#8221; murmured Ruth, somewhat amused, yet
+pitying his evident mental state.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he said again. &#8220;You are in danger.
+Go away from this place at once, and don&#8217;t come
+here again. If my courtiers see you&mdash;Ha! Off
+with her head! I shall have to follow the kingly
+custom. It is not my fault,&#8221; he added, in the
+same low tone, shaking his head mournfully.
+&#8220;We kings have to lead our lives, you know.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It must be a dreadful life, if you have to order
+people&#8217;s heads cut off when they have done
+you no harm,&#8221; Ruth ventured.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But my people would not believe that you
+would do no harm,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;I can see
+that you are quite harmless. But they have not
+the intelligence I possess. You understand?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Quite,&#8221; said Ruth. &#8220;And I will go right
+away. Thank you for your kindness.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is right, young woman. Go away. And
+do not return. It is not safe here.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t&mdash;can&#8217;t I do anything for you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; warned the old man. &#8220;No, I do not
+think you can. I do not care to divide my power
+with any consort. And, unless you are of noble
+blood I could not make you Queen of the Pipes.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span>
+That would never do. Such a mésalliance would
+never do. My people would never stand for it&mdash;oh,
+never!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I quite understand that,&#8221; said Ruth, having
+difficulty to keep from smiling.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now go, young woman,&#8221; the man said pompously.
+&#8220;And do not return.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will obey you,&#8221; said Ruth soberly. &#8220;If you
+are sure I cannot help you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he warned her again, waving his
+hand. &#8220;They are likely to come at any moment.
+And then&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl backed through the bushes and
+stepped upon the table-like rock. She would have
+bade him good-bye, but he hissed after her another
+sibilant &#8220;hush!&#8221; and disappeared as mysteriously
+as he had come.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth descended to the canoe and waited until
+they were well away from the island before she
+said a word to the other girls about the queer
+old man.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='IX_A_FILM_MYSTERY' id='IX_A_FILM_MYSTERY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>A FILM MYSTERY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;I told you there were pirates there,&#8221; Helen
+declared that evening, when she and Ruth were
+in the room they shared together. Wonota slept
+in a room adjoining and had already retired.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think that poor old man was a pirate,&#8221;
+returned Ruth, smiling a little.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t he tell you he was &#8217;king of the
+pirates&#8217;?&#8221; demanded Helen.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth laughed outright. &#8220;He said he was &#8217;king
+of the pipes&#8217;&mdash;whatever that may mean. Poor
+old fellow!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, it seems he most certainly had been
+&#8216;smoking the pipe&#8217;&mdash;or do they call it &#8216;hitting the
+pipe&#8217;?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t ask me to aid you with any information
+on slang,&#8221; admonished her friend. &#8220;I don&#8217;t
+suppose he is really king of anything except of a
+country of his dreams&mdash;poor fellow.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dear me!&#8221; grumbled Helen. &#8220;You never
+will boost romance, Ruth Fielding. Maybe there
+are pirates on that island.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Or pipes,&#8221; said Ruth calmly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never mind. When the boys come I am going
+to shoo them on to that place.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What boys?&#8221; demanded Ruth in surprise.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Copleys arrive to-morrow. And their
+place is not five miles away from this very spot.
+We&#8217;ll get a motor-boat and go down there to-morrow
+evening and welcome them. I got a
+telegram from Tom when I came back from
+canoeing. I forgot to tell you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tom!&#8221; exclaimed Ruth, and for perhaps the
+first time in her life she seemed undesirous of
+hearing about Tom Cameron.
+</p>
+<p>Helen gave her a somewhat puzzled side glance
+as she found the telegram and gave it to her chum,
+who read:
+</p>
+<div class='blockquot'>
+<p>&#8220;Vacation begins to-morrow. Will be with
+you next day. Tom.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div>
+<p>Helen giggled. &#8220;You can make up your mind
+that he knows Chess Copley has started for this
+neck of woods. Tom is becoming Mr. Jealous
+Jellaby. Did you ever?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am sorry Tom considers it necessary to take
+a vacation when he has only just begun work
+with your father, Helen.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There you go again!&#8221; exclaimed her chum.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span>
+&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand you at all, Ruth Fielding.
+Tom doesn&#8217;t have to work.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It might be better if he did,&#8221; said Ruth, and
+refused to discuss the point further that evening.
+</p>
+<p>The next day was just as lovely as that first
+one. Preparations were under way all over the
+island Mr. Hammond had rented for the making
+of the picture which Ruth had written. The
+continuity was being studied by Mr. Hooley, the
+director; and the principals had been furnished
+with their detail.
+</p>
+<p>The ordinary participants in the filming of a
+picture&mdash;the &#8220;extras&#8221;&mdash;seldom know much about
+the story. They merely appear in certain scenes
+and do what they are told. As the scenes are
+not made in sequence these actors of the smaller
+parts have little idea of the story itself.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth, under the advice of Mr. Hammond, had
+chosen a certain series of incidents relating to
+early French-Canadian history, and it began with
+an allegory of the bringing of the Christian religion
+to the Indians by the first French priests.
+This allegory included the landing of the French
+upon the shore of a rocky island where they were
+met by the wondering Indians, and Mr. Hooley&#8217;s
+assistant had chosen the spot for this scene to be
+&#8220;shot,&#8221; not far from the place where the company
+had its headquarters.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth paid little attention to the locations until
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span>
+the moment arrived for the camera work. In
+fact, after supplying the detailed script she had
+little to do with the preparation of the picture
+until the scenes were made. She had never made
+continuity, as it is called, for that is more or less
+of a mechanical process and is sure to interfere
+with the creative faculty of the screen writer.
+</p>
+<p>In the afternoon of this day Helen engaged a
+motor-boat, and she and Ruth set out for the
+Copley island, which was some miles away,
+toward Alexandria Bay. Caretakers and servants
+had been at work there for some time, it
+was evident, for the lawns were neatly shaved,
+the gardens in full growth, and the family were
+already comfortably settled in their summer
+home.
+</p>
+<p>Chess Copley must have been on the watch
+(could it be possible that he had inside information
+about this early visit of Helen and Ruth?)
+for he came running down to the dock before
+the gardener could reach that point to fasten the
+boat&#8217;s line.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hurrah!&#8221; he shouted. &#8220;I was just wondering if
+we would see you girls to-day; and if you hadn&#8217;t
+come I should have got out our launch and tried
+to find your camp this evening.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, hullo, Chess,&#8221; Helen said coolly as she
+stepped ashore, refusing his assistance. &#8220;Where
+are the girls?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;There they are&mdash;waiting for you on the
+porch,&#8221; he said, rather subdued it would seem by
+her bruskness.
+</p>
+<p>Helen started directly for the wide veranda of
+the villa-like house that topped the higher part of
+the island. There were several acres of grounds
+about the Copley house, for the whole island was
+cultivated to the water&#8217;s edge. There was nothing
+wild left in the appearance of the property,
+save a few of the tall forest trees that had been
+allowed to stand and some huge boulders almost
+covered with climbing vines.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth gave Chess her hand&mdash;and he squeezed
+it warmly. She gave him a frank smile, and
+Chess seemed comforted.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nell&#8217;s dreadfully tart with a fellow,&#8221; he
+grumbled. &#8220;She&#8217;s nothing like she used to be.
+But you are kind, Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You should not wear your heart on your
+sleeve,&#8221; she told him briskly, as they followed
+Helen Cameron toward the veranda.
+</p>
+<p>The two girls from the moving picture camp
+passed a pleasant evening with their New York
+friends. The Copley girls always managed to
+gather, Helen declared, &#8220;perfectly splendid house
+parties;&#8221; and they had brought with them several
+companionable girls and young men.
+</p>
+<p>Music and dancing filled the evening, and it
+was ten o&#8217;clock when the two chums from Cheslow
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span>
+sought their motor-boat and set out for the
+camp on the Chippewa Bay island. Chess
+Copley had kept by Ruth&#8217;s side almost all the
+evening, and although Helen treated him so cavalierly,
+she seemed provoked at her chum for paying
+the young man so much attention.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand what you see in Chess,&#8221;
+she said in a vexed tone to the girl of the Red
+Mill. &#8220;He&#8217;s nothing much.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He is pleasant, and you used to like him,&#8221; said
+Ruth quietly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph!&#8221; Helen tossed her head. &#8220;I found
+him out. And he&#8217;s not to be compared with
+Tommy-boy.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I quite agree with you&mdash;that is, considering
+Tom as a brother,&#8221; observed Ruth, and after that
+refused to be led into further discussion regarding
+Chess Copley.
+</p>
+<p>It was not often that Ruth and Helen had a
+disagreement. And this was not really of importance.
+At least, there was no sign of contention
+between them in the morning.
+</p>
+<p>To tell the truth, there was so much going on,
+on this day, that the girls could scarcely have
+found time to quarrel. The sun was bright and
+the sky cloudless. It was an ideal day for out-of-door
+&#8220;shots,&#8221; and the camera men and Mr.
+Hooley had the whole company astir betimes.
+</p>
+<p>The few real Indians, besides Wonota and Totantora,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span>
+in the company, and all those &#8220;extras&#8221;
+who were dressed as aborigines, got into their costumes
+before breakfast. Soon after eight o&#8217;clock
+the company got away in barges, with launches
+to tow them through the quiet waterways.
+</p>
+<p>In a costume play like this that had been
+planned, the participants naturally make a very
+brilliant spectacle wherever they appear. But
+among the islands of Chippewa Bay there were
+few spectators at this time save the wild fowl.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And they,&#8221; Helen said, &#8220;might be descendants
+of the very birds who looked on the actual first
+appearance of the white man in this wilderness.
+Isn&#8217;t it wonderful?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>When Mr. Hooley, megaphone in hand and
+stationed with the two cameras on one of the decked-over
+barges, had got his company in position
+and the action was begun, it was indeed an impressive
+picture. Of course, a scene is not made
+off-hand&mdash;not even an outdoor pageant like this.
+The detail must be done over and over again before
+the cranks of the cameras are turned. It
+was almost noon before Mr. Hooley dared tell
+the camera men to &#8220;shoot the scene.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The flag-decorated barge bearing the Frenchmen
+to the rocky shore moved forward into focus
+in a stately way, while the Indians gathered in
+a spectacular group on the sloping shore&mdash;tier
+upon tier of dark faces, wearing nodding feather
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span>
+head-dresses, blankets, deerskin leggings, and
+other garments of Indian manufacture&mdash;all
+grouped to make a brilliant spectacle.
+</p>
+<p>Totantora, a commanding figure, and his
+daughter as <i>White Fawn</i>, the demure yet dominant
+princess of the Hurons, stood forth from the
+background of the other Indians in a graceful picture.
+Helen was delighted and could not help
+shouting to the Osage girl that she was &#8220;great&#8221;&mdash;a
+remark which elicited a frown from the director
+and an admonition from Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>Behind the grouped Indians was the greenery
+of the primeval forest with which this rocky island
+seemed to be covered. The cameras whirred
+while the barge containing the actors representing
+the Frenchmen pushed close into the shore
+and the whites landed.
+</p>
+<p>A boy carried ashore the great cross, and with
+him came a soldier bearing the lilies of France,
+the standard of which he sank into the turf. The
+detail of costume and armament had been carefully
+searched out by Ruth herself, and the properties
+were exact. She was sure that this part
+of the picture at least could not be criticised but
+to be praised.
+</p>
+<p>It was three o&#8217;clock before the party disembarked
+and went back to the camp for a delayed
+lunch. The remainder of the afternoon was devoted
+to the taking of several &#8220;close-ups&#8221; and an
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span>
+interior scene that had been built on the island
+rather than in the city studio of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation.
+</p>
+<p>The films taken earlier in the day were developed,
+and that evening after dinner Ruth and
+Helen joined Mr. Hammond and Mr. Hooley in
+the projection room to see a &#8220;run&#8221; of the strip
+taken at the island where the Frenchmen landed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you know that that island is the one we
+landed on ourselves the other evening, Ruth?&#8221;
+Helen remarked, as they took their seats and
+waited in the darkness for the operator to project
+the new film.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean it? I did not notice. The
+island where I met that strange old man?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The pirate&mdash;yes,&#8221; giggled Helen. &#8220;Only
+we went ashore at the far end of it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never thought of it&mdash;or of him,&#8221; admitted
+Ruth. &#8220;Poor, crazy old fellow&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The machine began its whirring note and they
+fell silent. Upon the silver sheet there took
+shape and actuality the moving barge with its banners
+and streamers and costumed actors. Then
+a flash was given of the Indians gathering on the
+wild shore&mdash;wondering, excited, not a little fearful
+of the strange appearance of the white men.
+The pageant moved forward to its conclusion&mdash;the
+landing of the strangers and the setting up
+of the banners and the cross.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span></p>
+<p>But suddenly Ruth shrieked aloud, and Mr.
+Hammond shouted to the operator to &#8220;repeat.&#8221;
+The dense underbrush had parted behind the upper
+tier of Indians and in the aperture thus made
+appeared a face and part of the figure of a man&mdash;a
+wild face with straggling hair and beard, and
+the upper part of his body clad in the rags of a
+shirt.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What in thunder was that, Hooley?&#8221; cried
+Mr. Hammond. &#8220;Somebody butted in. It&#8217;s
+spoiled the whole thing. I thought your men
+warned everybody off that island?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never saw that scarecrow before,&#8221; declared
+the director, quite as angrily.
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth squeezed Helen&#8217;s hand hard.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The King of the Pipes,&#8221; she whispered.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='X_A_SMELL_OF_SMOKE' id='X_A_SMELL_OF_SMOKE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>A SMELL OF SMOKE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The discovery of the face and figure of the old
+man whom Ruth had once met and spoken with
+on the island thrust out of the undergrowth and
+showing through a good part of the length of
+film that had been made that first day, caused a
+good deal of disturbance. The King of the
+Pipes, as he had called himself, was entirely &#8220;out
+of the picture.&#8221; His representation on the celluloid
+could not be removed. And he had been in
+focus for so many feet of the film that it was utterly
+impossible to cut it, and thus save the picture.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is a wretched piece of business,&#8221; Mr. Hammond
+said to Ruth, as they came from the projection
+room after seeing the reel run off again
+and again. &#8220;The entire scene will have to be
+made over. And, aside from that irremediable
+fault, I consider the work remarkably good. Mr.
+Hooley may never again be able to get it so good.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth and Helen had told him about the old
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span>
+crazy man&mdash;a hermit, perhaps&mdash;and Mr. Hammond
+had given instructions that before the retaking
+of the scene was tried the island should be
+searched for the King of the Pipes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Whoever, or whatever, he is,&#8221; the producer
+said, &#8220;he&#8217;s got to be looked after while we are
+making this picture. He is likely to burst most
+unexpectedly into any of the outdoor scenes, and
+on any location, and break up the show. This is
+going to cost money, Miss Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know it, Mr. Hammond. But it never
+crossed my mind that it was on that very island
+I had my meeting with the man.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;When Hooley tries to shoot the picture again
+we must send somebody up into that island to
+watch for the old fellow. He&#8217;d better be under
+confinement, anyway, if he&#8217;s crazy.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The poor old thing.&#8221; Ruth sighed. &#8220;I don&#8217;t
+think he means any harm&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s harmed us all right,&#8221; grumbled the president
+of the Alectrion Film Corporation. &#8220;I
+tell you, a day&#8217;s work like this&mdash;with such salaries
+as we pay, and supplies and all&mdash;mounts into real
+money.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh,&#8221; said Ruth, &#8220;some of the film can be
+saved. All that until the Frenchmen land&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We won&#8217;t dare risk it. In a costume story
+like this somebody is sure to get his dress, or
+armor, or something, different next time from
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span>
+what it was to-day. And if we try to save any
+part of this piece of film the change will show up
+in the finished picture. Every critical spectator will
+see the break and will comment upon it. Might
+as well make up our minds to take the loss; but
+we must be sure that a similar accident does not
+occur again.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Will Mr. Hooley risk taking the scene over
+on that island?&#8221; asked Ruth thoughtfully.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not? It is a fine location&mdash;couldn&#8217;t be
+beat. We&#8217;ve got to shoo that old man out of it,
+that&#8217;s all.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl had an idea that if she could meet the
+queer old man again she might be able to convince
+him that some other island would serve
+quite as well for his &#8220;kingdom&#8221; as that particular
+isle. At any rate, she hated the thought of his
+being abused or roughly treated.
+</p>
+<p>Soon after the fiasco in the projection room,
+Tom Cameron arrived by motor-boat from the
+town across the bay. Now, Ruth was secretly
+very glad to see Tom. She always would be
+glad to see his sunny face, no matter how or when.
+But she could not approve of his being here at
+the Thousand Islands at this particular time.
+</p>
+<p>Tom had grown up to be one of those young
+men who do not know what they want to do
+in life, and the reaction from the strain of his
+military life had, as was natural, intensified this
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span>
+tendency to drift. After the time that he had determined
+to be a soldier, then to go West and hunt
+Indians and grizzly bears, and then shifted to
+the desire to be a pirate or a policeman, Tom
+Cameron had really expressed very little taste for
+any commercial pursuit.
+</p>
+<p>He had made his mark in his preparatory school
+and college in several lines of athletics. But a boy
+in his position would scarcely become a professional
+baseball player or pull an oar for a living.
+To tell the truth, Tom had never shown much aptitude
+for his father&#8217;s business. Dry goods did
+not interest him.
+</p>
+<p>Yet when he had come home after the armistice
+Ruth thought he was going to buckle right down
+to business with Mr. Cameron&#8217;s firm. There
+seemed to be a super-abundant supply of energy
+in Tom that had to be worked off. And Ruth
+thought it would be worked off properly under the
+yoke of business. Besides, Mr. Cameron was
+getting no younger, and he ought to have the support
+of his only son in business affairs.
+</p>
+<p>But the last winter, since Ruth and the Cameron
+twins had returned from the Northwest, things
+had not gone with Tom quite as the girl of the
+Red Mill would have chosen.
+</p>
+<p>Yet she felt that it was not really her business
+to interfere. Indeed, she did not purpose to interfere.
+If she undertook to advise Tom it would
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span>
+please him only too well&mdash;that she knew, of
+course.
+</p>
+<p>For Tom considered Ruth quite as much his
+property as Helen&mdash;only in a slightly different
+way. And if Ruth showed in any manner that
+she considered Tom her property&mdash;well, it would
+be all off, to use one of Helen&#8217;s favorite expressions.
+</p>
+<p>There was no engagement between Ruth and
+Tom&mdash;not even a tacitly recognized one. In times
+of stress and need Tom had proved himself to be
+a very good friend indeed, and Ruth fully appreciated
+this. But during this past winter he had
+been somewhat spoiled&mdash;or so the girl thought.
+</p>
+<p>In the first place, Helen was determined to
+make a hero of her handsome brother. Captain
+Cameron was pushed to the fore by his sister in
+every possible way and manner. Helen had many
+gay friends in New York&mdash;she had met them
+through the Stones, for Helen had often been with
+Jennie when Ruth was elsewhere and more
+seriously engaged.
+</p>
+<p>Naturally Tom had been one with his sister
+in gay parties, dances, theater groups, supper
+crowds, and all the rest. Business had gone by
+the board with Tom; and before Ruth realized
+it the young returned soldier had lapsed into a
+butterfly existence that busy Ruth did not approve.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span>
+Especially, did she believe, was such an
+aimless life bad for Tom Cameron.
+</p>
+<p>She met him in the living room of the bungalow,
+however, with her usual warmth; perhaps
+&#8220;lack of warmth&#8221; would be the better expression.
+For although Ruth was always quietly cordial
+with most people, she was never &#8220;hail fellow,
+well met&#8221; with anybody, unless it was her own,
+dear, old girl friends of Briarwood Hall.
+</p>
+<p>She resisted, however, making any criticism
+upon Tom&#8217;s presence in the moving picture camp.
+Everybody in the house&mdash;and there were several
+members of the company there besides Mr. Hammond
+and the director&mdash;greeted Tom Cameron
+cordially. He was a favorite with them all.
+</p>
+<p>And the minute Totantora heard of Tom&#8217;s arrival,
+the Osage chief appeared at the door, standing
+with glittering eyes fixed on the ex-captain and
+unmoved expression of countenance while he
+waited to catch Tom&#8217;s attention.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bless my heart!&#8221; cried the rollicking Tom,
+&#8220;here&#8217;s my old buddy! Totantora, how are
+you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They shook hands, the Indian gravely but with
+an expression in his eyes that revealed a more
+than ordinary affection for the young white man.
+In France and along the Rhine Totantora, the
+Osage chief, had become the sworn follower of
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span>
+the drygoods merchant&#8217;s son&mdash;a situation to cause
+remark, if not wonder.
+</p>
+<p>Tom had learned a few words of the Osage
+tongue and could understand some of Totantora&#8217;s
+gutturals. What the chief said seemed at one
+point to refer to Ruth, who, quite unconscious,
+was talking with Mr. Hammond across the room.
+Tom glanced at Ruth&#8217;s back and shook his head
+slightly. But he made no audible comment upon
+what the Indian said.
+</p>
+<p>He did not, indeed, see much of Ruth that
+night; but in one moment of privacy she said to
+Tom:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you want to make an early morning excursion&mdash;before
+Lazybones Helen is roused from her
+rosy slumbers?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bet you!&#8221; was Tom&#8217;s boyish reply.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Six o&#8217;clock, then, at the dock. If you are
+there first rouse out Willie, the boatman, and offer
+him a five dollar bill from me to take us
+through the islands in the <i>Gem</i>. That&#8217;s his boat.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll find him to-night and make sure,&#8221; said
+Tom promptly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are a faithful servitor,&#8221; laughed Ruth,
+and left him before Tom could take any advantage
+of her kindness.
+</p>
+<p>The appointment was kept to the letter and
+minute in the morning. Helen was still asleep
+when Ruth dressed and stole out of the bungalow.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span>
+Not many of the people on the island, save the
+cooks and dining-room employees, were astir. But
+Tom and the boatman&mdash;and the <i>Gem</i>&mdash;were at
+the dock in readiness.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth gave Willie his instructions. He was to
+make a landing at the far end of the island on
+which the picture had been taken the day before.
+It was too early for any of Mr. Hooley&#8217;s men to
+be over there looking for the old man whose face
+had spoiled several hundred feet of good film.
+Ruth wished, if possible, to first interview the
+strange man.
+</p>
+<p>She took Tom into her confidence at once about
+the King of the Pipes. She did not believe the
+man was so crazy that he ought to be shut up in
+an asylum. He was merely &#8220;queer.&#8221; And if
+they could get him off the island and out of the
+way while the picture was being shot, he might
+then go back to his hermit life and play at being
+king all he wished to.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What a lark!&#8221; exclaimed Tom, looking at the
+matter a good deal as his twin sister did. &#8220;And
+you are constantly falling in with queer characters,
+Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You might better say they are falling in with
+me, for I am sure I do not intentionally hunt them
+up,&#8221; complained Ruth. &#8220;And this poor old man
+has cost us money enough.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is too bad,&#8221; was Tom&#8217;s comment.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Worse than that, perhaps Mr. Hooley will
+never again get as fine an allegorical picture as
+he did yesterday. They were all in the spirit of
+the piece when the shot was made.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They arrived at the sloping stone beach and
+landed as Ruth and the girls had before disembarked.
+Ruth led Tom up the rough path into
+the woods beyond the table-rock. The trees
+stood thick, and the bushes were thorny, but they
+pushed through to an open space surrounding an
+old, gnarled, lightning-riven beech. The top of
+this monarch of the ancient forest had been
+broken off and the line of its rotted trunk and
+branches could be marked amid the undergrowth.
+But the staff of it stood at least thirty feet in
+height.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What a spread of shade it must have given
+in its day,&#8221; said Tom. &#8220;All these other tall trees
+have grown up since the top broke off.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Quite so,&#8221; agreed Ruth. &#8220;But where do you
+suppose that queer old man has his camp?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They looked all about the island, coming back
+at last to the riven beech. But they found no
+mark of human occupancy on the island.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I smell wood smoke, just the same,&#8221; Tom
+declared, sniffing the air. &#8220;There is a fire somewhere
+near.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They saw no smoke, however, nor did they find
+any cavity in the rocks that seemed to have been
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span>
+occupied by man or used as the rudest kind of
+camp.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maybe he doesn&#8217;t live on this island after all,&#8221;
+said Tom. &#8220;He could get to half a dozen other
+islands from here in a light canoe. Or even on
+a raft.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He spoke as though he considered this particular
+island his kingdom,&#8221; rejoined Ruth. &#8220;This
+was the only place he warned me away from&mdash;not
+from the islands in general. I don&#8217;t understand
+it at all, Tom. And I don&#8217;t want the men to be
+unkind to him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, it looks to me,&#8221; observed her friend,
+&#8220;that if we cannot find him, they will be unable
+to find him as well. So I wouldn&#8217;t worry, Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But the girl went back to the Gem and sailed
+again to the headquarters of the moving picture
+company not at all satisfied as to the result of
+their undertaking.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XI_BILBY_AGAIN' id='XI_BILBY_AGAIN'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3>BILBY AGAIN</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The work of picture making that day went
+without a hitch. Mr. Hooley sent several men
+into the woods above the spot on the shore of
+the &#8220;Kingdom of Pipes,&#8221; as Helen insisted upon
+calling the island where the prologue of the picture
+was made, and they remained on watch there
+during the activities of the company below.
+</p>
+<p>When the film was developed and run off in the
+projection room that evening it was pronounced
+by all&mdash;even by Mr. Hammond&mdash;as good in detail
+as the spoiled reel.
+</p>
+<p>From that point the work went on briskly, for
+the weather remained perfect for picture taking.
+Ruth was busy; but she could give some time to
+enjoyment, too, especially in the evening; and
+that next evening when Chess Copley appeared
+in his own motor-boat, the <i>Lauriette</i>, she was glad
+to join a moonlight boating party which ventured
+as far as Alexandria Bay, where they had supper
+and danced at the pavilion, returning to the picture
+camp in the early hours of the morning.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span></p>
+<p>Ruth was Chessleigh&#8217;s particular guest on this
+occasion, and Tom and Helen Cameron went in
+another launch.
+</p>
+<p>The moonlight upon the islands and the passages
+of silvery water between them was most
+beautiful. And Ruth enjoyed herself immensely.
+That is, she found the occasion enjoyable until
+they got back to the bungalow and had bidden
+the Copleys and their party good night. Then
+the girl of the Red Mill found her roommate
+rather irritable. Helen pouted and was frankly
+cross when she spoke.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see what you find so interesting in
+Chess Copley,&#8221; she observed, brushing her hair
+before the glass.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He is nice I think,&#8221; replied Ruth placidly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you just ignore Tommy-boy.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I could not very well refuse Chess when he
+invited me into his launch. I did not know you
+and Tom were going in the other boat.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I wasn&#8217;t going with Chess. And I
+wouldn&#8217;t let Tommy tag after you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish you wouldn&#8217;t be so foolish, Helen,&#8221;
+sighed her chum.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If you act this way,&#8221; declared the rather unreasonable
+Helen, &#8220;you&#8217;ll spoil our whole visit
+at the Thousand Islands.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness!&#8221; exclaimed Ruth, for once
+showing exasperation, &#8220;you do not talk very sensibly,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span>
+Helen. I have come here to work, not to
+play. Please bear that in mind. If you think I
+spoil your sport I will not join any other evening
+parties.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The next evening when the Copley party came
+over to get acquainted with some of the moving
+picture people and arrange for a big dance on
+Saturday night, Ruth was as good as her word,
+and remained in Mr. Hammond&#8217;s office, recasting
+certain scenes in her story that Mr. Hooley
+proposed to make next day.
+</p>
+<p>Helen was sure Ruth was &#8220;mad&#8221; and kept out
+of the way intentionally. She told Tom so. But
+she did not choose to relieve Chess Copley&#8217;s
+loneliness when she saw him mooning about.
+</p>
+<p>Whenever Chess tried to speak to Helen in
+private she ran away from him. Whether it was
+loyalty to her brother, Tom, or some other reason
+that made Helen treat Copley so unkindly, the
+fact remained that Chess was plainly not in
+Helen&#8217;s good books, although she made much of
+the two Copley girls.
+</p>
+<p>The next day Ruth was quite as busy, for the
+making of the picture was going ahead rapidly
+while the good weather lasted. This story she
+had written was more of a pageant than anything
+she had yet essayed. The scenes were almost all
+&#8220;on location,&#8221; instead of being filmed under a
+glass roof.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span></p>
+<p>Helen and Tom did not seem to understand
+that their friend could not go off fishing or sailing
+or otherwise junketing whenever they would like to
+have her. But picture making and directors, and
+especially sunlight, will not wait, and so Ruth
+tried to tell them.
+</p>
+<p>It was Chess Copley, after all, who seemed
+to have the better appreciation of Ruth&#8217;s situation
+just at this time. Before a week had passed he
+was almost always to be found at Ruth&#8217;s beck and
+call; for when she could get away from the work
+of picture making, Chess turned up as faithfully
+as the proverbial bad penny.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are not a bad penny, however, Chess,&#8221;
+she told him, smiling. &#8220;You are a good scout.
+Now you may take me out in your motor-boat.
+If it is too late to fish, we can at least have
+a run out into the river. How pretty it is to-day!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If everybody treated me as nicely as you do,
+Ruth,&#8221; he said, rather soberly, &#8220;my head would
+be turned.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Cheer up, Chess,&#8221; she said, laughing. &#8220;I
+don&#8217;t say the worst is yet to come. Perhaps the
+best will come to you in time.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You say that only to encourage me I fear.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I certainly don&#8217;t say it to discourage you,&#8221; she
+confessed. &#8220;Going around like a faded lily isn&#8217;t
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span>
+going to help you a mite&mdash;and so I have already
+told you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Huh! How&#8217;s a fellow going to register joy
+when he feels anything but?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d make a poor screen actor,&#8221; she told
+him. &#8220;See Mr. Grand to-day. He has an ulcerated
+tooth and is going to the Bay to-night to
+have it treated. Yet, as the French voyageur, he
+had to make love to Wonota and Miss Keith,
+both. Some job!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That fellow makes love as easy as falling off
+a log,&#8221; grumbled Chess. &#8220;I never saw such a
+fellow.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But the girls flock to see him in any picture.
+If he were my brother&mdash;or husband&mdash;I would
+never know when he was really making love or
+just registering love. Still actors live in a world
+of their own. They are not like other people&mdash;if
+they are really good actors.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Copley&#8217;s <i>Lauriette</i> shot them half way across
+the broad St. Lawrence before sunset, and from
+that point they watched the sun sink in the west
+and the twilight gather along the Canadian shore
+and among the islands on the American side.
+</p>
+<p>When Chessleigh was about to start the engine
+again and head for the camp&mdash;and dinner&mdash;they
+suddenly spied a powerful speed boat coming out
+from the Canadian side. It cleaved the water like
+the blade of a knife, throwing up a silver wave
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span>
+on either side. And as it passed the <i>Lauriette</i>
+Ruth and her companion could see several men in
+her cockpit.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There are those fellows again,&#8221; Chess remarked.
+&#8220;Wonder what they are up to? That
+boat passed our island yesterday evening and the
+crowd in her then acted to me as though they
+were drunk.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should think&mdash;&mdash;Why!&#8221; exclaimed Ruth
+suddenly breaking off in what she was first going
+to say, &#8220;one of those men is a Chinaman.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So he is,&#8221; agreed Chessleigh Copley.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And that little fat man&mdash;see him? Why,
+Chess! it looks like&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who is it?&#8221; asked the young fellow, in surprise
+at Ruth&#8217;s excitement.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s Bilby!&#8221; gasped Ruth. &#8220;That horrid man! I
+I hoped we had seen the last of him. And now
+he&#8217;s right here where we are working with Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She had said so much that she had to explain
+fully about Bilby, while they sat and watched the
+speed boat disappear up the river. Ruth was
+sure she had made no mistake in her identification
+of the rival picture producer who had made
+her so much trouble back at the Red Mill.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I must tell Mr. Hammond at once,&#8221; she concluded.
+&#8220;If Bilby is here, he is here for no good
+purpose, I can be sure. And if he has a boat
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span>
+like that at his command, we must keep double
+watch.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You think he would try to abduct Wonota
+again?&#8221; queried Chess.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I would believe that fellow capable of anything,&#8221;
+she returned. &#8220;I mean anything that did
+not call for personal courage on his part.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph!&#8221; murmured Chess thoughtfully. &#8220;I
+wonder what he was doing with the Chinaman in
+his party. You know, sometimes Chinamen are
+smuggled across from Canada against the emigration
+laws of the States.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He headed the <i>Lauriette</i> for the camp then,
+and they arrived there in a rather serious mood.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XII_THE_DANCE_AT_ALEXANDRIA_BAY' id='XII_THE_DANCE_AT_ALEXANDRIA_BAY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3>THE DANCE AT ALEXANDRIA BAY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;You might have been mistaken, I suppose,
+Miss Ruth?&#8221; suggested Mr. Hammond, the president
+of the film corporation, sitting at his desk in
+the room of the main bungalow which he used as
+an office. &#8220;It was growing dark when that speed
+boat passed you and your friend, was it not?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not out on the river, Mr. Hammond. It was
+light enough for us to see the men in that boat
+plainly. Just as sure as one of them was a Chinaman,
+the short, fat man was Horatio Bilby.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t seem possible that the fellow would
+chase away up here after us when he so signally
+failed down below. My lawyer tells me that he
+had no real authority from the Bureau of Indian
+Affairs to secure Wonota&#8217;s services, after all.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He is a man who would not need much authority
+to attempt any mean thing,&#8221; said the girl
+hotly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That may be true,&#8221; admitted Mr. Hammond.
+&#8220;But it seems quite too sensational.&#8221; He smiled,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span>
+adding: &#8220;Quite too much like a movie plot, eh?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You say yourself that he has obtained the
+production rights to those &#8216;Running Deer&#8217; stories
+that have appeared in the <i>Gotham Magazine</i>,&#8221;
+said Ruth, with earnestness. &#8220;They are good
+stories, Mr. Hammond. I have read them.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I believe they are pretty good material
+for pictures. That is, if they were handled by a
+practical scenario writer like yourself.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is too bad you did not get them.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, Bilby was ahead of us there. Somehow,
+he got backing and bought the picture and
+dramatic rights to the tales outright. He can
+find somebody besides Wonota to play <i>Running
+Deer</i>.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He seems to have set his heart on our
+Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. He did make Totantora a whacking
+good offer. I must admit he did. I could not
+begin to see such a price for the girl&#8217;s services.
+And on a mere speculation. But I pointed out to
+Totantora that, after all, a promise is only a
+promise. He and Wonota have already had considerable
+hard cash from us,&#8221; and Mr. Hammond
+ended with a laugh.
+</p>
+<p>He was evidently not so much impressed by the
+possible danger of Bilby&#8217;s presence in the Thousand
+Islands as Ruth could have wished. She determined
+herself, however, to be sharply on the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span>
+watch for the reappearance of the coarse little
+fat man who had so troubled her and the Indians
+at the Red Mill.
+</p>
+<p>She took Totantora into her confidence, after
+speaking to Mr. Hammond, although she did not
+say a word to Wonota. Despite the natural
+stoicism of the Osage maiden, Ruth did not know
+but that Wonota might become nervous if she
+knew the plotting Bilby was near at hand.
+</p>
+<p>The chief listened to Ruth&#8217;s warning with a
+certain savage anger in his look that warned Ruth
+not to push the suggestion of Bilby&#8217;s determination
+to obtain possession of Wonota too far. The
+chief was not a patient man, and the possible threat
+against the safety of his daughter roused in him
+the instinct of defence.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Me watch,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That fat man come
+here, me chase him away. Yes!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t do him any harm, Totantora,&#8221; warned
+Ruth. &#8220;But tell Mr. Hammond or me if you see
+him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Nobody saw Bilby immediately, however; and
+as several days passed Ruth began to wonder if,
+after all, she had not been mistaken in her identification
+of the fat man in the boat.
+</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, the making of the picture went on
+steadily; but something else&mdash;and something
+Helen Cameron at least considered of moment&mdash;was
+planned during this time.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span></p>
+<p>Many other summer residents of the Thousand
+Islands besides the Copleys had now arrived, and
+the gaiety of the season was at its height. There
+was one very large hotel at Alexandria Bay, and
+it was planned to use its ballroom for a &#8220;big war
+dance,&#8221; to quote Helen. It was to be a costume
+dance, and everybody that appeared on the floor
+must be dressed in Indian costume.
+</p>
+<p>Wonota helped the chums and the actresses
+with the Alectrion Film Corporation who attended,
+in the getting up of their costumes and the
+staining of their faces and arms. The Osage girl
+herself wore a beautiful beaded robe, feather-trimmed
+and brilliantly dyed. It was her &#8220;coronation
+robe&#8221; in the picture she was helping to film.
+But Mr. Hammond, who likewise attended the
+dance, allowed the girl to wear this finery, which
+really was part of the &#8220;props&#8221; of the company.
+</p>
+<p>Launches were engaged from Chippewa Bay to
+take most of those from the camp who attended
+the dance, either as participants in the costume
+review or as spectators, but Chess Copley arranged
+to come for his particular friends in the
+<i>Lauriette</i>.
+</p>
+<p>Helen was tempted to refuse to go in the Copley
+launch; but when she saw Jean and Sara Copley
+beside their brother, she went aboard with
+Ruth and Tom. There actually was no friction
+between the two young men, although Tom usually
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span>
+addressed Chess by that opprobrious nickname,
+&#8217;Lasses, while Chess retorted by scoffing at all the
+ex-captain&#8217;s opinions and advice on any and all
+subjects.
+</p>
+<p>Really, had she not felt that she was partly
+the cause of this mild strife, Ruth would have
+laughed at the two. They were, after all, but
+grown-up boys.
+</p>
+<p>It was a gay party aboard the <i>Lauriette</i>, nevertheless.
+Even Wonota (whom Ruth was keeping
+with her) was gay. And she was so pretty in her
+beautiful costume that when they arrived at the
+hotel the young men at the dance vied in their
+attempts to have her for a partner on the floor.
+</p>
+<p>There was a fine band and the dancing floor
+was smooth. Even Mr. Hammond went on to
+the floor, having secured a costume, and Mother
+Paisley, who acted as chaperon for the moving picture
+girls, was as light as anybody on her feet and
+the embodiment of grace.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Actor folk nowadays,&#8221; the old woman told
+Ruth once, &#8220;are not trained as they once were. I
+came of circus folk. My people had been circus
+performers in the old country for generations before
+my father and mother came over here. My
+husband was a trapeze performer.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And working on the bars makes one supple
+and limber beyond any other form of exercise.
+Afterward, while still a young girl, I was in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span>
+ballet. At least, when one has had my training,
+one brings to the speaking stage a grace and
+carriage that can scarcely be secured in any other
+way.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;As for this moving picture business,&#8221; she
+sighed, &#8220;I see these poor girls as awkward as
+heifers&mdash;and they are really learning very little.
+They depend upon the director to tell them how a
+lady should enter a room, and how to walk. But
+often the director has never seen a real lady enter
+a room! Directors of moving pictures are not
+masters of deportment as our old dancing masters
+were.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth always listened to strictures upon the moving
+picture art and gained what she could from
+such criticism. And the harshest critics the motion
+pictures have are the people who work in them.
+But, after all, Ruth had a vision.
+</p>
+<p>She felt that in spite of all the &#8220;great,&#8221;
+&#8220;grand,&#8221; &#8220;magnificent,&#8221; &#8220;enormous&#8221; pictures already
+advertised upon the billboards, the public
+was still waiting for a really well made and properly
+written and acted series of pictures that
+claimed neither more sensationalism than they
+possessed, nor were hastily and carelessly made.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth liked to work with Mr. Hammond, and
+he had been very kind and considerate of her.
+But she felt that, untrammeled, she would be able
+to make better pictures than she had made with
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span>
+him. She wanted a free hand, and she felt the
+insistence of the treasurer&#8217;s office at her elbow.
+Money could be lavished upon anything spectacular&mdash;for
+instance, like this French-Indian picture
+they were making. But much had to be
+&#8220;speeded up&#8221; to save money in other phases of
+production.
+</p>
+<p>Mr. Hammond, like most of the other moving
+picture producers, thought only of the audience
+coming out of the theater with &#8220;ohs!&#8221; and &#8220;ahs!&#8221;
+upon their lips regarding the spectacular features
+in the film shown. Ruth wanted to go deeper&mdash;wanted
+to make the impression upon the minds
+and intelligence of the audiences. She felt that
+the pictures could be something bigger than mere
+display.
+</p>
+<p>But this is all aside from the fun they had at
+the costume dance. Ruth and Helen both danced
+with Mr. Hammond and Mr. Grand and with several
+others of the moving picture people, as well
+as with their own friends. Chess got the second
+dance with Ruth; and then he had the third; and
+then got the sixth. He might have gone on all
+the evening coming back to her and begging the
+favor had Ruth not insisted upon his devoting
+himself to some of his sisters&#8217; friends.
+</p>
+<p>But, at the same time, Ruth was somewhat
+piqued because Tom Cameron did not come near
+her all the first part of the evening. She could
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span>
+not understand what the matter really was with
+him&mdash;why he acted in so offish a manner.
+</p>
+<p>After that sixth dance (and Ruth had danced
+them all with one partner or another) she sent
+Chess away from her definitely. She went in
+search of Tom. The orchestra began playing for
+the next dance. Ruth looked keenly about the
+brilliant assembly. She knew Tom&#8217;s costume&mdash;it
+was distinctive and could not be mistaken. But
+she could not mark it at all in the throng.
+</p>
+<p>Two or three men asked her to dance, but she
+pleaded fatigue and continued to walk about the
+edge of the ballroom. Finally, in an alcove, sitting
+at an empty table, and with no companion,
+she spied the recreant Tom.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Tom!&#8221; she cried cheerfully, &#8220;are you
+sitting out this dance too? And the music is so
+pretty.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The music is all right,&#8221; he agreed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you want to dance?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. I do not want to dance,&#8221; he answered
+sourly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not&mdash;not even with me, Tom?&#8221; she ventured,
+smiling rather wistfully at his averted face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;With nobody. I am waiting for Helen and
+the rest of you to get enough of this foolishness
+and go home.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Tom! You&mdash;you are not ill?&#8221; she ventured,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span>
+putting out a hand to touch his shoulder
+yet not touching it.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not at all, Ruth,&#8221; he said, and now he glanced
+up at her. His look was cold. &#8220;Not at all.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are not yourself,&#8221; she said, more composedly.
+&#8220;What are you thinking of?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am thinking,&#8221; said Tom, looking away again
+and with the same moodiness, &#8220;that I was a fool
+to leave the army. That was my job. I should
+have stuck to it. I should have used my commission
+and father&#8217;s influence to stay in the army.
+But it&#8217;s too late now. I guess I had my chance
+and didn&#8217;t know enough to use it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He arose abruptly, bowed stiffly, and walked
+away. If Tom had actually slapped her, Ruth
+could have felt no more hurt.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIII_THE_KINGDOM_OF_PIPES' id='XIII_THE_KINGDOM_OF_PIPES'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3>THE KINGDOM OF PIPES</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ruth Fielding at first felt only hurt; then
+she felt angry. She was no longer the timid, sensitive
+girl who had faced Jabez Miller when she
+first came to the Red Mill with a tremulous smile,
+to be sure, but tears standing thick in her eyes.
+No, indeed!
+</p>
+<p>The present Ruth Fielding, a young woman of
+purpose and experience, not only could hide her
+feelings&mdash;especially if they were hurt ones&mdash;but
+possessed a saving sense of humor. And to her
+mind, just a moment later, Tom Cameron&#8217;s very
+military looking shoulders and stride seemed
+rather funny.
+</p>
+<p>He had hurt her; but then, he had hurt her as
+a boy might. It was true, perhaps, Tom was not
+grown up. Ruth considered that she was&mdash;very
+much so!
+</p>
+<p>There he was, daring to complain because his
+army career had ended so suddenly&mdash;wishing that
+he had remained in uniform. And how would his
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span>
+father and his sister have felt if he had done so!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a great, big booby!&#8221; Ruth whispered to
+herself. Then her smile came back&mdash;that wistful,
+caressing smile&mdash;and she shook her head.
+&#8220;But he&#8217;s Tom, and he always will be. Dear me!
+isn&#8217;t he ever going to grow up?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>So she hid her hurt and accepted the first partner
+thereafter who offered; but it was not Chess.
+Secretly she knew what the matter with Tom was.
+And she was too proud to let the ex-captain see
+that she cared. Nevertheless she was sorry that
+the party from down the river broke up as they
+did when the time to go home came.
+</p>
+<p>She found herself in the Copley&#8217;s launch again,
+with Chess&#8217; sisters and the members of the house
+party the Copleys were entertaining at their
+island. This dividing of the clans made it possible
+for Chess after letting the others out at the
+Copley dock, to take Ruth to the moving picture
+island alone.
+</p>
+<p>It was a lovely, soft, moonlight night. The
+haze over the islands and the passages between
+could not be called a fog, but it was almost as
+shrouding as a fog. When Chess ran the launch
+outside into the main stream, where the current
+was broad and swift, the haze lay upon the rippling
+surface like a blanket.
+</p>
+<p>They were going very swiftly here, for it was
+with the current. Suddenly Chess shut off the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span>
+engine. The &#8220;plop&#8221; of the exhaust ceased. They
+drifted silently on the bosom of the St. Lawrence.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see why I am treated so, Ruth,&#8221; Chess
+suddenly burst out. &#8220;Do you know, I&#8217;m awfully
+unhappy?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You poor boy!&#8221; said Ruth in her warm-hearted
+way. &#8220;I think you are over-sensitive.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course I am sensitive. I shall always be
+when I am&mdash;am&mdash;interested in any person and
+their treatment of me. It is congenital.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dear, dear!&#8221; laughed Ruth. &#8220;They have discovered
+that even incipient congenital idiocy can
+be cured by the removal of the adenoids. But
+I don&#8217;t suppose such an operation will help you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, don&#8217;t tease a fellow,&#8221; complained her
+friend.
+</p>
+<p>He reached for the throttle, then hesitated.
+Somewhere in the mist ahead was the throb of
+another engine.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who&#8217;s this?&#8221; muttered Chess.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maybe it is Tom&mdash;looking for us,&#8221; said Ruth,
+chuckling.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The gall of him,&#8221; exclaimed the heated Copley.
+Then he made a gesture for silence. A
+long, quavering &#8220;co-ee! co-ee!&#8221; came through the
+mist and from the south.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;From one of the islands,&#8221; said Chess quickly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What island is that over there?&#8221; demanded
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span>
+Ruth, in a whisper. &#8220;Isn&#8217;t it the one we took the
+first picture on?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It sure is,&#8221; agreed the young fellow, but wonderingly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Kingdom of Pipes,&#8221; murmured Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221; asked Chessleigh.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth repeated Helen&#8217;s name for the rocky
+island on which Ruth had met the queer old man.
+&#8220;That call came from the island, didn&#8217;t it?&#8221; she
+asked.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe it did. What&#8217;s going on here?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; begged Ruth. &#8220;That launch is coming
+nearer.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>As she spoke, a moving object appeared in the
+mist. There was no light upon this strange craft.
+Chessleigh shuttered his own cockpit lamp instantly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good boy,&#8221; acclaimed Ruth. &#8220;There is something
+going on here&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They heard the call from the island again.
+There was a low reply from the strange launch&mdash;a
+whistle. Then the launch pushed on and was
+hidden by the mist again from the curious eyes of
+Ruth and her companion.
+</p>
+<p>But they knew it had gone close to the island,
+if it had not really touched there. Its engine
+was stilled. All they heard for a time was the
+lapping of the waves.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to know what it means,&#8221; grumbled
+Chess.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth agreed. &#8220;Let&#8217;s wait a while. We may
+hear or see something more.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Won&#8217;t see much, I guess,&#8221; replied her companion.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never mind. Let the boat drift. We&#8217;re all
+right out here in the current, are we not?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Guess so. It beats my time,&#8221; said her friend.
+&#8220;They say there is a lot of smuggling done along
+the border.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you say so?&#8221; gasped Ruth, clasping her
+hands and almost as excited as Helen might have
+been. &#8220;Smugglers! Think of it!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And bad eggs they are.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course there is no danger?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Danger of what?&#8221; he asked.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t the smugglers hurt us if we caught
+them?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t know. I&#8217;ve got a loaded pistol in the
+cabin. Guess I&#8217;ll get it out,&#8221; said Chess.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess you won&#8217;t!&#8221; Ruth exclaimed. &#8220;We&#8217;ll
+go right away from here before we get into a
+fight!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph!&#8221; grunted Chess. &#8220;You don&#8217;t suppose
+they would welcome any spies if they are
+smugglers, do you?&#8221; he asked.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But what do they smuggle? Diamonds? Precious
+stones?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t know. Maybe. There is a heavy internal
+revenue tax on diamonds,&#8221; Chess said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goodness! wouldn&#8217;t Helen like to be here.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;d want to go ashore and take a hand
+in it,&#8221; grinned Copley. &#8220;I know her.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Helen is brave,&#8221; admitted Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph! She&#8217;s foolish, you mean,&#8221; he declared.
+&#8220;Whatever and whoever those fellows
+are, they would not welcome visitors I fancy.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Their launch had been drifting by the island,
+the upper ridge and trees of which they could
+see quite plainly. Suddenly a breath of wind&mdash;the
+forecast of the breeze that often rises toward
+daybreak&mdash;swooped down upon the river. It
+split the mist and revealed quite clearly the upper
+end of the island where Ruth had interviewed the
+queer old man, and which Copley&#8217;s launch had
+now drifted past.
+</p>
+<p>A light showed suddenly, and for a few moments,
+close to the water&#8217;s edge. It revealed
+enough for the two in the drifting launch to see
+several figures outlined in the misty illumination
+of the light.
+</p>
+<p>There was the bow of the mysterious boat close
+against the landing place. At least three men
+were in the boat and on the shore. Ruth could
+not be sure that either of them was the old man
+she had spoken with.
+</p>
+<p>But she and Chess Copley saw that they were
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span>
+unloading something from the boat&mdash;square,
+seemingly heavy boxes, yet not so heavy that they
+could not be passed from hand to hand. One was
+about all the weight a man might easily lift.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you suppose those boxes are?&#8221;
+whispered Ruth, as the Copley launch drifted into
+the mist again and the end of the island and the
+other boat were blotted out of sight.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Give it up. Provisions&mdash;supplies. Maybe
+they are going to camp there. Lots of people
+camp out on these smaller islands.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The King of the Pipes will have something
+to say about that,&#8221; laughed Ruth. &#8220;One thing
+sure about it,&#8221; she added the next moment, as
+Chess started his engine again. &#8220;Those boxes
+don&#8217;t contain diamonds.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should say not!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So if we saw smugglers they are smuggling
+something besides precious stones,&#8221; said the girl
+gaily. &#8220;Won&#8217;t Helen be interested when I tell
+her!&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIV_A_DEMAND_IS_MADE' id='XIV_A_DEMAND_IS_MADE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h3>A DEMAND IS MADE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Helen had gone to bed when Ruth went into
+their bedroom that morning, and either she was
+asleep or did not want to speak to her chum.
+Ruth felt that, after what had gone on at the ball
+at Alexandria Bay, she had better not wake Helen
+up to tell her about the strange launch that had
+landed at the Kingdom of the Pipes.
+</p>
+<p>And in the morning the attitude of both Helen
+and Tom closed Ruth&#8217;s lips on all subjects. The
+twins were plainly offended. Why? Because
+Ruth had shown ordinary interest in other people
+besides themselves!
+</p>
+<p>At least, that is how Ruth saw it. She thought
+it very silly for Helen to be jealous. Tom&#8217;s
+jealousy was another matter; but he had brought
+the situation on himself.
+</p>
+<p>For once Ruth was determined not to give in,
+as she so often did when Helen showed spleen.
+Fortunately, Ruth was busy with her picture work,
+so she had good reason to excuse herself from
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span>
+much association with the Cameron twins during
+the next two days.
+</p>
+<p>Then something happened to give them all an
+entirely different topic of thought and conversation.
+That day had been spent in taking close-ups
+and scenes under the canvas and glass roof
+of the make-shift studio that had been built at the
+camp. The great pageant of historical times
+along the St. Lawrence was moving swiftly on its
+way. The scenes of a picture are seldom taken
+in any sequence at all, but Mr. Hooley had gone
+so far now that the bulk of the scenes had been
+filmed; and as they had been run off in the little
+projection room, both Mr. Hammond and Ruth
+had expressed their approval of almost every
+finished length of celluloid.
+</p>
+<p>The work was practically over for the day at
+four o&#8217;clock and the actors in their costumes&mdash;especially
+the Indians, including Wonota and her
+father&mdash;made a brilliant picture as they wandered
+about the lawns and in and out of the several
+bungalows on the island.
+</p>
+<p>From the direction of Chippewa Bay appeared
+a chugging motor-launch that came directly to the
+dock. It was not one of the hired launches used
+by the picture company, nor were those in the
+launch men who had anything to do with Mr.
+Hammond&#8217;s corporation.
+</p>
+<p>But when Ruth idly looked into the launch from
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span>
+her seat with Helen and Miss Keith and Mrs.
+Paisley on the porch of their house, the girl of
+the Red Mill got up suddenly, uttering an astonished
+exclamation:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That horrid man again!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hoity-toity!&#8221; exclaimed Mrs. Paisley.
+&#8220;What man deserves such a title as that, Miss
+Fielding?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That Bilby!&#8221; exclaimed Ruth. &#8220;I just felt
+it in my bones&mdash;like Aunt Alvirah&mdash;that that
+creature would annoy us again.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you are not disappointed,&#8221; said Helen
+drily. &#8220;Is that the fellow&mdash;that big gawk in the
+blue suit?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, no! I don&#8217;t know him,&#8221; said Ruth. &#8220;The
+little fat man tagging after the big fellow.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>For two men from the launch had now stepped
+ashore. In accordance with orders from Mr.
+Hammond, the visitors were stopped at the head
+of the dock. Nobody was allowed on the island
+without invitation or a permit.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let me tell you,&#8221; said the man in blue pompously,
+&#8220;that I am a county officer. You&#8217;d better
+have a care, young fellow.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say! I don&#8217;t care if you are the King of the
+Yaps,&#8221; said Willie, the boatman. &#8220;I have my
+orders. This is private property. Stay where
+you are&mdash;right where you are, mind!&mdash;till I send
+for the boss.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You send for them two Injuns&mdash;that is who
+our business is with,&#8221; put in Bilby. &#8220;That Totantora
+and Wonota. I want to see them&mdash;not that
+Hammond.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth had run to another house to warn those
+very individuals to get out of the way and to keep
+out of sight until Bilby&#8217;s visit was over. She did
+not know, of course, who the big man in blue was.
+</p>
+<p>The latter was inclined to be pompous and
+commanding, even when Mr. Hammond came
+down to the head of the dock to see him. It was
+evident that Bilby&#8217;s money felt warm in the deputy
+sheriff&#8217;s pocket, and he was determined to give
+the little fat man full weight for his cash.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This here business is something that can be
+settled without any row, Mr. Hammond&mdash;if that&#8217;s
+your name,&#8221; said the officer, puffingly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is my name, all right,&#8221; returned the president
+of the Alectrion Corporation. &#8220;And I
+don&#8217;t expect any row. What do you want&mdash;and
+that fellow behind you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Horatio Bilby grinned rather sheepishly.
+&#8220;Well, you know, Mr. Hammond, all&#8217;s fair in
+love and war.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is certainly not love,&#8221; said the moving
+picture man. &#8220;Now, what do you both want?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are ordered to bring two people into
+court,&#8221; said the deputy sheriff, &#8220;and show cause
+why they shouldn&#8217;t be handed over to Mr. Bilby
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span>
+pending certain proceedings to break their contract
+with you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Blunt enough,&#8221; admitted Mr. Hammond, but
+without excitement. &#8220;Let&#8217;s see: You have a paper
+of some kind, I suppose, to serve on me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve a summons for you,&#8221; said the officer,
+drawing forth some papers, &#8220;and I propose to
+take the two Indians back to the Bay with
+me.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can serve me, and I will arrange for my
+representative to appear for me in your court,&#8221;
+said Hammond. &#8220;But Totantora, to whom I
+suppose you refer, is a citizen of the United States,
+and you will have to find him to serve him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s nothing but an Injun!&#8221; squealed Bilby,
+in wrath.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Being an Osage Indian, and owning properly
+surveyed oil lands in Oklahoma, the Government
+has acknowledged his citizenship,&#8221; was the quiet
+reply. &#8220;He certainly is a good American and will
+doubtless answer to any court demand&mdash;if you
+can serve him legally.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You got him hid away somewhere?&#8221; demanded
+the deputy sheriff.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And the girl, too!&#8221; cried Bilby. &#8220;I want the
+girl more than I do the crazy old Indian.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll think he&#8217;s crazy if he ever sets eyes on
+you again, Mr. Bilby,&#8221; was Mr. Hammond&#8217;s
+warning. &#8220;He hasn&#8217;t forgotten you.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span></p>
+<p>Bilby drew back&mdash;and he looked frightened,
+too. &#8220;I&mdash;I don&#8217;t want him right now,&#8221; he muttered.
+</p>
+<p>Hammond accepted the summons of the local
+court, glanced at it, and put it in his pocket.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I see I have five days&#8217; grace,&#8221; he remarked.
+&#8220;All right. I will see that proper representation
+is made before the court.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But we want them Indians,&#8221; said the deputy.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This island is private property. I have hired
+its use for a certain term. I will allow you on it
+only under proper legal motion. Have you a
+search warrant?&#8221; Hammond asked the deputy.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I ain&#8217;t got a warrant. I don&#8217;t need a warrant
+for a couple of Indians. They ain&#8217;t got any
+standing in this community. I know Indians all
+right. You give &#8217;em over.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not even acknowledge that the two individuals
+you demand are under my control. At
+least, I know very well that no United States
+court can touch the young woman, Wonota, except
+through her guardian. That guardian is her
+father. I don&#8217;t see him here&mdash;do you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d better produce him,&#8221; threatened the
+deputy.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t make me. Go back and get proper
+authority&mdash;if you can,&#8221; advised Mr. Hammond.
+&#8220;And don&#8217;t come here again&mdash;either of
+you&mdash;without proper authority. Willie!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;On the job,&#8221; said the boatman, grinning.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t let these fellows upon the island again&mdash;not
+even on the dock. Not unless they are
+armed with a proper warrant.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He turned his back on the visitors and started
+toward the nearest bungalow.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll be sorry for this, Hammond!&#8221; shouted
+Horatio Bilby. &#8220;I&#8217;ll get you yet, and don&#8217;t you
+forget it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;To get me, as you call it, you will have to
+have both right and might on your side, Bilby.
+And just now you do not seem to have either,&#8221;
+was the Parthian shot the president of the Alectrion
+Corporation sent over his shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>Willie hustled the deputy and the fat man back
+into their launch.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Go on away from here,&#8221; advised Willie. &#8220;I
+know you, Tom Satchett&mdash;known you all my life.
+All you are fit for is to jump a few fishermen
+and game hunters that break the law. This job
+is too big for you. You&#8217;re up against money and
+influence, both, this time.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I won&#8217;t forget you, Willie,&#8221; growled the
+deputy. &#8220;You&#8217;ll want something of me some
+time&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I want something of you right now,&#8221; put in the
+boatman. &#8220;A good reason for punching you.
+Go on into your boat before I find it.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span></p>
+<p>So the pair retreated. But Ruth came to Mr.
+Hammond in some little disturbance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What shall we do?&#8221; she demanded. &#8220;Suppose
+they take Wonota away before the picture
+is finished?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They won&#8217;t. At least, I don&#8217;t believe the
+court will allow it. I will telegraph to a good
+lawyer and have him come up here and watch proceedings.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, if it should happen, we would be in a
+bad fix, Mr. Hammond. Mr. Hooley says nobody
+could double for Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s not cross bridges until we come to them,&#8221;
+returned her friend.
+</p>
+<p>But perhaps Mr. Hammond felt less confidence
+than he managed to get into his voice and
+appearance at that moment.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XV_THE_YELLOW_LADY' id='XV_THE_YELLOW_LADY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<h3>THE YELLOW LADY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>There could be no further haste about the
+making of the picture, &#8220;The Long Lane&#8217;s Turning.&#8221;
+Although most of the big scenes were already
+shot, those that remained to do held in them
+the more poignant action of the piece and must be
+rehearsed over and over again.
+</p>
+<p>Much time is sometimes spent upon a single
+scene&mdash;a few feet of a reel. Infinite patience,
+repetition and experimenting go into the making
+of a pictured story. Infinite detail and a close attention
+to that detail make the successful picture.
+</p>
+<p>To stage a &#8220;big&#8221; scene may seem to be a marvelous
+feat of the director. But in a big scene,
+with a large number of actors, the latter are
+divided into groups, each group has its captain,
+and each individual actor has to follow the lead
+of his particular captain. The groups are trained
+and perfected in every little motion before they
+come into the real scene before the camera.
+</p>
+<p>Thus the allegorical picture that was a prologue
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span>
+to &#8220;The Long Lane&#8217;s Turning&#8221; had been gone
+over and rehearsed again and again by the principal
+actors in it, even before the company left
+New York City.
+</p>
+<p>Now, with all these &#8220;big&#8221; scenes filmed, the
+more difficult work of making the individual
+scenes of action came to the fore. Wonota had
+to be coached over and over again in her scenes
+with Mr. Grand and Miss Keith. Both the latter
+were well-practised screen actors and could register
+the ordinary gamut of emotions as easily as
+they ate their breakfast or powdered their noses.
+</p>
+<p>With Wonota, however, it was different. In
+the first place, she came of a tribe of people in
+whom it was bred to smother all expression of
+emotion&mdash;even the most poignant. Wonota almost
+worshiped her father; but did she ever look
+upon Chief Totantora with a smile of pride or
+with affection beaming in her eyes?
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not so you&#8217;d notice it,&#8221; said Helen, on one
+occasion. &#8220;Ordinarily, as far as her looks go,
+Totantora might be a stranger to her.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is there any wonder, then,&#8221; sighed Ruth,
+&#8220;that we find it so hard to make her register affection
+for Mr. Grand? And she already should
+have learned to do that in that first picture we
+took out West.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maybe that&#8217;s the reason,&#8221; said Helen wickedly.
+&#8220;If she did not know Mr. Grand&#8217;s foibles
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span>
+so well, she might the better show interest in him.
+Goodness knows he&#8217;s handsome enough.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Better than that, he can act,&#8221; said Ruth
+thoughtfully. &#8220;Not many of these handsome
+screen heroes can do that. But perhaps if Wonota
+did not disdain him so much (and she does, secretly)
+she could play up to him better.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is there much more for her to do?&#8221; Helen
+asked, with renewed interest.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Several scenes&mdash;and some of them most important.
+Mr. Hooley can not give all his time
+to her. I am trying to coach her in them. But
+there is so much going on here at the island&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why not take her away to some other place
+and just pound it into her?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not to the Kingdom of Pipes!&#8221; laughed Ruth
+suddenly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. Let the old pirate have that place to his
+heart&#8217;s content. But there are other islands.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;True enough. Fourteen hundred of them.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on!&#8221; exclaimed the energetic Helen.
+&#8220;Let&#8217;s get Willie and the <i>Gem</i> and go somewhere
+with Wonota. You&#8217;ve all day to hammer at her.
+Get your continuity and try to get it into Wonota&#8217;s
+head that she is deeply and desperately in love
+with Grand.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>In spite of Helen&#8217;s brusk way of speaking,
+Ruth decided that her idea might be well worth
+following. Helen took some knitting and a parasol&mdash;and
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span>
+a hamper. Ruth gathered her necessary
+books and script; and likewise got Wonota. Then
+they boarded the launch and Willie took them up
+the river to a tiny islet not far from the Kingdom
+of Pipes, after all.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see anybody moving over there,&#8221;
+Helen remarked, as Willie landed them at the
+islet selected. She was looking at the island on
+which Ruth had had her adventure with the King
+of the Pipes. &#8220;It looks deserted enough. We
+might have gone there just as well as not.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I feel as well satisfied to keep away from that
+queer old fellow,&#8221; her chum said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who&#8217;s that?&#8221; asked Willie, the boatman,
+overhearing their remarks.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth told him about the strange man, and Willie
+laughed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh! That old jigger? Was he the fellow the
+boss wanted we should shoo off that island? Why
+didn&#8217;t he say so? Old Charley-Horse Pond. We
+all know him about here.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh!&#8221; cried Helen. &#8220;Is he crazy?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not enough to make any difference. Just
+got a twist in his brain. Calls himself a king,
+does he? Mebbe he will be a duke or an emperor
+next time. Or a doctor. Can&#8217;t tell. He gets
+fancies.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And of course he is not dangerous?&#8221; said
+Ruth.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Just about as dangerous as a fly,&#8221; drawled
+Willie. &#8220;And not so much. For flies bite&mdash;sometimes,
+and old Charley-Horse Pond ain&#8217;t even got
+teeth to bite with. No, Ma&#8217;am!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But what are the &#8216;pipes&#8217; he talks about? Why
+&#8216;King of the Pipes&#8217;?&#8221; demanded the insistent
+Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Got me. Never heard of &#8217;em,&#8221; declared
+Willie. &#8220;Now, you ladies all right here?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right, Willie,&#8221; said Ruth as the <i>Gem</i> was
+backed off the island.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll come for you at half past three, eh?
+That&#8217;s all right, then,&#8221; and the boatman was off.
+</p>
+<p>The three girls, really glad to be away from
+the crowd and the confusion of the moving picture
+camp, settled down to several hours of companionship.
+Helen could be silent if she pleased, and
+with her knitting and a novel proceeded to curl
+up under a tamarack tree and bury herself for
+the time being.
+</p>
+<p>Helen had not, however, forgotten the &#8220;inner
+woman,&#8221; as she pronounced it. When lunch time
+came she opened the covered basket which she
+had brought in addition to the book and the knitting,
+and produced sandwiches and cake, besides
+the wherewithal for the making of a cup of tea
+over a can of solidified alcohol. They lunched
+famously.
+</p>
+<p>It was while they were thus engaged, and chatting,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span>
+that the staccato exhaust of a motor-boat
+drew their attention to the Island of Pipes. From
+the other side, a boat was poking around into the
+passage leading to the American shore.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness!&#8221; exclaimed Helen, &#8220;the King
+of the Pipes isn&#8217;t in that boat, is he?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not at all,&#8221; Ruth assured her. &#8220;I see nobody
+who looks like him among those men&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;All are not men, Miss Ruth,&#8221; interrupted
+Wonota, the keen-eyed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you mean, Wonota?&#8221; gasped Helen,
+whirling around to gaze again at the passing
+launch.
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth did not say a word. She had been
+examining the boat closely. She saw it was the
+very speedy boat she and Chess Copley had seen
+out on the wider part of the river several weeks
+before. The launch was not moving rapidly now,
+but Ruth was sure that it was a powerful craft.
+</p>
+<p>It was Helen who marked the figure Wonota
+had spoken of in the boat. It certainly did not
+appear to be a man.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why Ruth! See! That is a woman!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A yellow-faced lady,&#8221; said Wonota calmly.
+&#8220;I saw her first, Miss Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>All three of the girls on the island stared after
+the moving motor-boat. Ruth saw the woman.
+She was dressed plainly but in modern garments.
+She did not seem to be one of the summer visitors
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span>
+to the islands. Indeed, her clothing&mdash;such as
+could be seen&mdash;pointed to city breeding, but nothing
+was chosen, it would seem, for wear in such
+a place as this. She might have been on a ferryboat
+going from shore to shore of the Hudson!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She <i>is</i> a yellow lady,&#8221; Wonota repeated
+earnestly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should say she was!&#8221; exclaimed Helen.
+&#8220;What do you think of her, Ruth?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am sure I do not know what to say,&#8221; the
+girl of the Red Mill answered. &#8220;Does she look
+like a white woman to you, Helen?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She is yellow,&#8221; reiterated Wonota.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She certainly is not an Indian,&#8221; observed
+Helen. &#8220;What say, Ruth?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She surely is not,&#8221; agreed her chum.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A yellow lady,&#8221; murmured Wonota again, as
+the boat drew behind another island and there
+remained out of sight.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVI_MAROONED' id='XVI_MAROONED'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<h3>MAROONED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wonder if the boat did come from that island
+over yonder?&#8221; Ruth murmured, after a few
+moments of thought.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;For goodness&#8217; sake! what are you worrying
+about?&#8221; asked Helen Cameron.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not worrying at all,&#8221; Ruth returned, smiling.
+&#8220;But I am curious.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;About that yellow lady?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;About what happens on that island the queer
+old man lives on.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t know that he really lives there,&#8221;
+was the prompt rejoinder.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is so. He may not be there now.
+But&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But me no buts, unless you mean to go on,&#8221;
+said Helen, as Ruth hesitated again.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It does seem queer,&#8221; said Ruth thoughtfully.
+&#8220;Other people go there besides the King of the
+Pipes.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Indeed! We all went there when that allegory
+was staged.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;And since then,&#8221; said Ruth, and proceeded to
+tell the two girls what she and Chess Copley had
+seen early one morning.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Men landing boxes on the island?&#8221; cried
+Helen, while Wonota merely looked puzzled.
+&#8220;There is a camp there, like enough. And those
+men&mdash;and the woman&mdash;in the launch might have
+come from there, of course. When Willie comes
+back for us, let&#8217;s sail around the island and see
+if we can spy where their tent is set up. For
+of course there is no house there?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tom and I found no habitation when we went
+to search for the old man,&#8221; admitted Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right. It must be a tent, then,&#8221; said her
+chum with conviction. &#8220;We&#8217;ll see.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But as it turned out, they made no such search
+that day. Indeed, Willie and the <i>Gem</i> did not
+return for them. The camp launch was not the
+first craft that appeared. Ruth was again coaching
+Wonota after lunch when Helen spied something
+on the water that caused her to cry out,
+drawing the other girls&#8217; attention.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who under the sun is this coming in the
+canoe?&#8221; Helen demanded. &#8220;Why! he is making
+it fairly fly. I never!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Wonota scarcely glanced in the direction of the
+distant moving picture camp, and she said composedly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is Chief Totantora. He comes for me.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span></p>
+<p>The Indian in the canoe caused the craft to tear
+through the water. No such paddling had the
+two white girls ever seen before. Not a motion
+was lost on the part of Chief Totantora. Every
+stroke of his paddle drove the craft on with a speed
+to make anybody marvel.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Something has happened!&#8221; gasped Ruth, standing
+up.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He comes for me,&#8221; repeated Wonota, still
+calmly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What for?&#8221; queried Helen, quite as much disturbed
+now as her chum.
+</p>
+<p>Before the Indian girl could have answered&mdash;had
+she intended to explain&mdash;the canoe came close
+in to the bank of the island, was swerved dexterously,
+and Totantora leaped ashore&mdash;a feat not at
+all easy to perform without overturning the canoe.
+It scarcely rocked.
+</p>
+<p>He stooped and held it from scraping against
+the rock, and shot up at his daughter several brief
+sentences in their own tongue. He paid no attention
+to Ruth, even, although she stepped forward
+and asked what his errand was.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I must go, Miss Ruth,&#8221; said Wonota quickly.
+&#8220;Mr. Hammond has sent him. It was arranged
+before.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What was arranged?&#8221; demanded Ruth, with
+some sharpness.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We are going yonder,&#8221; she pointed to the hazy
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span>
+shore of Grenadier Island that was in view from
+where they stood. &#8220;It is said by Mr. Hammond
+that yonder the man with the little green eyes&mdash;the
+fat man&mdash;cannot have us taken.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;For goodness&#8217; sake!&#8221; gasped Helen, &#8220;she&#8217;s
+talking of that Bilby, isn&#8217;t she?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What does it mean? Has Bilby come again?&#8221;
+cried Ruth, speaking directly to Totantora.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We go,&#8221; said the chief. &#8220;Hammond, he say
+so. Now. They come for me and for Wonota
+with talking papers from the white man&#8217;s court.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then Mr. Hammond&#8217;s lawyer could not do all
+Mr. Hammond expected,&#8221; sighed Ruth. &#8220;The
+picture will be ruined.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never heard of such a thing,&#8221; cried Helen
+angrily. &#8220;I&#8217;d like to know what sort of courts
+and judges they have up here in these woods?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth wanted to know more. She held
+Wonota back as she would have stepped into the
+canoe.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wait,&#8221; she urged. &#8220;Tell me more, Totantora.
+Where are you taking Wonota?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was the Indian girl who answered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Over on that shore,&#8221; said she, pointing again to
+the Canadian island, &#8220;these courts cannot touch us.
+Mr. Hammond told my father so. We go there
+to wait until the trouble is over. Mr. Hammond
+spoke of it before. Totantora is informed.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But it means delay and expense,&#8221; cried Ruth.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;How mean!&#8221; exploded Helen. &#8220;I&#8217;d like to do
+something to that Bilby.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Have you money&mdash;plenty of money?&#8221; Ruth demanded
+of the Indian.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I have money,&#8221; said Wonota, touching the
+bosom of her blouse. &#8220;We do not need much.
+We shall live quietly there until Mr. Hammond
+sends for us. We will be faithful to you, Miss
+Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She turned, with more impulsiveness than she
+usually showed, and kissed the white girl&#8217;s cheek.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are so good to me!&#8221; she cried. &#8220;I will
+not forget all you have taught me. And I will
+rehearse every day so to be perfect when Mr.
+Hooley wants me again.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>There was no way to stop her. Indeed, as Mr.
+Hammond had advised this sudden move, Ruth
+knew she had no right to interfere. It was evident
+that an emergency had arisen of which she, herself,
+knew nothing. In some way the enemy had forced
+Mr. Hammond&#8217;s hand. Totantora and his daughter
+were in danger of being brought into court after
+all, and Mr. Hammond did not wish that to
+come about.
+</p>
+<p>The Indian girl stepped lightly into the canoe
+and picked up the extra paddle. Her father leaped
+in after her, pushed the light craft away from
+the rock, and seized his own paddle. In another
+moment the canoe shot away from the island and
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span>
+off toward the broad expanse of the open St.
+Lawrence.
+</p>
+<p>Helen and Ruth stared after them&mdash;then at each
+other. Naturally it was Helen who first regained
+her voice and gave expression to her amazement.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you know about that?&#8221; she demanded.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I don&#8217;t know what to say,&#8221; murmured Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh! I know what to say, all right,&#8221; said the
+disgusted Helen. &#8220;It&#8217;s no joke.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth herself admitted it was nothing to laugh
+about. She saw difficulties in the way of the
+completion of &#8220;The Long Lane&#8217;s Turning&#8221; of
+which Helen knew but little&mdash;or of which she did
+not think.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth knew that there were scenes&mdash;some of
+them she had been studying with Wonota this day&mdash;that
+could not be changed nor eliminated.
+Wonota must be in them. No &#8220;double&#8221; could be
+used.
+</p>
+<p>In the first place, the Indian girl&#8217;s personality
+was distinct. It could not easily be matched.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth knew that, even at that time, one of the
+most popular screen actresses, because of her inability
+longer to look the child, was using a double
+for all her &#8220;close-ups&#8221; when she was forced to
+play those childish parts that a hungry public of
+&#8220;movie fans&#8221; demanded.
+</p>
+<p>Nothing like this would save &#8220;The Long Lane&#8217;s
+Turning.&#8221; The throne room scene in Paris, which
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span>
+was yet to be photographed, was too delicate a
+matter to put in the hands of any double. Wonota
+was herself&mdash;even in this picture she was a distinct
+personality&mdash;and she must be shown to the very
+end of the last reel and the last &#8220;fade-out.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The thoughts caused Ruth to feel very, very
+sober. Helen looked at her with some appreciation
+of her chum&#8217;s despair; yet she could not appreciate
+the situation in full.
+</p>
+<p>Suddenly the lighter-minded Helen leaped to her
+feet from the bank on which she was sitting, and
+exclaimed:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness, Ruth! do you realize that we are
+marooned?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Marooned?&#8221; was the wondering rejoiner.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Just as though we had been put ashore
+here by a crew of mutineers and deserted&mdash;a pair
+of Robinson Crusoesses!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your English&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bother my English!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It would surely bother Mrs. Tellingham&mdash;if
+she could hear it, poor dear.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, don&#8217;t sidetrack me,&#8221; remarked Helen.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t you see we are cast away on this desert
+isle with no means of getting back to the camp unless
+we swim?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Willie will be after us.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, will &#8217;e?&#8221; asked the roguish Helen, punning
+on the boatman&#8217;s name.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Do be sensible&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Even good sense will not rescue us,&#8221; interrupted
+Helen. &#8220;I&#8217;d like to get back to camp and
+hear all the exciting details. Totantora certainly
+can say less in a few moments than any person I
+ever saw. And Wonota is not much better.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It does not matter how much they said or how
+little. The fat is all in the fire, I guess,&#8221; groaned
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chirk up! Something is sure to turn up, I suppose.
+We won&#8217;t be left here to starve,&#8221; and
+Helen&#8217;s eyes flashed her fun.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, <i>you</i>!&#8221; began Ruth, half laughing too.
+Then she stopped and held up her hand. &#8220;What&#8217;s
+that?&#8221; she whispered.
+</p>
+<p>The sound was repeated. A long-drawn
+&#8220;co-ee! co-ee!&#8221; which drained away into the depths
+of the forest-covered islands all about them. They
+were not where they could see a single isle known
+to be inhabited.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who is calling us?&#8221; demanded Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; commanded Ruth. &#8220;That is not for
+us. I have heard it before. It comes from the
+King of the Pipes&#8217; island&mdash;to be sure it does.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s calling for help!&#8221; gasped Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He is doing nothing of the kind. It is a signal.&#8221;
+Ruth told Helen swiftly more of that early
+morning incident she and Chess Copley had observed
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span>
+when they saw the boxes carried ashore
+from the motor-boat.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Seems to me,&#8221; grumbled Helen, &#8220;you have a
+lot of adventures with &#8217;Lasses Copley, Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your own fault that you don&#8217;t,&#8221; returned her
+chum promptly. &#8220;You could have been along.
+But you don&#8217;t like Mr. Copley.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What has that to do with it?&#8221; rejoined Helen
+smartly. &#8220;I would go adventuring with any boy&mdash;even
+&#8217;Lasses.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t call him that,&#8221; commanded Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pooh! He likes it. Or he used to.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He is a nice fellow,&#8221; Ruth declared, with more
+earnestness than there really seemed to be necessity
+for.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;de-clare!&#8221; murmured Helen. &#8220;Really!
+Does the wind sit in that quarter?&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVII_A_DETERMINATION' id='XVII_A_DETERMINATION'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h3>A DETERMINATION</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>However the wind might sit and whatever may
+have been her secret opinion of Ruth Fielding&#8217;s interest
+in Chessleigh Copley, Helen suddenly became
+mute regarding that young man.
+</p>
+<p>But, after a moment, she was not at all mute
+upon the subject of the King of the Pipes and what
+might be going on on the island where they believed
+the queer old man had his headquarters.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If it should be smugglers over there&mdash;only
+fancy!&#8221; sighed Helen ecstatically. &#8220;Diamonds
+and silks and lots of precious things! My, oh,
+my!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Better than pirates?&#8221; laughed Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Consider!&#8221; cried her chum boldly. &#8220;I said
+that island looked like a pirate&#8217;s den from the
+start.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your fore-sight-hind-sight is wonderful,&#8221; declared
+Ruth, shaking her head and making big eyes
+at her friend.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t laugh&mdash;Oh! What&#8217;s that?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>From over the water, and unmistakably from the
+rocky island on the summit of which the blasted
+beech stood&mdash;a prominent landmark&mdash;came the
+strange cry, &#8220;co-ee! co-ee!&#8221; which they had heard
+before.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you suppose that poor old man is calling
+for help?&#8221; hesitated Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your grandmother&#8217;s aunt!&#8221; ejaculated Helen,
+in disgust.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We-ell that is even a more roundabout relationship
+than that between Aunt Alvirah Boggs
+and me. Poor old soul, she is nobody&#8217;s relation,
+as she often says, but everybody&#8217;s aunt.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There goes the signal again, and here comes
+that boat!&#8221; exclaimed Helen suddenly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What boat?&#8221; demanded Ruth, looking in the
+direction of the distant Canadian island, toward
+which the canoe, with Totantora and Wonota in
+it, had now disappeared.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Turn around&mdash;do!&#8221; exclaimed Helen. &#8220;This
+way. That is the same boat we saw going by some
+time ago. The boat with the yellow lady in it,
+as Wonota called her.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is very strange,&#8221; murmured Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But the yellow lady is not with those men now,&#8221;
+said Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not see any woman aboard,&#8221; admitted her
+friend.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span></p>
+<p>The boat&mdash;going not so fast now&mdash;crossed their
+line of vision and finally rounded the end of the
+island on which the two chums believed the queer
+old man resided. At least, somebody had uttered
+the strange, shrill cry from that very spot.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear! If we were not marooned here!&#8221;
+grumbled Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What would you do?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If we had a boat&mdash;even a canoe&mdash;we could
+follow that motor-launch and see if those pirates
+make a landing.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pirates!&#8221; repeated Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Smugglers, then. Your own Chess Copley
+says they may be smugglers, you know.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wish you would not speak in that way,
+Helen,&#8221; objected Ruth. &#8220;He is not my Chess
+Copley&mdash;&mdash;or anything else.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, he certainly isn&#8217;t mine,&#8221; retorted Helen,
+with more gaiety. &#8220;I can&#8217;t say I approve of him&mdash;and
+I long since told you why.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe you are unfair, Helen,&#8221; said Ruth
+seriously.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dear me! if you don&#8217;t care anything about him,
+why are you so anxious to have me change my
+opinion of &#8217;Lasses?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;For your own sake,&#8221; said her friend shortly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wonder! For <i>my</i> sake?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Because you are not naturally unfair&mdash;and
+Chess feels it.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, he does, does he?&#8221; snapped Helen. &#8220;I
+hope he does. Let him feel!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>This heartless observation closed Ruth&#8217;s lips on
+the subject. The two girls watched the other island.
+They did not see the boat again. Nor did
+they see anybody on the island or hear any other
+cry from there.
+</p>
+<p>They both began to grow anxious. No boat appeared
+from the direction of the camp, and it was
+past the hour now when Willie was to have called
+for them with the <i>Gem</i>. Why didn&#8217;t he come?
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course, Mr. Hammond doesn&#8217;t expect us
+to swim home,&#8221; complained Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Something must have occurred. Totantora&#8217;s
+being sent off so suddenly really worries me. Perhaps
+Mr. Hammond himself was obliged to leave
+the camp and perhaps he went in the <i>Gem</i>, and
+Willie cannot return for us until later.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But where is Tom? Surely he must know all
+about this sudden trouble.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What was Tom going to do to-day?&#8221; asked
+Ruth quietly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, that&#8217;s so! I had forgotten,&#8221; said Tom&#8217;s
+sister, in despair. &#8220;He was going around to Oak
+Point with some of the men. That&#8217;s down the
+river, beyond Chippewa Point, and they could
+scarcely get back in the other motor-boat before
+dark.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the answer, I guess,&#8221; sighed Ruth.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Then we are marooned!&#8221; ejaculated Helen.
+&#8220;I do think it is too mean&mdash;and my goodness! we
+ate every crumb of lunch.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The two &#8216;Robinson Crusoesses,&#8217; then, may
+have to go on short rations,&#8221; but Ruth said it with
+a smile. &#8220;I guess we are not in any real danger
+of starvation, however.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just the same, a joke can easily become serious
+when one is deserted on a desert island.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you were looking for adventure,&#8221; retorted
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now you have it,&#8221; said Ruth, but soberly.
+&#8220;And worrying about it will not help us a particle.
+Might as well be cheerful.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are as full of old saws as a carpenter&#8217;s
+abandoned tool-chest,&#8221; said Helen smartly. &#8220;Oh!
+What is this I hear? The smuggler&#8217;s boat
+again?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They did hear a motor, but no boat appeared
+from the other side of the Kingdom of Pipes. The
+sound drew nearer. The motor-boat was coming
+down the river, through a passage between the island
+where the girls were and the American side.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on! I don&#8217;t care who it is,&#8221; cried Helen,
+starting to run through the bushes. &#8220;We&#8217;ll hail
+them and ask them for rescue.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But when she came in sight of the craft, to
+Ruth&#8217;s surprise Helen did not at once shout. Ruth
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span>
+only saw the bow of the boat coming down stream
+herself; but suddenly she marked the small name-board
+with its gilt lettering:
+</p>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Lauriette</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s Chess, I do believe!&#8221; she cried.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph!&#8221; grumbled Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, Helen Cameron!&#8221; gasped Ruth, &#8220;are
+you going to be foolish enough to refuse to be
+taken off this island by Chessleigh Copley?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t say I was.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And don&#8217;t be unkind to him!&#8221; pleaded Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You seem so terribly fond of him that I guess
+he won&#8217;t mind how I treat him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You know better,&#8221; Ruth told her admonishingly.
+&#8220;Chess thinks a great deal of you, while
+you treat him too unkindly for utterance.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;d better not think of me too much,&#8221; said
+Helen scornfully. &#8220;His head won&#8217;t stand it.
+Tom says &#8217;Lasses never was strong in the deeper
+strata of college learning.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth was not to be drawn into any controversy.
+She called to the young man when, dressed in flannels
+and standing at his wheel and engine, he came
+into view.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hurrah! Here&#8217;s good luck!&#8221; shouted Chess,
+swerving the bow of the <i>Lauriette</i> in toward the
+island instantly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hurrah! Glad you think it&#8217;s good luck,&#8221; said
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span>
+Helen sulkily. &#8220;I guess you never were marooned.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s navy blue you&#8217;ve got on&mdash;not maroon,&#8221;
+said Chess soberly. &#8220;Do you suppose I
+am color-blind?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Smarty!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, children, this is too serious a matter to
+quarrel over,&#8221; admonished Ruth, but smiling because
+her chum showed, after all, interest enough
+in the young man to be &#8220;scrappy.&#8221; &#8220;What do you
+suppose we have seen, Chess?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to know first of all how you came here
+without a boat?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness, yes!&#8221; gasped Helen. &#8220;I&#8217;d almost
+forgotten about Wonota and Totantora.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth shook her head. &#8220;I am not likely to forget
+that,&#8221; she said.
+</p>
+<p>She explained to the young man as they got into
+the launch and he pushed out from the shore about
+the difficulty that had arisen over the Indians. He
+was naturally deeply interested in Ruth&#8217;s trouble
+and in the fate of the Indians. But on top of that
+Helen eagerly told about the speedy launch, the
+yellow lady, and their suspicions regarding what
+was going on at the island that they had nicknamed
+the Kingdom of Pipes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I tell you what,&#8221; Chess said, quite as eagerly
+as Helen, &#8220;I was coming over to take you all for
+a sail on the river to-night. Let&#8217;s get Tom and
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span>
+just us four keep watch on that island. I believe
+there is something going on there that ought to
+be looked into.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&mdash;I don&#8217;t know that it is our business to look
+into it,&#8221; suggested Ruth, doubtfully.
+</p>
+<p>But for once Helen agreed with Chess, and
+against Ruth&#8217;s better judgment it was determined
+to come back to this locality after dinner and lurk
+about the mysterious island in the Copley launch.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVIII_BILBY_S_TRUMP_CARD' id='XVIII_BILBY_S_TRUMP_CARD'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<h3>BILBY&#8217;S TRUMP CARD</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Naturally, Ruth went in search of Mr. Hammond
+the moment she landed on the island where
+the moving picture company was established. But,
+as she saw that the <i>Gem</i> was not at the dock, she
+scarcely expected to find the president of the company
+at hand&mdash;and in that expectation she was not
+mistaken.
+</p>
+<p>Mr. Hooley, the director, however, told her
+what he knew about the occurrence that had started
+Totantora so madly from the island in the canoe.
+Bilby and whoever it was that backed him in his
+enterprise were evidently determined to obtain the
+services of Wonota, the Osage princess, if it could
+be brought about.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Looks to me,&#8221; said the director, &#8220;as though we
+were going to have some trouble finishing this picture,
+Miss Fielding.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t finish it without Wonota!&#8221; cried the
+girl.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t think you could rewrite the remaining
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span>
+scenes so that we can keep on to the conclusion?&#8221;
+he asked thoughtfully.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Mr. Hooley! How about the throne-room
+scene? Wonota must appear in that. You
+say yourself that we cannot use anybody in her
+place.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;How about cutting out that scene? Finish the
+play on this side of the water. Don&#8217;t go to France
+at all.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then the picture is spoiled!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No picture is spoiled until it goes out of our
+hands, you know,&#8221; and Mr. Hooley smiled satirically.
+&#8220;You know how it is in the picture business,
+Miss Fielding. Some unfortunate producer
+buys a script or a story. The scenario writer
+&#8216;saves&#8217; the story by his work on the script. Then
+the continuity man &#8216;saves&#8217; it a second time. Then
+the director &#8216;saves&#8217; it after he gets it into his
+hands. We know that the star performer always
+&#8216;saves&#8217; it again. And then the film cutter and the
+title writer each &#8216;save&#8217; it.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Most pictures are &#8216;saved&#8217; in this way by the
+omniscience of all who work on it so that, when it
+is finally produced, the writer seldom recognizes
+more than a glimmer of his original idea in the final
+product.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are much better treated than most picture
+writers, you know very well. And here you have
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span>
+a chance to &#8216;save&#8217; your own work,&#8221; and Mr.
+Hooley finished with a laugh.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is no laughing matter,&#8221; she told him. &#8220;I
+wanted this to be a really big picture. And I do
+not want to cut out Wonota. Without that
+throne-room scene it will fall flat.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We should have taken it in New York,&#8221; grumbled
+Mr. Hooley. &#8220;I felt it at the time. But
+Mr. Hammond contracted for so many weeks&#8217;
+use of this island and the time is running out already.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And Wonota and Totantora are gone!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Exactly.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you know where they have gone?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Haven&#8217;t the least idea. But Mr. Hammond
+knows.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He went to town?&#8221; asked Ruth thoughtfully.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He has gone to confer with the lawyers and
+see if they can get the court to vacate the injunction
+issued against our use of Wonota. Bilby and the
+sheriff came again. They had a warrant this time.
+It called for the production of Wonota. Luckily
+you had her off the island at the time. They
+searched every nook and cranny, and meanwhile
+Totantora got away. They wanted him too.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think that Bilby is too mean for words!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I take it that it was his trump card. He
+must have some powerful influence behind him.
+But&mdash;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;But what, Mr. Hooley?&#8221; asked Ruth eagerly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can see how we might get over the difficulty
+if the courts will not listen to reason.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh! Do tell me!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We can move the whole company over the
+Canadian border, and before Bilby can do anything
+over there we&#8217;ll have finished &#8216;The Long
+Lane&#8217;s Turning.&#8217; That&#8217;s the only way I see out
+of the mess.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But think of the expense!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure! I&#8217;m thinking of that all the time,&#8221; grumbled
+Hooley. &#8220;And don&#8217;t you forget that the
+boss never allows me to lose sight of it. Your interest
+in this picture is greater than mine, Miss
+Fielding; but my job is sort of tangled up in it,
+too. Mr. Hammond is a good man; but he is a
+good business man first of all. I am afraid that
+you will be obliged to make some changes in the
+remaining scenes so as to overcome the difficulty of
+losing Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will not do it!&#8221; cried the girl, this time in
+anger.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Better read your contract. If you won&#8217;t do
+it, somebody else will have to. You know, we&#8217;ve
+got a man at the studio who could change Hamlet
+into a slap-stick comedy over night, if the emergency
+arose.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I will not agree to have my picture ruined,&#8221;
+said Ruth, almost in tears.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;That isn&#8217;t the way to look at it,&#8221; Hooley observed
+more kindly. &#8220;Just see that you save your
+story yourself instead of letting some other person
+do it for you. That&#8217;s the answer, I fear.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth had no appetite for dinner that evening,
+but she was obliged to meet her friends and the
+actors and actresses who ate at her table with at
+least an appearance of cheerfulness.
+</p>
+<p>It was impressed upon her mind more deeply
+than ever before, however, that her arrangement
+with the Alectrion Film Corporation was not
+wholly satisfactory. She had learned so much
+now about the making of a screen picture that often
+her advice in the directing of the action was
+accepted with admiration by Mr. Hooley. Mr.
+Hammond was not afraid to go away and leave
+the two to film the most important scenes in a
+script.
+</p>
+<p>And why should she be tied to certain agreements
+that cramped her? Especially in a case of
+this kind. For the sake of saving expense Mr.
+Hammond was likely to insist that the artistic part
+of &#8220;The Long Lane&#8217;s Turning&#8221; should be sacrificed.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth felt that on her part she would spend
+twenty-five thousand dollars more (if she had it
+to spend) in shipping the whole company over
+the border and making the remainder of the picture
+in Canada.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I am going to be in a position some time where
+I shall have the say as to every detail of the picture,&#8221;
+she told herself. &#8220;I want to be my own
+manager and my own producer. Otherwise I
+shall never be happy&mdash;nor will I ever be sure of
+making worth-while pictures.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>For Ruth took this career of hers very seriously
+indeed. Because she did so, perhaps, the fact
+that Tom Cameron seemed to consider his work
+so lightly caused Ruth to criticise the young man
+harshly. That could only be expected.
+</p>
+<p>Tom did not return for dinner. Nor did Mr.
+Hammond come back to headquarters. Chess
+Copley was eager to get the girls out in his <i>Lauriette</i>
+again.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pooh! it&#8217;s nothing much, I guess,&#8221; said Helen,
+seemingly having lost her first interest in the smugglers
+and the King of the Pipes. &#8220;And, anyway,
+I shall not go unless Tom is with us.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, Helen!&#8221; cried Ruth, &#8220;I thought you were
+so eager.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, perhaps. If Tom went.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But we promised Chess.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You promised him. He wants to do it because
+you are going.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, Helen, you know&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know just what I am saying. I have no interest
+in &#8217;Lasses Copley. You have.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You are the most exasperating girl!&#8221; exclaimed
+Ruth, in some warmth.
+</p>
+<p>They were in their room freshening their toilets
+for the evening.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t seem to suit you any more than Tom
+does,&#8221; said her chum coolly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I declare, Helen! you go too far.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shan&#8217;t go too far this time&mdash;without Tom.&#8221;
+Helen laughed in a provoking way. &#8220;You can
+run along with your Chessleigh if you like. Not
+me!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is just what I will do,&#8221; said Ruth quietly,
+but with flashing eyes. &#8220;I would not insult him
+by refusing&mdash;now. I will tell him you have a
+headache and cannot come.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do as you like,&#8221; was the ungracious reply.
+&#8220;You are crazy about Chess, I guess.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe you are jealous, Helen Cameron!&#8221;
+cried Ruth, in wonder.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know why I should be,&#8221; returned Helen
+lightly. &#8220;I&#8217;ve no interest in Chess Copley. And
+I haven&#8217;t had since&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Since when, I&#8217;d like to know?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Since I found him out. So now! That&#8217;s
+enough. I am not going. Unless, of course,
+Tom returns and wants me to go along with you
+and Chess.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>What more was there to say? Ruth did not
+wish to disappoint Chessleigh. She felt that
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span>
+Helen Cameron had no reason for treating the
+young man as she did.
+</p>
+<p>So, as she had done before, and without much
+interest in the evening sailing party, Ruth left the
+bungalow to join the waiting Chessleigh at the
+dock.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIX_SUSPENSE' id='XIX_SUSPENSE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<h3>SUSPENSE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tom and his party in the other motor-boat had
+not appeared, nor had the <i>Gem</i> come back from
+the town of Chippewa Bay with Mr. Hammond.
+Why should not Ruth and Chessleigh spy about
+among the islands for a time?
+</p>
+<p>It was not now moonlight; and there was some
+haze which gave a smouldering effect to the stars
+peering through it. But these soft, hazy nights
+had their own charm and Ruth had come to love
+them.
+</p>
+<p>Especially on the water. Amid the tamarack-clothed
+islets the motor-boats crept in and out in
+a delightful way. To lie on the cushions in
+the cockpit of the <i>Lauriette</i> and bask in the pearly
+starlight was an experience the girl from Cheslow
+was not likely to forget.
+</p>
+<p>To-night, when the <i>Lauriette</i> got away from
+the moving picture camp, there were no other
+boats in sight. Chess dimmed his lights and the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span>
+craft crept through the narrow passages between
+the islands, heading up stream.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;My idea,&#8221; he said, &#8220;is to land at the back of
+that island&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Kingdom of Pipes?&#8221; interrupted Ruth in
+surprise.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Where you say you landed before&mdash;twice.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That is, if we see nothing or nobody about.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;d better take any great risk&mdash;only
+two of us,&#8221; observed Ruth, with her usual
+caution.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course, we won&#8217;t walk right into danger.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I should hope not! And just what are we going
+for, anyway?&#8221; and she suddenly laughed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, I&#8217;m curious about those fellows,&#8221; said
+the young man. &#8220;And I thought you were.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m curious about the King of the Pipes.
+Charley-Horse Pond, Willie calls him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Queer old boy, I guess,&#8221; admitted Chess. &#8220;But
+I want to know more about those chaps who unloaded
+the boxes.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What could have been in the boxes? Surely
+there is no camping party on that island. At least,
+no pleasure party.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I fancy not. If you ask me about the boxes,
+I am puzzled. Yet, I&#8217;ve a glimmer of an
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span>
+idea&mdash;Are you sure that was a woman with them to-day in
+their boat?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Wonota called her the yellow lady. And
+Wonota has good eyes.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;With a yellow face, yes? And we saw a
+Chinaman in the boat that other time on the
+river,&#8221; said Chess quickly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Surely she wasn&#8217;t a Chinese woman? Yet, she
+might have been.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Chinese women aren&#8217;t usually smuggled over
+the border, I guess,&#8221; muttered the young fellow.
+&#8220;But Chinese men are.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps we should have reported it to the authorities,&#8221;
+Ruth suggested.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not until we are sure there is really something
+wrong. I don&#8217;t want to be laughed at, you know.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth just then had considered another
+phase of the matter.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh!&#8221; she cried. &#8220;There&#8217;s Bilby! He was in
+it!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;In what?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;In that boat when we first saw it. When we
+saw the Chinaman, you know, out on the Canadian
+side of the river. If there is anything wrong
+about these men&mdash;and the King of the Pipes&mdash;Bilby
+is mixed up with them.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I guess you are right, Ruth. Maybe that fellow
+is into more queer games than just trying to
+grab your Osage princess.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;But more than that,&#8221; said Ruth much worried
+now, &#8220;he may have so many friends on the Canadian
+side that he can trace Wonota and her father
+over there on Grenadier Island.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Better warn Mr. Hammond when he comes
+back from town,&#8221; suggested her friend. &#8220;That
+Bilby seems to be universally troublesome. I&#8217;ll
+say he is!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They kept quiet after that, for the outline of the
+rocky island, with the blasted beech visible at its
+summit, came into view. Nothing stirred upon the
+island, nor was there any other boat in sight.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Had we better venture ashore?&#8221; breathed
+Ruth, again in doubt.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on. Let&#8217;s try it. I&#8217;ve got an electric
+torch in my pocket. We can find our way all over
+the island with that.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was true that the girl of the Red Mill felt
+some trepidation, but she had confidence in her
+companion&#8217;s muscle and courage if not in his caution.
+Besides, she was very curious about the
+queer old man and the doings on his island.
+</p>
+<p>Chess shut off the engine of the <i>Lauriette</i> some
+distance from the island; but first he had gone
+above the rocky landing, so that the sluggish current
+between the islands drifted the motor-boat
+back upon that strand.
+</p>
+<p>He went forward and, with a line in his hand,
+leaped ashore the moment he could do so, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span>
+drew the <i>Lauriette</i> in to the rock. Then he passed
+the line around the very sapling to which Ruth
+had once fastened the canoe.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on!&#8221; he whispered, offering his hand
+to the girl.
+</p>
+<p>She leaped ashore. They were both wearing
+canvas, rubber-soled, low shoes which made no
+noise on the stones. Chess drew forth the electric
+torch and tried it, turning the spot of light on the
+ground at their feet. It worked perfectly.
+</p>
+<p>In his right-hand jacket pocket he carried an
+entirely different article, but he did not mention
+that fact to Ruth. She would not have gone with
+him had she known of the presence of the pistol.
+The possession of firearms would have, to her
+mind, at once taken the matter out of the realm
+of mere adventure into that of peril, and Ruth
+was not seeking such an experience.
+</p>
+<p>She only half believed in the smugglers. She
+had seen some men in a boat at the island, but
+she doubted if it meant anything more than a
+fishing party. Those boxes taken ashore meant
+nothing much to her, if they did suggest some
+particularly interesting situation to Chess.
+</p>
+<p>In fact, Copley had not fully taken Ruth into
+his confidence. He had reason to suspect that
+whoever might be on this island were law-breakers,
+and he really had no right to bring Ruth here.
+Tom Cameron would not have done it.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span></p>
+<p>Copley was serious, however, in his intention
+of finding out if possible who was on the island;
+and when they had passed up the rough path to
+the round table-stone, Ruth had got over her little
+shivery feeling and was as eager as Chess himself.
+</p>
+<p>They passed carefully through the fringe of
+brush and reached the open space where the
+blasted beech tree stood. The faint starlight illumined
+the space, so that Chess did not need
+to use the torch in his left hand. There was no
+tent set up here nor any other mark of human
+habitation.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth knew that there was scarcely any other
+place on the island where a camp could be established.
+Had the people they had seen landing
+from the speedy launch gone away for good and
+taken their camp equipment with them?
+</p>
+<p>Suddenly Copley seized her wrist. His touch
+was cold and betrayed the fact that he was nervous
+himself.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Listen!&#8221; he whispered, his lips close to Ruth&#8217;s
+ear.
+</p>
+<p>Helen would have immediately been &#8220;in a
+fidget,&#8221; and said so. But Ruth could restrain
+herself pretty well. She nodded so that Copley
+saw she heard him and was listening. They
+waited several moments.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There!&#8221; breathed the young fellow again.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;What is it?&#8221; Ruth ventured.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Somebody talking. Listen!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>There was a human voice near by. It sounded
+close to them, and yet its direction Ruth could
+not decide upon. There was a hollow, reverberating
+quality to the sounds that baffled determination
+as to their origin. But it was a human voice without
+doubt.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth could not, however, understand a word
+that was spoken. The tones were first high, then
+low, never guttural, and possessed a certain sibilant
+quality. Whether the words spoken were
+English or not, was likewise a mystery.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth and Chessleigh stood first in one
+place, then in another, in that circle about the
+big beech tree. The young man had gone all
+around the tattered trunk and found no opening.
+If it was hollow, there was no way of getting into
+it near the ground, nor was there any ladder by
+which one might scale the huge trunk to the top.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s no hide-away,&#8221; mouthed Chess, his
+lips close at Ruth&#8217;s ear again. &#8220;And it seems to
+me the sound doesn&#8217;t come from overhead.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;More as though it came up from the ground,&#8221;
+returned Ruth, in the same low voice. &#8220;Do you
+suppose we are standing on the roof of a cavern,
+Chess Copley?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It might be,&#8221; agreed the young fellow. &#8220;But
+if it is a cavern, where under the sun is the mouth
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span>
+of it? How do they get in or out? It beats my
+time!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth quickly acknowledged that the mystery
+was beyond her comprehension. The sing-song
+sounds&mdash;for such they seemed to be&mdash;went on and
+on, meaningless for the two listeners, who could
+not distinguish a single word.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Think that&#8217;s your King of the Pipes?&#8221; asked
+Chessleigh finally.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know. If it is, there must be something
+more the matter with him than Willie says
+there is. He sounds crazy&mdash;that is the way it
+sounds to me.&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XX_A_FAILURE_IN_CALCULATION' id='XX_A_FAILURE_IN_CALCULATION'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<h3>A FAILURE IN CALCULATION</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;What shall we do now?&#8221; asked Ruth finally,
+and in a whisper.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s go down to that place where we saw the
+boat land the other morning,&#8221; returned her companion.
+&#8220;I&#8217;d like to look about there a bit.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you think it is wise?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know about the wisdom of it,&#8221; chuckled
+Chessleigh. &#8220;But I do know that I&#8217;m not at all
+satisfied. Some people are here on the island, and
+I&#8217;d like to know where they are.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am afraid we will get into trouble.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If it is only that old man&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t know that it is. He must be talking
+to somebody&mdash;if that is his voice we hear.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maybe he is only talking to himself. I don&#8217;t
+hear anybody else,&#8221; replied the young fellow.
+&#8220;Come on. Let&#8217;s see the thing through, now we
+have started.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Indeed Ruth wanted to see it through. She
+was quite as curious as her companion. So she
+made no further objection.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span></p>
+<p>Pushing through the brush, they climbed carefully
+down the slope on the outer side of the
+island. The landing where they had fastened
+their own boat was on the inner side of the island,
+while this side fronted the broad expanse of the
+river.
+</p>
+<p>They could see the hurrying current, glinted
+here and there by the soft starlight. Everything
+looked ghostly about them. The dim silvery light
+made it possible for them to pick their way without
+stumbling. They made little noise in reaching
+the shore.
+</p>
+<p>There was a little indention here&mdash;a tiny cove.
+The shore was shelving, and of sand and gravel.
+Chess pointed silently to the unmistakable marks
+of a boat&#8217;s bow in several places.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That boat has been here more than once,&#8221;
+he whispered.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth breathed &#8220;Yes,&#8221; but said no more.
+</p>
+<p>Up-stream of the cove was a great mass of
+rock&mdash;not one rock, but several huddled together
+and the cracks between overgrown with brush and
+vines. Chess brought into use the electric torch
+again.
+</p>
+<p>He shot the spotlight into the crannies. Was
+there a path there between two of the big boulders?
+He drew Ruth&#8217;s attention to it with a touch
+on her arm. She saw that some of the bushes
+were broken&mdash;the vines torn away and dead.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Somebody has been here,&#8221; she murmured.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course. That is what we came to find,&#8221;
+said the young man. &#8220;We are on the verge of a
+discovery, Ruth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I hope we are not on the verge of trouble,&#8221;
+she returned, in the same low tone.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t have a bit of fear,&#8221; he told her, in a
+louder voice.
+</p>
+<p>He was about to mention the loaded pistol in
+his pocket; then thought better of it. But he went
+ahead, venturing into the narrow passage between
+the two boulders.
+</p>
+<p>The ray of the torch showed the way. It
+played on the ground at their feet and upon the
+rocky sides of the passage. Was that an abrupt
+end to the passage ahead of them, or a sharp turn
+in it? Chess pressed on, Ruth trying to peer over
+his shoulder, although to do this she had to stand
+on tiptoe.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;By jove!&#8221; uttered the young man in surprise,
+&#8220;I believe it is a cavern. It&#8217;s the entrance to a
+cave.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then those voices did come from a cavern.
+Be careful, Chess&mdash;do!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He had reached the turn in the passage. A
+jutting shelf of rock roofed them over. The
+young man shut off the lamp and they were in
+darkness. He thrust forward his head to peer
+around the corner.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span></p>
+<p>As he did so, without the least warning, something
+swished through the air and Ruth heard
+the sound of a dull blow. Chess pitched forward,
+with a groan of pain, falling to his knees.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth uttered a scream. She did not try to retreat,
+but seized the young man by the shoulders
+and dragged him back.
+</p>
+<p>Her brave act saved the young fellow from receiving
+a second and heavier blow. A club was
+being wielded in the hands of a powerful man who
+had met them in the passage!
+</p>
+<p>Chess was speechless and apparently in a confused
+state of mind. The electric torch had fallen
+from his hand. He seemed struggling to get
+something out of his jacket pocket, but before he
+could accomplish this a light flashed up in the
+tunnel ahead.
+</p>
+<p>The same sing-song, chattering voice they had
+heard so faintly on the summit of the island broke
+out close at hand. In the red, flickering light of
+a burning pine torch the frightened girl saw a man
+in a broad-brimmed hat and loose, flapping upper
+garment bending over Chess with a club again
+raised to strike.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t hurt him! Don&#8217;t hit him again!&#8221; she
+cried.
+</p>
+<p>Other voices&mdash;all speaking in that strange,
+sing-song tongue&mdash;broke out, and Ruth suddenly
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span>
+realized that these enemies that confronted them
+were Chinese.
+</p>
+<p>In the red light she saw clearly now, under the
+round, broad-brimmed hat, the yellow face and
+slanting eyes of the man. Ruth did not understand
+it&mdash;she could not imagine why these Orientals
+should be here on the island. But she realized
+fully that the calculations of Copley and herself
+had gone astray. They were in peril&mdash;serious
+peril.
+</p>
+<p>The leading Chinaman glared into Ruth&#8217;s
+frightened face and his thin lips curled back from
+his yellow teeth in a snarl like that of a rabid
+dog. His very look was enough to turn the girl
+cold. She trembled, still striving to drag the
+half-senseless Chessleigh back.
+</p>
+<p>The Chinaman uttered a long, jabbering howl,
+turning his face over his shoulder as though
+speaking to those who crowded behind him in the
+passage. Ruth might still have escaped, but she
+would not desert her injured companion.
+</p>
+<p>Suddenly there was a stir in the passage and the
+big Chinaman was thrust aside. Another figure
+pushed forward&mdash;a ragged, bushy-haired figure.
+It was the King of the Pipes!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he commanded in his old way.
+</p>
+<p>He waved the Chinaman back. He seemed to
+have some authority, for the burly Chinaman
+obeyed. The old man thrust his face forward
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span>
+and peered with his wild eyes into Ruth&#8217;s countenance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he whispered. &#8220;What did I tell you?
+I know you, of course. I told you that I could
+not divide my kingdom with any one. It was
+quite useless for you to come here again.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And see what has come of it,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The
+Pipes have seen you. They know your intentions.
+They will never in this world stand for a divided
+kingdom. I shall have to cut off your head.
+Too bad! Too bad!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He seized Ruth&#8217;s wrist. She tried to draw away
+from him, but he was much more powerful than
+she had supposed. One quick jerk and she was
+fairly dragged over the crouching figure of Copley
+and around the corner of the narrow passage.
+</p>
+<p>The head Chinaman darted forward and
+seized Chess. He likewise was dragged into the
+place. Amid the chattering of several high, sing-song
+voices, and only half seeing what was being
+done because of the flickering torchlight, Ruth
+knew that she was being hurried into a tunnel of
+some size that ran back into the island.
+</p>
+<p>It was rocky all about her&mdash;on both sides as
+well as under foot and overhead. It was a natural
+tunnel, not one made by man. The figures
+flitting before her were gnomelike. She saw
+clearly only the old man who led her, holding her
+tightly by the arm. She knew that the Chinaman
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span>
+was dragging Chess behind them, as though
+that unfortunate young man was a sack of potatoes.
+</p>
+<p>This outcome of their innocent adventure was
+entirely different from anything Ruth had dreamed
+of. If she did not exactly fear the queer old
+man who called himself the King of the Pipes, she
+certainly did fear the men who were with him in
+this cavern.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXI_IN_THE_CHINESE_DEN' id='XXI_IN_THE_CHINESE_DEN'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<h3>IN THE CHINESE DEN</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was several minutes before Ruth could accustom
+her sight to the uncertain, flickering flame
+of the torches with which the cavern was illuminated.
+There was, too, a small fire on a stone
+hearth and above it a stone and cement chimney
+that portrayed ingenuity in its building.
+</p>
+<p>The cavern was a natural one, but man had
+made of it a not impossible habitation. She felt
+rugs under her feet as she was drawn along by
+the King of the Pipes, and when her eyes became
+accustomed to the half-gloom of the place she
+saw that there were several low tables and a couch
+or two, the latter likewise covered with rugs.
+</p>
+<p>Not only had some ingenuity been expended in
+fitting up the cave, but the furnishings must have
+occasioned the expenditure of considerable money.
+It was not at all the sort of place that she would
+have expected the queer old man to occupy on the
+lonely island.
+</p>
+<p>She was so much interested in Chessleigh&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span>
+state, however, that she gave small attention to
+these other things. When she could break away
+from the King of the Pipes she flung herself down
+upon her knees beside the recumbent young man
+and raised his head in her arms.
+</p>
+<p>Chess had received a hard blow from the
+Chinaman&#8217;s club. And he had not uttered a word.
+The latter fact caused Ruth more alarm than
+anything else. She feared that he was very badly
+injured, although he was not insensible.
+</p>
+<p>But there was no blood on his head and face.
+She passed her hand swiftly over his crown and
+found an unmistakable lump there, a lump raised
+by the blow. But, looking more closely into his
+half open eyes she saw more intelligence in their
+expression than she expected.
+</p>
+<p>Indeed, as she peered closely at him she distinctly
+saw him wink his left eye, and this act,
+with the bright look in his eyes, warned her that
+Copley was playing possum.
+</p>
+<p>Having been felled by the blow, and feeling
+himself out-matched by the Chinamen who had
+come jabbering to the scene, Chess had displayed
+much more helplessness than he need have shown.
+But Ruth decided that he was very wise to do
+this, and she was much relieved to discover this
+to be the fact. She did nothing to attract the
+attention of their captors to his real condition.
+She moaned over him, and made little pitying
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span>
+sounds as though she thought he had been very
+seriously hurt by the blow he had received.
+</p>
+<p>The King of the Pipes put his clawlike hand
+upon her shoulder again.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Let him alone. He will have to have his
+head off, of course. No hope for it. But I will
+try to postpone your decapitation until the thirty-first
+day of June, which comes when there are
+two Sundays in the same week. Eh? Isn&#8217;t that
+shrewd? As King of the Pipes I have to show
+great astuteness. Oh, great astuteness!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I am sure you will help us, sire,&#8221; murmured
+Ruth, standing up once more and looking appealingly
+at the queer old man.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I will do what I can. But, remember,
+we kings can&#8217;t do what we once could. Seems
+to me I told you that before. The war did
+the business for us. And I would not dare suggest
+taking a consort. The Pipes would never
+stand for it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Whom do you call &#8216;the Pipes&#8217;?&#8221; Ruth asked
+wonderingly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Look about you. See them? Already they
+are beginning to smoke up again. And it is a
+dirty smell. I have to go out and roam about
+the island to get away from it. Dreadful! To
+give up my throne room to nasty little brass
+pipes. Ugh!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>While he was speaking the girl stared about
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span>
+her, now better able to see the place and the people
+in it. There were at least half a dozen men.
+And all were Chinamen, as far as she could see, although
+not all were dressed in blouse and loose
+trousers and wadded slippers&mdash;the usual costume
+of the un-westernized Chinaman.
+</p>
+<p>Two of the men were lying down, and there
+were tiny lamps sputtering on the low stools, or
+tables, set close to their heads. They held long-stemmed
+pipes with small brass bowls, and had
+begun to smoke something that had a very pungent
+and disagreeable odor.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth&#8217;s mind had begun to clear. She remembered
+the heavy boxes she and Chess had seen
+brought ashore, and the Chinaman in the speed
+launch, and then the yellow-faced woman being
+taken on this very day toward the American shore.
+The whole puzzle began to fit together like a piece
+of patchwork.
+</p>
+<p>Chinamen; a high-powered boat going back and
+forth across the St. Lawrence; a hidden cave on
+this supposedly uninhabited island; the heavy
+boxes; the smoking of this vile paste which she
+now saw a third Chinaman dip out of a tiny bowl,
+on a stick, and drop into his pipe in the form of
+a &#8220;pill.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p><i>Opium!</i>
+</p>
+<p>If these men&mdash;and the white men of the speed
+launch&mdash;did any smuggling it was not diamonds
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span>
+they smuggled. It was opium. And they were
+probably running Chinese across the border as
+well. Ruth knew that she was in a very serious
+predicament when she had swiftly thought this
+out, if she had not realized it before.
+</p>
+<p>What would these evil-looking yellow men do
+to her&mdash;and to poor Chess? The latter, she was
+relieved to feel, was biding his time. But what
+chance was likely to arise which would lead to their
+escape from this cavern?
+</p>
+<p>She looked about the place. Two of the yellow
+men were between her and the passage
+through which she and her companion had been
+dragged. If she wanted to, she could not make
+a dash for liberty.
+</p>
+<p>She turned again to the bedraggled and ragged-haired
+old man, curiosity about whom had led
+to this predicament. The King of the Pipes was
+watching her with eyes that glittered like a bird&#8217;s.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he whispered, moving nearer again.
+&#8220;You cannot escape. The Pipes are very strong
+and very agile. They would not let you. To tell
+the truth, they fear so much for my safety that
+I haven&#8217;t the freedom myself that I would sometimes
+like.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t you leave this place?&#8221; Ruth asked softly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hush!&#8221; he warned her in his usual stealthy
+way. &#8220;Don&#8217;t speak of it. Of course a king can
+do no wrong, and naturally a king can do as he
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span>
+pleases. Otherwise, what is kingship? But it
+is always well to bow to the peculiarities and the
+prejudices of one&#8217;s subjects. They do not like me
+to leave the throne-room at certain times. So I
+do not attempt to do so. When you met me before,
+my dear, there was nobody on the island
+but myself. But to-night you see how many are
+here, and more yet to come.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;More Chinamen?&#8221; she whispered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No. Perhaps no more of the Pipes,&#8221; and she
+thought he showed involuntary disgust of the
+opium-smokers. &#8220;But other subjects of mine who
+must be catered to. Oh, dear, yes! Being a king
+is not all it is cracked up to be, I assure you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>For some reason Ruth felt more alarm because
+of this last statement of the poor old man than of
+anything that had gone before. She realized that
+he, of course, really had no influence with the
+opium smugglers. But she began to understand
+that there were other men coming here who might
+be more savage than the Chinamen.
+</p>
+<p>She remembered that there had been several
+white men in the launch when she had observed
+it, and that on one occasion Horatio Bilby had been
+one of them. Now, Ruth felt not only a great
+distaste for Bilby, but she feared him exceedingly.
+</p>
+<p>It might be that the red-faced fat man who had
+so fretted Mr. Hammond and her about Wonota,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span>
+had only crossed the river in the launch as a passenger.
+He might have no close connection with
+the opium smugglers.
+</p>
+<p>But knowing Bilby as she did, Ruth could
+imagine that he might be mixed up in almost any
+illegal business that promised large returns in
+money. If he would attempt to steal the Indian
+girl, why would he not join hands with opium
+smugglers and Chinese runners, if he saw a possibility
+of gain in those industries?
+</p>
+<p>She wished she might talk to Chess and learn
+just what was working in his mind at that moment.
+She was quite sure that he was by no
+means as stunned as he appeared to be.
+</p>
+<p>She approved of his feigning, for as long as
+these men did not seek to injure her, why should
+he incur their further notice? He lay on the rug,
+quite as though he was helpless; but she knew he
+was alert and was ready, if occasion arose, to
+show much more agility than the Chinamen or the
+old King of the Pipes dreamed.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXII_THE_TWINS__ALARM' id='XXII_THE_TWINS__ALARM'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<h3>THE TWINS&#8217; ALARM</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was fully an hour after the <i>Lauriette</i> had
+chugged away from the dock at the island where
+the moving picture company was established that
+the motor-boat which had been to Oak Point returned
+with Tom Cameron aboard.
+</p>
+<p>Tom, with the other men who had been exploring
+and fishing all day, was ravenously hungry,
+but he went around to the veranda of the chief
+bungalow where his twin sister and Ruth stayed
+to see how they were before even going to wash
+and to see if he could bribe one of the cooks to
+set out &#8220;a cold snack.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Tom found Helen on the porch, alone. At a
+glance, too, he saw that she was not in a pleasant
+mood.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s gone wrong?&#8221; demanded Tom. And
+with a brother&#8217;s privilege of being plain-spoken,
+he added: &#8220;You look cross. Go in search of
+your temper.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who says I&#8217;ve lost it?&#8221; demanded Helen
+sharply.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I Cagliostro&mdash;Merlin&mdash;wizard that I am,&#8221;
+chuckled Tom. &#8220;I am still little Brighteyes, and
+I can see just as far into a spruce plank as the
+next one.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I am mad, if you want to know,&#8221; sniffed
+Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where&#8217;s Ruth?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s whom I am mad at,&#8221; declared the girl,
+nodding.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe it,&#8221; said Tom soothingly. &#8220;We
+could not really be mad at Ruth Fielding.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you feel that way yourself&mdash;the way
+she acts with Chess Copley?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t mind punching &#8217;Lasses&#8217; head,&#8221; returned
+Tom. &#8220;But that&#8217;s different.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is that so? What do you know about their
+being out on the river together right now?
+Humph!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where have they gone?&#8221; asked her brother.
+&#8220;Why aren&#8217;t you with them? Are they alone?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>This brought out the full particulars of the affair,
+and Tom listened to the end of a rather excited
+account of what had happened that afternoon&mdash;both
+on the island where Helen and Ruth
+had been &#8220;marooned&#8221; and here at the camp&mdash;together
+with the suspicions and curiosity about the
+island which had been dubbed the Kingdom of
+Pipes. Nor did it lack interest in Tom&#8217;s ears in
+spite of his sister&#8217;s rather excited way of telling it.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;But look here,&#8221; he asked. &#8220;Why didn&#8217;t you
+go with Ruth and &#8217;Lasses?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph! They didn&#8217;t want me,&#8221; sniffed
+Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, Helen, you know better. Ruth never
+slighted you in the world. I know her better
+than that.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, she makes too much of Chess Copley.
+She is always praising him up to me. And I
+don&#8217;t like it. I&#8217;ll treat him just as I want to&mdash;so
+there!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Tom looked rather sober at this. He hesitated
+a moment. He wanted to ask his pettish sister a
+question, but evidently did not know how to go
+about it.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It can&#8217;t be helped now, I suppose. They will
+be back after a while. Where were they going
+besides to that crazy fellow&#8217;s island?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just there. That&#8217;s all.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Come on and watch me eat. I&#8217;m starved.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thanks! I watched the pythons fed at the
+zoo once,&#8221; said Helen with unwonted sharpness.
+&#8220;I will sit here till the scene of savagery is over.
+You can come back.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are in a fine mood, I see,&#8221; observed
+Tom, and went off chuckling.
+</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, he was not feeling very happy
+himself over the thought that Ruth and Chess
+Copley were out on the river together.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Looks mighty fishy,&#8221; muttered Tom Cameron.
+&#8220;I could punch &#8217;Lasses&#8217; head, the way I feel.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>These thoughts seemed to take Tom&#8217;s appetite
+away. To his sister&#8217;s surprise, he returned
+in a very few minutes to the front porch of the
+bungalow.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I told you that you had boa-constrictor
+habits,&#8221; she gasped. &#8220;Why, Tom Cameron! you
+must have swallowed your supper whole.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t swallow as much as I expected,&#8221; returned
+the young man, smiling. But he grew serious
+again. &#8220;How long was Chess going to stay
+out in his boat?&#8221; he asked.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t suppose that I saw him go?&#8221; asked
+Helen, with surprise.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you know that it is after eleven o&#8217;clock?&#8221;
+said her brother. &#8220;If they went no further than
+that crazy man&#8217;s island, what do you suppose
+is keeping them?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mercy&#8217;s sake! is that the time, Tommy-boy?
+Why, the crazy man himself must be keeping
+them! Do you suppose the King of the Pipes
+has captured Ruth and Chess?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t try to be funny,&#8221; advised Tom. &#8220;It
+may be no laughing matter.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, I like that!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think that Chess would keep her out
+so late if everything was all right. Sure they
+were not going to Copley Island?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure. The girls have gone away. There&#8217;s
+no fun going on there.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, of course the motor-boat may have
+broken down. Such things happen,&#8221; said Tom
+reflectively.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now you have got me stirred up,&#8221; cried
+Helen. &#8220;I had no idea it was so late. And
+Ruthie does not believe in late hours.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She would not stay out on the river with me
+half the night, that is sure,&#8221; grumbled Tom.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Tommy-boy!&#8221; exclaimed his sister, &#8220;I
+don&#8217;t believe she cares so much for Chess. I
+really don&#8217;t.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, that is not here nor there. What&#8217;s
+to be done? Where&#8217;s Mr. Hammond&mdash;or
+Willie?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They haven&#8217;t got back from Chippewa Bay
+with the <i>Gem</i>.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This clumsy old <i>Tamarack</i> is too big for me
+to handle alone. And the boys have all gone to
+bed by this time.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The canoes aren&#8217;t too big for us to handle,&#8221;
+Helen said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Us?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I insist on going, too, if you start out to
+look for the <i>Lauriette</i>. And it will look better
+too. If we are simply paddling about, there
+being nothing the matter with Chess and Ruth,
+they won&#8217;t be able to laugh at us. Come on!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span>
+exclaimed Helen, picking up her sweater. &#8220;I
+am a loyal sister, Tom Cameron.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Right-o!&#8221; he agreed, more cheerfully. &#8220;I
+suppose there really is nothing the matter. Yet,
+whatever else Chess Copley is, he&#8217;s not the sort
+of fellow to keep a girl out till midnight on the
+river when there is nobody else along.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph! Do you think Ruth is a mere chit
+of a flapper? You are old-fashioned, Tommy-boy.
+The day of the chaperon is about over.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You know it isn&#8217;t over in our set, and never
+will be,&#8221; he returned. &#8220;You girls have a lot of
+freedom, I admit. But there are limits.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Baa!&#8221; was Helen&#8217;s utterly impudent remark.
+</p>
+<p>They ran down to the shore and got out one
+of the canoes. Helen was familiar with the use of
+the paddle and served her brother as a good second.
+They drove the canoe out into the open
+river, but only just for a look up its expanse.
+</p>
+<p>There was no motor-boat in sight or hearing&mdash;not
+even the distant lights of one. The current
+was so strong that the Cameron twins went back
+among the islands where the water was smoother.
+Besides, it was much more romantic, Helen said
+wickedly, among the islands, and Chess and Ruth
+were more likely to remain in the tortuous passages.
+</p>
+<p>The two laid a pretty direct course, however,
+for the Kingdom of Pipes. As they spied it, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span>
+drew nearer, Tom suddenly stopped paddling and
+held up his hand.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the matter?&#8221; demanded his sister, likewise
+raising her paddle out of the water.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Listen,&#8221; warned Tom.
+</p>
+<p>Faintly there came the noise of a motor-boat to
+their straining ears.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here they are!&#8221; shrilled Helen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Will you be still?&#8221; demanded her brother.
+&#8220;That&#8217;s not Copley&#8217;s boat. It&#8217;s a deal bigger
+craft. She&#8217;s on the other side of the island.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Helen leaned forward and caught at his sleeve.
+&#8220;Look there!&#8221; she whispered. &#8220;There is the
+<i>Lauriette</i>.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She had been the first to see the outline of the
+Copley launch moored close to the shore of the
+island at its upper end.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve gone ashore,&#8221; said Tom. &#8220;Where
+can they be? If that other boat is approaching
+this island&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Tom! The pirates!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, fudge!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The smugglers, then. Chess said he believed
+there were smugglers here.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do they smuggle?&#8221; demanded Tom with
+some scorn.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know. He did not seem very clear
+about it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just the same,&#8221; Tom observed, sinking his
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span>
+paddle again in the water, &#8220;there may be trouble
+in the air.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Trouble on the river, I guess you mean,&#8221;
+giggled Helen.
+</p>
+<p>But she giggled because she was excited and
+nervous. She was quite as alarmed as Tom was
+over the possibility that Chess and Ruth had got
+into some difficulty on the King of the Pipes&#8217;
+island.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIII_TROUBLE_ENOUGH' id='XXIII_TROUBLE_ENOUGH'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<h3>TROUBLE ENOUGH</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Returning to Ruth Fielding in the cavern:
+Although her heart beat rapidly and she really
+was fearful, she showed little perturbation in her
+countenance and manner after she had talked
+with Charley Pond, if that was the real name of
+the King of the Pipes.
+</p>
+<p>Just how mentally disturbed the old man was
+it was difficult for the girl to judge. But she
+feared that he had, after all his claims, absolutely
+no influence with the Chinamen.
+</p>
+<p>She believed that the leader of the Orientals
+was the heavy-set Chinaman who had struck
+Chessleigh Copley down with the club. The
+others&mdash;some smoking the little brass pipes, and
+others not smoking&mdash;were probably men who
+were endeavoring to get into the States without
+the knowledge of the emigration authorities. Indeed,
+they were already in New York. This island
+was south of the American line. But from the
+Kingdom of Pipes to any city where the Chinamen
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span>
+would be safe from apprehension was a
+pretty big jump.
+</p>
+<p>As for the opium&mdash;the smoke of which Ruth
+smelled now for the first time&mdash;she had no idea
+how that commodity might be handled or disposed
+of. She knew that it was valuable, even when
+imported for medicinal purposes. There was a
+heavy tariff on it, as well as restrictions upon the
+trading in it.
+</p>
+<p>If those boxes&mdash;each as heavy as a man could
+lift and which she and Chess had seen brought
+ashore on this island&mdash;contained opium, there
+might be many thousand of dollars&#8217; worth of the
+drug, in its paste form, here now. Perhaps it
+was hidden somewhere in this cave.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth had seated herself upon the end of one
+of the low tables. She knew that all the furniture
+in the cavern, including the rugs, must be of
+Chinese manufacture. There could be no doubt
+that the place was fitted up for the convenience
+of the Orientals.
+</p>
+<p>She looked about, trying to penetrate the obscurity
+of the place. Were there passages besides
+the one by which she and Chess had been dragged
+in? Were there other apartments in the cavern,
+shut off by some of the hanging rugs which she
+saw?
+</p>
+<p>Her principal thought, however, was of the
+possibility of escape. And she wished heartily
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span>
+that she and Copley could get out of the cave before
+the arrival of the &#8220;others&#8221; of whom the King
+of the Pipes had spoken. Whoever they might
+be&mdash;or whether Horatio Bilby was one of them&mdash;Ruth
+did not want to meet the smugglers and
+Chinese runners.
+</p>
+<p>She feared very much for her safety, and for
+that of her companion. The law-breakers would
+know immediately that their safety was threatened.
+They must know that if they allowed Ruth
+and Chess to depart from the cave, their presence
+here and what they were doing would be reported
+to the police. And men like Bilby, who would
+stoop to anything for money, were not likely to
+give over such a profitable business as the smuggling
+of opium without a fight.
+</p>
+<p>Just how much did Bilby and his companions
+care for the law? It was a question that created
+no little anxiety in Ruth&#8217;s mind. And she wondered,
+too, what Chess thought about it.
+</p>
+<p>The young fellow lay upon the floor of the
+cavern, silent and immovable. She was quite sure,
+by the exceedingly knowing wink that he had
+given her, that he was neither panic-stricken nor
+seriously hurt. He was merely waiting to see
+what would turn up.
+</p>
+<p>And what would happen when the new chance
+did turn up? Already Chess was in opposition
+to at least seven Chinamen, if he attempted anything.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span>
+And if those the old man had spoken of,
+likewise appeared, what could Copley do against
+such numbers?
+</p>
+<p>There was nothing Ruth, herself, could do.
+She sat quietly on the end of the low table and
+looked sadly about the dimly lighted place. This
+was certainly a situation from which her usually
+ingenious mind could invent no means of escape.
+</p>
+<p>Suddenly the old man who called himself the
+monarch of this island came from the corner
+where he had been standing, watching Ruth, and
+made his way swiftly to the entrance to the cave.
+The big Chinaman got up and looked at him.
+The King of the Pipes waved his hand and pointed
+through the passage.
+</p>
+<p>It seemed to be sufficiently clear&mdash;that gesture&mdash;for
+the Chinaman began to gabble to his
+friends. They scrambled to their feet&mdash;all but
+two who had fallen into a sluggish state after their
+indulgence in the use of the drug. They looked
+toward the cavern entrance. The King of the
+Pipes disappeared through the passage.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth stole a stealthy glance at Chess. She saw
+that he had moved. He was lying with his right
+hand covered by his body. There seemed an alertness
+about him&mdash;in posture and in gleaming, half-closed
+eyes&mdash;that startled Ruth. What had the
+young fellow in his mind to do. For what was
+he waiting?
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span></p>
+<p>In a minute she heard the ring of quick steps
+upon the rock-floor of the tunnel.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth shrank away from the table and stood
+at her companion&#8217;s head. What would the newcomers&mdash;Bilby,
+perhaps&mdash;do to Copley and to
+her?
+</p>
+<p>And it was Bilby! The little, red-faced, greenish-eyed
+man, projected himself into the cavern
+as though he had been shot out of a gun.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the matter here? What&#8217;s going on,
+I want to know? That crazy-head is trying to tell
+me something&mdash;Ye gods! A girl?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He saw Ruth vaguely. Then he glanced down
+at the prostrate Copley.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who knocked him out?&#8221; demanded Bilby.
+</p>
+<p>The burly Chinaman was the one he addressed,
+who answered in a form of English:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Allee same me. I get um, Mist&#8217; Blibly.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;For mercy&#8217;s sake!&#8221; whined Bilby, wringing
+his fat hands. &#8220;These people aren&#8217;t police. They
+are some of the summer visitors. Now we <i>are</i>
+in a mess!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Allee same look-see,&#8221; growled the Chinaman.
+He kicked Chessleigh, and not gently. &#8220;Number
+one sneakee&mdash;him! She&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He nodded violently toward Ruth, thus drawing
+Bilby&#8217;s attention to the girl. Bilby strained
+his fat neck forward to see the girl more closely.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span>
+There were other sounds coming from the passage.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s doing, Mr Bilby?&#8221; asked a gruff voice.
+</p>
+<p>The fat little man was panting. He pointed
+waveringly at Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s a pretty mess,&#8221; he gasped. &#8220;What
+between these Chinks and that crazy old duffer,
+they have got me in a nice mess. I know this girl.
+She belongs to that moving picture outfit. Now
+what are we going to do?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Knock her in the head,&#8221; was the advice of
+the growling voice.
+</p>
+<p>The advice probably was not intended to be
+followed. It was said perhaps to scare Ruth.
+But it excited somebody else besides the girl of
+the Red Mill.
+</p>
+<p>Before Bilby could reply or anybody else
+could speak, Copley came to his feet with all the
+suddenness of a jumping-jack. Bilby squealed and
+started back, falling against the gruff man who
+had followed him into the cave and who was
+evidently the boatman.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s this?&#8221; ejaculated this man.
+</p>
+<p>But that was all he said. The Chinamen
+squealed in unison, and that was all from them.
+Bilby himself faintly groaned.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Put your hands up&mdash;all of you!&#8221; commanded
+Copley, and one of the most amazing things about
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span>
+the whole wild extravaganza was that the young
+fellow&#8217;s voice was perfectly unshaken.
+</p>
+<p>Lads that have been in the army are apt to consider
+circumstances like these as meat and drink
+to them. Chessleigh had not served Uncle Sam
+in vain. He was as cool as the proverbial cucumber!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Put your hands up&mdash;all of you! There are ten
+shots in this magazine and every one of them will
+get its man. Quick! Up with &#8217;em!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>In all probability only one of the Chinamen
+understood this strictly American form of expression.
+But when the burly Chinaman elevated
+his yellow hands, his fellow countrymen did the
+same.
+</p>
+<p>As for Bilby and the boatman, they reached
+toward the roof of the cavern hastily. There
+was no hesitation on their part. Although Copley
+was alone, his unwavering attitude and the
+threat of the automatic pistol, played hob with
+such shreds of courage as the malefactors possessed.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIV_A_LETTER_COMES' id='XXIV_A_LETTER_COMES'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<h3>A LETTER COMES</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Nobody had come through the passage into
+the cave save Bilby and the boatman. Chess
+stood where he could keep half an eye, at least,
+upon the opening, and although the passage was
+filled with shadow he was quite sure there was
+nobody lurking there who was friendly to the law-breakers.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just step around behind those two men and
+see if they are armed, Miss Ruth, will you?&#8221; went
+on Copley. &#8220;Take &#8217;em from behind. Don&#8217;t get
+in line with my pistol. For if I begin to shoot,
+somebody is bound to get hit. Keep your hands
+up, you fellows!&#8221; and he gestured toward the
+Chinamen.
+</p>
+<p>Even the two of their number who had been
+half-overcome with the fumes of opium had come
+to attention when Chess produced his pistol. The
+Chinamen huddled together at one side. The
+boatman and Bilby were opposite the doorway of
+the tunnel. Ruth promptly obeyed Chess and
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span>
+went around behind the last-named two of the
+enemy.
+</p>
+<p>Ruth hesitated a moment in the dusk there at
+the opening of the passage. She hated to touch
+either Bilby or the other man. But probably both
+of them were armed, and for the sake of safety
+their weapons must be taken from them.
+</p>
+<p>While she hesitated she heard a faint rustle in
+the passage. Then came the softest possible
+whisper:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ss-st!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth jumped and glanced over her shoulder.
+Was it friend or enemy who evidently tried to
+attract her attention by this sibilant sound?
+</p>
+<p>A figure moved in the gloom. Before she could
+cry any warning to Copley an arm was put firmly
+about her and Ruth was almost lifted to one side.
+She saw the gleam of a weapon in the other hand
+of her neighbor, and the point of this weapon
+was dug suddenly into the broad back of the
+gruff boatman who was Bilby&#8217;s companion.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t get nervous, &#8217;Lasses,&#8221; came in Tom
+Cameron&#8217;s voice. &#8220;We&#8217;re all friends here. Ah!
+A nice automatic pistol from our friend, Mr.
+Bilby. Just so. Here, Nell!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But it was Ruth&#8217;s hand that took the captured
+weapon, although Helen stood at her side squeezing
+her other hand and whispering:
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;My goodness, Ruthie, what a perfectly glorious
+experience! Are those the real smugglers?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shouldn&#8217;t wonder,&#8221; replied her friend.
+Then she accepted the revolver extracted from
+the hip pocket of the boatman by Tom Cameron.
+&#8220;Where is the King of the Pipes?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Taking the air. We heard the talk below
+here through the hollow tree. Do you know,&#8221;
+whispered Helen, &#8220;that old beech is a regular
+chimney. And we saw the boat come here.
+Then we grabbed the King of the Pipes outside.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Tom did not hurt him, I hope?&#8221; murmured
+Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not a bit of it. In fact, the queer old fellow
+said he was willing to abdicate in Tom&#8217;s
+favor, and now, I suppose, Tommy-boy is King
+of the Pipes,&#8221; and Helen, the irrepressible,
+grinned.
+</p>
+<p>The two ex-army men, however, took the matter
+quite seriously. Tom disarmed the Chinamen
+as well as the white men. And to search and
+disarm a squirming Oriental, they found not easy
+work.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I disarmed enough Fritzies in Europe to
+learn my job pretty well. How&#8217;s the weather,
+Sergeant?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;All right here, Captain Cameron,&#8221; said Copley
+seriously.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then I&#8217;ll back out with this bunch of junk.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span>
+Here&#8217;s a pair of brass knuckles in the bunch. I&#8217;ll
+use &#8217;em on any of these fellows who try to run.
+We&#8217;ll keep &#8217;em hived up here till the police come.
+One fellow can hold &#8217;em. Unless they try to
+climb up that hollow beech tree.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No fear,&#8221; said Copley. &#8220;Get the girls out
+first.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Tom had already loaded both Ruth and Helen
+down with the loot from the malefactors&#8217; pockets.
+He motioned to the girls to leave the
+cavern.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hold on! Hold on!&#8221; Bilby cried. &#8220;I beg of
+you, don&#8217;t leave me with these men. I only happen
+to be here by chance&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A bad chance for you, then,&#8221; said Chess Copley.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t listen to him, Captain Cameron.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No, don&#8217;t listen to him,&#8221; said Ruth severely.
+&#8220;I know he is worse than the others. Why,
+Tom! he is the man who has made us all that
+trouble about Wonota and my picture.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure,&#8221; agreed Tom. &#8220;I know the snake.
+Go ahead, girls. Chess and I will follow you.
+And one of us will be right in this passage all the
+time,&#8221; he added, addressing the two white men.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t make any mistake. We&#8217;ll shoot if you
+try to come out until you are told to.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girls were already feeling their way
+through the darkness of the tunnel. At the turn
+Ruth kicked something, and, stooping, secured
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span>
+Chess&#8217; electric torch. She pressed the switch and
+the illumination allowed the two young men to
+overtake them with more certainty, Chess backing
+out with his pistol trained on the opening into
+the cavern.
+</p>
+<p>When once the four friends were around the
+turn and out of hearing of the prisoners, Tom
+Cameron began to chuckle.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is no laughing matter!&#8221; exclaimed his
+sister. &#8220;I am so excited I don&#8217;t know what to
+do.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Keep right on,&#8221; said Ruth. &#8220;I want to get
+home just as soon as I can. I don&#8217;t believe I
+shall care hereafter to leave the island until we
+are through with the picture and can go back to
+the Red Mill. What are you laughing about,
+Tom Cameron?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know how &#8217;Lasses is fixed,&#8221; said the
+amused Tom. &#8220;But my pistol isn&#8217;t loaded. It
+is my old service automatic and needs repairing,
+anyway.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t fret, Cameron. Mine is loaded all
+right,&#8221; said Chess grimly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you stay and guard the cave,&#8221; said
+Tom.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You bet you! You couldn&#8217;t get me away from
+here until you have sent for the sheriff and he
+comes for the gang. I believe we have done a
+good night&#8217;s work.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, you were wonderful!&#8221; Helen burst out.
+&#8220;And Ruth says they knocked you down and hurt
+you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I shall get over that all right,&#8221; returned Chess
+quietly.
+</p>
+<p>But when they were out of the passage and
+on the open shore Helen insisted upon fussing
+around Chessleigh, bathing the lump on his head,
+and otherwise &#8220;mothering&#8221; him in a way that
+secretly delighted Ruth. Tom looked at his sister
+in some amazement.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you know about that?&#8221; he whispered
+to Ruth. &#8220;She was as sore at him as she could
+be an hour ago.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t know your own sister very well,
+Tom,&#8221; retorted Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Humph!&#8221; ejaculated Tom Cameron. &#8220;Perhaps
+we fellows don&#8217;t understand any girl very
+well.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But Ruth was not to be led into any discussion
+of that topic then. It was agreed that she and
+Helen and Tom should hurry back to the motion
+picture camp at once.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The King of the Pipes won&#8217;t bite you,&#8221; Tom
+said to Chess. &#8220;Only don&#8217;t let him go back into
+the cave. Those fellows might do him some
+harm. And the sheriff will want him for a witness
+against the gang. He is not so crazy as he
+makes out to be.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span></p>
+<p>The night&#8217;s adventures were by no means completed,
+for Ruth and Helen could not go to bed
+after they reached the bungalow until they knew
+how it all turned out. Mr. Hammond had returned
+before them, and Willie and Tom started
+at once for Chippewa Bay in the <i>Gem</i>.
+</p>
+<p>The capture of Bilby in connection with the
+smugglers and Chinese runners delighted the motion
+picture producer.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That will settle the controversy, I believe,&#8221;
+Mr. Hammond said to the two girls. &#8220;Bilby&#8217;s
+attempt to annoy us must fall through now. We
+will get Totantora and Wonota back from Canada
+and finish the picture properly. But, believe
+me! I have had all the experience I want
+with freak stars. The expense and trouble I have
+been put to regarding Wonota has taught me a
+lesson. I&#8217;d sell my contract with Wonota to-morrow&mdash;or
+after the picture is done&mdash;for a
+song.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth looked at him steadily for a moment.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean that, Mr. Hammond?&#8221; she
+asked quietly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I do.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Helen laughed. &#8220;I guess Ruth is thinking of
+singing that song. Ruth believes in Wonota.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If I could carry the tune,&#8221; her chum said,
+more lightly. &#8220;We&#8217;ll talk of that later, Mr.
+Hammond.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I would give you first chance, Miss
+Ruth,&#8221; said the producer. &#8220;By the way,&#8221; and he
+turned to his desk. &#8220;I brought mail from the
+town. Here are several letters for you, Miss
+Ruth, and one for Miss Cameron.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girls began to open their letters as soon as
+they reached their room. But it was Helen&#8217;s
+single epistle that created the most excitement.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s from Carrie Perrin,&#8221; she said to Ruth.
+Then, in a moment, she uttered a cry that drew
+Ruth&#8217;s full attention. &#8220;Listen to this! What do
+you know about this, Ruth?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is it, my dear?&#8221; asked her chum, in her
+usual composed manner.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just think of that!&#8221; cried Helen, in tears.
+&#8220;And I have treated him so hatefully. He&#8217;ll
+never forgive me in this world, I suppose. It is
+about Chess,&#8221; she sobbed, and handed her chum
+the letter.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXV_THE_HEART_S_DESIRE' id='XXV_THE_HEART_S_DESIRE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+<h3>THE HEART&#8217;S DESIRE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;And what do you think of this, Nell? I&#8217;ve
+wormed out of Bill Kenmore the truth about that
+mean joke the boys played on us last spring when
+we were all at Jennie Stone&#8217;s. Excuse! I suppose
+I should say Madame Marchand&#8217;s. To
+think of Heavy Stone being an old married
+woman now!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, Bill Kenmore always did have a crazy
+streak&mdash;and he wasn&#8217;t shell-shocked in France,
+either. You remember the time you went away
+down town in answer to a telegram, thinking it
+was somebody who needed you very much, and
+you walked into that place and found the boys
+all dressed up and ready to give you the &#8216;ha, ha!&#8217;?
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know it got you awfully mad&mdash;and I don&#8217;t
+blame you. Chess was there, I know. But he
+didn&#8217;t even know what the row was all about.
+Bill engineered the whole thing, and he thinks
+still that it was an awfully good joke. His ideas
+of humor must have originated in the Stone Age.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I made him tell me all about it, he thinking
+I would be amused. Then I turned him right
+out of our parlor and told him not to call again.
+I hear that he thinks I am a regular cat!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But who wouldn&#8217;t be cattish with a fellow who
+has no more sense? Anyhow, we know the truth
+now. Perhaps Chess Copley is not very sharp,
+but I couldn&#8217;t think of his doing anything really
+mean. So now you know. If Chess is up there
+at the Thousand Islands you can tell him from
+me, at least, that &#8216;all is forgiven.&#8217; Sounds like a
+newspaper personal, doesn&#8217;t it?&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Ruth stopped reading there, and looked brightly
+at her chum.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you think of that?&#8221; asked the latter,
+wiping her eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, my dear, I shouldn&#8217;t cry about it,&#8221; said
+Ruth. &#8220;I think it is an occasion to be joyful.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But, Chess&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is of a forgiving nature, I think,&#8221; Ruth said.
+&#8220;At any rate, I would not let the matter stand
+between me and a nice boy friend any longer. I
+could never suspect Chess of doing an unkind
+thing.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I have wronged him!&#8221; cried Helen, who
+was, after all, tender-hearted.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you know,&#8221; said her friend, &#8220;I believe you
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span>
+can make it up to him very nicely, if you want to,
+Helen?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The <i>Gem</i> returned to the island just at daybreak.
+The girls ran down to the dock to meet
+the returned young men and Willie. Chess
+Copley had come to get his own motor-boat, and
+the report they made of the end of the smuggling
+affair was very satisfactory.
+</p>
+<p>The sheriff and his posse in a big motor-boat
+had gone to the Kingdom of Pipes and relieved
+Chess of his duty as guardian of the cave. The
+Chinamen, who were hiding there until they could
+be shipped into the States dressed in feminine
+garments, were all handcuffed, together with the
+owner of the launch and Horatio Bilby, and loaded
+into the sheriff&#8217;s launch.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you should have heard Bilby squeal,&#8221;
+said Tom. &#8220;There is one bad egg who is likely
+to pay a considerable penalty for his crimes.
+He&#8217;ll not get out of the mess very easy.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What of the King of the Pipes?&#8221; asked Ruth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Poor old Charley-Horse Pond,&#8221; Willie, the
+boatman, said, &#8220;will be detained as a witness.
+Already he has got a new name for himself. He
+isn&#8217;t &#8216;King of the Pipes&#8217; any longer.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you mean?&#8221; Ruth inquired, for she
+was interested in the queer old man and his fate.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He told me that he was Major André,&#8221;
+chuckled Willie. &#8220;He is a Number One spy.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span>
+The sheriff knows him well and knows there isn&#8217;t
+a mite of harm in him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Later it came out that the old man had been living
+on the island for some time, having found
+the cave there. The smugglers of opium and the
+Chinese found him there and made use of him.
+But when the court proceedings came on, Pond
+was merely used by the prosecution as a witness.
+His harmlessness was too apparent for the court
+to doubt him.
+</p>
+<p>That particular day had to be a day of rest for
+Ruth and her friends, for they had had no sleep
+the night before. But while they slept Mr. Hammond&#8217;s
+representative went in search of Totantora
+and Wonota and the two Osage Indians
+were brought back to the moving picture camp
+before night.
+</p>
+<p>The work of making the last scenes of &#8220;The
+Long Lane&#8217;s Turning&#8221; was taken up at once, and
+until the last scene was taken Ruth and her associates
+were very busy indeed. The Cameron
+twins spent most of the ensuing time with the
+Copleys and the other summer visitors. And it
+was noticeable that Helen was attended by Chess
+Copley almost everywhere she went.
+</p>
+<p>Tom saw this with some wonder; but he found
+very little opportunity to talk to Ruth about it.
+And when he tried to question Helen regarding
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span>
+her change toward Chess, she quite ignored the
+subject.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Looks to me,&#8221; Tom said to himself, &#8220;as
+though I was shut out in the cold. I wish I
+hadn&#8217;t come up here. I might as well be slaving
+in that old office. Gee, I&#8217;m an unlucky dog!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>For Tom, no more than Helen, could not see
+that Ruth&#8217;s attitude toward the matter of strenuous
+occupation for a wealthy young man was
+a fair one. Tom certainly had none of Uncle
+Jabez Potter&#8217;s blood in his veins.
+</p>
+<p>The big scene at the end of the picture&mdash;the
+throne room of the French king&mdash;was as carefully
+made as the other parts of the picture had been.
+And because of Ruth&#8217;s coaching Wonota did her
+part so well that Mr. Hooley was enthusiastic&mdash;and
+to raise enthusiasm in the bosom of a case-hardened
+director is no small matter.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Boss is rather sore on the whole business,&#8221;
+Hooley said to Ruth. &#8220;It has been an expensive
+picture, I admit. We have gone away
+over the studio estimate.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But that is not my fault, nor your fault, nor
+the Indian girl&#8217;s fault. Mr. Hammond is not to
+be blamed either, I suppose, for feeling worried.
+The motion picture business is getting to that
+stage now where lavish expenditure must be curtailed.
+I fancy Mr. Hammond will make only
+five-reel program pictures for some time. And
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span>
+where will your big feature pictures come in, Miss
+Fielding?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The program pictures are sure-fire, I suppose,&#8221;
+the girl admitted. &#8220;But it doesn&#8217;t take much of
+a story to make those. Nor does it give the stars
+as good a chance.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, lean years may be coming. We shall
+all have to draw in our horns. Remember me,
+Miss Fielding, if you decide to produce with some
+other firm. I like to work with you, and I have
+a more or less elastic contract with the Alectrion
+Corporation.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth actually did have an idea for the future.
+It was in embryo as yet. But, as will be seen in
+the next volume of this series, entitled, &#8220;Ruth
+Fielding Treasure Hunting; Or, A Moving Picture
+that Became Real,&#8221; it led the girl of the Red
+Mill into new fields and drew her and her friends
+into new adventures.
+</p>
+<p>The last scene being completed, Ruth and
+Helen packed their trunks. But Helen was to
+ship hers to the Copley&#8217;s island up the river,
+where she would stay for a week or so before returning
+to Cheslow. Ruth was going back to the
+Red Mill, and after that she was not sure of her
+movements.
+</p>
+<p>Tom would accompany her home. She was
+glad of this, for she knew that, once at home,
+he must of necessity take up his work again with
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span>
+his father. Tom Cameron, however, confessed
+that he &#8220;hated&#8221; the dry goods business.
+</p>
+<p>Chess Copley showed his appreciation of
+Ruth&#8217;s kindness and friendship in a very pretty
+way indeed. He came to her secretly with a
+jeweler&#8217;s box in his hand.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You know, Ruth, you have been just like a
+sister to me since you have been up here. I think
+as much of you as I do of Sara and Jean&mdash;I declare
+I do! And I know Helen&mdash;or&mdash;or anybody,
+won&#8217;t mind if you wear this little trinket. When
+you wear it remember you&#8217;ve got a good friend
+whose initials are engraved on the inside.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Ruth accepted the present frankly, for she liked
+Chess. But she did not know how beautiful the
+bracelet was until after Copley had disappeared
+in his <i>Lauriette</i>. It was more costly than Ruth
+thought a present from that source should be.
+</p>
+<p>So, rather doubtful, she said nothing to Tom
+Cameron about the bracelet, although she wore
+it. She knew that she would have refused such
+a present from Tom himself. But, then&mdash;there
+was a difference!
+</p>
+<p>She did not intend to be rushed into any agreement
+with Tom Cameron that would at all interfere
+with her freedom. She still had her career
+in mind.
+</p>
+<p>They got back to Cheslow early in July. And
+how glad Aunt Alvirah was to see her pretty. As
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span>
+for Uncle Jabez, his interest was in the commercial
+end of the picture Ruth had made.
+</p>
+<p>Was it going to make money when it was
+distributed? How much money had Ruth already
+drawn in advance royalties? And a multitude
+of other questions of that character came
+from the old miller&#8217;s lips.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And when do you begin on another of them
+pictures, Niece Ruth?&#8221; he added. &#8220;You ain&#8217;t
+going to stop now, when there is so much to
+be made in &#8217;em?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I do not know exactly what I shall do next,&#8221;
+she told him, shaking her head. &#8220;But I think I
+shall try to make my next picture under different
+circumstances. But as I don&#8217;t really know, how
+can I tell you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Never mind, my pretty,&#8221; put in Aunt Alvirah,
+&#8220;you are here with us now, and that means a lot.
+You certainly deserve a rest,&#8221; and the old woman
+placed an affectionate hand on Ruth&#8217;s shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>At this the girl of the Red Mill smiled.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Maybe I do,&#8221; she replied, &#8220;after all those
+strenuous happenings on the St. Lawrence.&#8221;
+</p>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p>THE END</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES</p>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>By ALICE B. EMERSON</span></p>
+<p style=' margin-bottom:1em;'>12<i>mo.</i> <i>Illustrated.</i> <i>Price per volume,</i> 65 <i>cents, postpaid</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='figleft'>
+<img src='images/illus-ad1.jpg' alt='' title='' /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Jasper Parole&#8217;s Secret</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOODHALL</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Solving the Campus Mystery</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Lost in the Backwoods</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Nita, the Girl Castaway</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Old Hunter&#8217;s Treasure Box</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or What Became of the Raby Orphans</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Missing Pearl Necklace</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Helping the Dormitory Fund</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Great Days in the Land of Cotton</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Missing Examination Papers</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or College Girls in the Land of Gold</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Doing Her Bit for Uncle Sam</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Hunt for a Lost Soldier</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or A Red Cross Worker&#8217;s Ocean Perils</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Hermit of Beach Plum Point</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Indian Girl Star of the Movies</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or A Moving Picture that Became Real</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Lost Motion Picture Company</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><b>RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Perils of an Artificial Avalanche</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' margin-top:1em;'>CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, Publishers&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New York</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>THE BETTY GORDON SERIES</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>By ALICE B. EMERSON</span></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><i><b>Author of the Famous &#8220;Ruth Fielding&#8221; Series</b></i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p>12<i>mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><i><b>Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid</b></i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='figleft'>
+<img src='images/illus-ad2.jpg' alt='' title='' /><br />
+</div>
+
+<p><i>A series of stories by Alice B. Emerson which
+are bound to make this writer more popular
+than ever with her host of girl readers.</i>
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Mystery of a Nobody</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the age of twelve Betty is left an
+orphan.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Strange Adventures in a Great City</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In this volume Betty goes to the National
+Capitol to find her uncle and has several
+unusual adventures.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>From Washington the scene is shifted to the great oil fields of
+our country. A splendid picture of the oil field operations of to-day.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Treasure of Indian Chasm</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Seeking the treasure of Indian Chasm makes an exceedingly interesting
+incident.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery
+involving a girl whom she had previously met in Washington.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or School Chums on the Boardwalk</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Bringing the Rebels to Terms</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies
+make a fascinating story.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Cowboy Joe&#8217;s Secret</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
+</p>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' margin-top:1em;'><i>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></p>
+<p>CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, Publishers&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New York</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p><span style='font-variant: small-caps'>By JANET D. WHEELER</span></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p>12<i>mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors</i></p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p>.la begin</p>
+<p><i><b>Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid</b></i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='figleft'>
+<img src='images/illus-ad3.jpg' alt='' title='' /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Leading a Needed Rebellion</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>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&mdash;and then there was a row! The girls
+wired for the head to come back&mdash;and all ended happily.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Mystery of the Wreck</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>One of Billie&#8217;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. They could tell nothing of themselves, and
+Billie and her chums set to work to solve the mystery of their
+identity.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or The Secret of the Locked Tower</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children
+who have broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost
+invention, and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
+</p>
+<div class='la'>
+<p><b>5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES</b></p>
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a
+great variety of adventures. They visit an artists&#8217; colony and there
+fall in with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her
+constantly. Billie befriended Hulda and the mystery surrounding
+the girl was finally cleared up.
+</p>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' margin-top:1em;'><i>Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue</i></p>
+<p>CUPPLES &amp; LEON COMPANY, Publishers&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;New York</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- generated by ppgen.rb version: 2.03 -->
+<!-- timestamp: Sun Jun 15 00:19:43 -0600 2008 -->
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence, by 
+Alice B. Emerson
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence, by Alice B. Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence
+       The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands
+
+Author: Alice B. Emerson
+
+Release Date: June 15, 2008 [EBook #25802]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE CAMERAS WHIRRED WHILE THE BARGE PUSHED CLOSE INTO
+SHORE.
+"Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence."                        Page 80]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+RUTH FIELDING
+ON THE
+ST. LAWRENCE
+
+OR
+
+THE QUEER OLD MAN OF
+THE THOUSAND ISLANDS
+
+BY
+ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+Author of "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill," "Ruth
+Fielding in the Great Northwest," "Betty
+Gordon series," etc.
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+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
+RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL
+RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
+RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
+RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
+RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
+RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
+RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
+RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
+RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
+RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
+RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
+RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
+RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
+RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+
+BETTY GORDON SERIES
+
+BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM
+BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON
+BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL
+BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL
+BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP
+
+Cupples & Leon Co., Publishers, New York
+
+Copyright, 1922, by
+Cupples & Leon Company
+
+Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence
+Printed in U. S. A.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                               PAGE
+      I  "Here Comes The Bride"          1
+     II  A Rift In His Lute             10
+    III  Rice And Old Shoes             18
+     IV  Bilby                          27
+      V  Trouble In Prospect            37
+     VI  An Abduction                   45
+    VII  Expediency                     54
+   VIII  At Chippewa Bay                63
+     IX  A Film Mystery                 73
+      X  A Smell Of Smoke               83
+     XI  Bilby Again                    93
+    XII  The Dance At Alexandria Bay   100
+   XIII  The Kingdom Of Pipes          109
+    XIV  A Demand Is Made              116
+     XV  The Yellow Lady               124
+    XVI  Marooned                      131
+   XVII  A Determination               140
+  XVIII  Bilby's Trump Card            148
+    XIX  Suspense                      156
+     XX  A Failure In Calculation      164
+    XXI  In The Chinese Den            171
+   XXII  The Twins' Alarm              178
+  XXIII  Trouble Enough                186
+   XXIV  A Letter Comes                193
+    XXV  The Heart's Desire            201
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+RUTH FIELDING ON THE
+ST. LAWRENCE
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"HERE COMES THE BRIDE"
+
+
+The sudden joyous pealing of the organ could be heard upon the sidewalk
+before the stately church. As there was a broad canopy from the door to
+the curb, with a carpet laid down and motor-cars standing in line, it
+took no seer to proclaim that a wedding was in progress within.
+
+Idlers halted to wait for the appearance of the wedding party, which was
+about to come forth. Some of the younger spectators ran up the steps and
+peered in at the door, for there was only a lame, old, purblind sexton on
+guard, and he, too, seemed vastly interested in what was going on inside.
+
+One glance down the main aisle of the great edifice revealed a much more
+elaborate scheme of decoration than usually appears at a church wedding.
+Its main effect was the intertwining of French and American flags, and as
+the bridal party turned from the altar the horizon blue uniform of the
+soldier-bridegroom was a patch of vivid color that could not be mistaken.
+
+The bride in her white gown and veil and wreath made, it may be, even a
+more prominent picture than did her husband. But that was only to be
+expected perhaps, for a girl on her wedding day, and in the church, is
+usually the focus of all eyes.
+
+It must be confessed (even her dearest friends must confess it) there was
+another reason why she who, only a moment before had been Jennie Stone,
+quite filled the public eye.
+
+In the first place, Jennie was a well-built girl, and upon her well-built
+frame there had always been since her childhood days a superabundance of
+flesh. And getting married had not changed sweet, jolly, funny Jennie
+Stone in the least! Instead of coming back down the aisle of the church
+with modestly downcast eyes (which is usually a hypocritical display of
+emotion), Jennie smiled at her friends and beamed proudly upon the figure
+in horizon blue at her side.
+
+And she might well be proud of Major Henri Marchand, for he was in the
+very best sense a soldier and a gentleman, and there gleamed a bit of
+color on his breast that had been pinned there by Marshal Foch's own
+hand. As he was still in active service and had only been given leave to
+come to America for his bride, this might be considered the last military
+wedding that the old church was likely to see--perhaps for many years.
+
+The groom's French uniform, and even the olive gray of the best man and
+two or three other men in the party at the altar, had lent their touch of
+color to the picture. But it was the bride's attendants, however, that
+made the party so well worth looking at--especially to the greater number
+of young women and girls in the pews.
+
+Jennie Stone was a popular girl, and had friends galore. Many of those
+girl friends had come from a distance to see their beloved "Heavy Stone"
+(as she had been nicknamed in the old Briarwood Hall days) married to the
+man she had met in France while she was engaged in those useful and
+helpful occupations into which so many American girls entered during the
+war.
+
+Besides, Jennie was the first of the old Briarwood Hall set to be
+married, and this was bound to be a gala occasion. This was no "weepy"
+wedding, but a time of joy. And the bridal party coming down the aisle
+made as brilliant a picture as had ever been seen in the old church.
+
+The maid of honor in pink was as refreshing to look upon as a bouquet of
+arbutus. She had always been a pretty, winsome girl. Now she was
+developing into a handsome young woman, as all Ruth Fielding's friends
+declared. In her present filmy costume with its flowery picture hat the
+girl of the Red Mill had never looked better.
+
+The young man at her side in the uniform of an American captain with his
+black curls and dark face, made a splendid foil for Ruth's beauty. Behind
+him walked his twin sister--as like Tom Cameron as another pea in a
+pod--and Ann Hicks, both in rose-color, completing a color scheme worthy
+of the taste of whoever had originated it. For the sheer beauty of the
+picture, this wedding would long be remembered.
+
+In the very last pew, on the aisle, sat an eager old colored woman--one
+of those typical "mammies" now so seldom seen--in an old-fashioned bonnet
+and shawl. She was of a bulbous figure, and her dark face shone with
+perspiration and delight as she stared at the coming bride and groom.
+
+Jennie saw Mammy Rose (the old woman had been a dependent of the Stone
+family for years), and had the occasion been much more serious than
+Jennie thought it, the plump girl would surely have smiled at Mammy Rose.
+
+The old woman bobbed up, making an old-time genuflection. She thrust out
+a neat, paper-covered parcel which she had held carefully in her
+capacious lap all through the ceremony.
+
+"Miss Janie--ma blessed baby!" she whispered. "I is suttenly glad to see
+dis here day! Heaven is a-smilin' on yo'. And here is one o' ma birfday
+cakes yo' liked so mighty well. Mammy Rose done make it for her chile--de
+las' she ever will make yo' now yo' is goin' to foreign paths."
+
+Another girl than Jennie might have been confused, or even angered, by
+the interruption of the procession. But Jennie could be nothing if not
+kind. Her own hands were filled with her bouquet--it was enormous. She
+stopped, however, before the old woman.
+
+"As thoughtful for me as ever, Mammy Rose, aren't you?" she said
+pleasantly. "And you know all my little failings. Henri," she said to her
+husband.
+
+But the courtly young Frenchman had quite as great a sense of _noblesse
+oblige_ as his bride. He bowed to the black woman as though she was the
+highest lady in the land and accepted the parcel, tied clumsily with baby
+ribbon by the gnarled fingers of Mammy Rose.
+
+They moved on and the smiling, yet tearful, old woman, sank back into her
+seat. If there was anything needed to make this a perfect occasion, it
+was this little incident. The bride and groom came out into the smiling
+sunshine with sunshine in their hearts as well as on their faces.
+
+"I knew," whispered Helen Cameron to Ann Hicks, who stalked beside her in
+rather a mannish way, "that Heavy Stone could not even be married without
+something ridiculous happening."
+
+"'Ridiculous'?" repeated the Western girl, with something like a catch in
+her throat.
+
+"Well, it _might_ have been ridiculous," admitted Helen. "Only, after
+all, Jennie is real--and so is Major Marchand. You couldn't feaze him,
+not even if a bomb had been dropped in the church vestibule."
+
+They were crowding into the motor-cars then, and merrily the wedding
+party sped back to the big house on Madison Avenue, which had been
+garnished for the occasion with the same taste that marked the
+color-scheme of the bride's attendants. The canopied steps and walk, the
+footmen in line to receive the party, and the banked flowers in the
+reception hall were all impressive.
+
+"My!" whispered the irrepressible Jennie to Henri, "I feel like a prima
+donna."
+
+"You are," was his prompt and earnest agreement.
+
+They trooped in at once to the breakfast table. The spacious room was
+wreathed with smilax and other vines--even to the great chandelier. The
+latter was so hidden by the decorations that it seemed overladen, and Tom
+Cameron, who had a quick eye, mentioned it to Ruth.
+
+"Wonder if those fellows braced that thing with wires? Florists sometimes
+have more sense of art than common sense."
+
+"Hush, Tom! _Nothing_ can happen to spoil this occasion. Isn't it
+wonderful?"
+
+But Tom Cameron looked at her rather gloomily. He shook his head
+slightly.
+
+"I feel like one of those pictures of the starving children in Armenia.
+I'm standing on the outside, looking in."
+
+It is true that Ruth Fielding flushed, but she refused to make reply. A
+moment later, when Tom realized how the seating of the party had been
+arranged, his countenance showed even deeper gloom.
+
+As best man Tom was directed to Jennie's right hand. On the other side of
+Henri, Ruth was seated, and that placed her across the wide table from
+Tom Cameron.
+
+The smiling maid of honor was well worth looking at, and Tom Cameron
+should have been content to focus his eyes upon her whenever he raised
+them from his plate; but for a particular reason he was not at all
+pleased.
+
+This particular reason was the seating of another figure in military
+uniform next to Ruth on her other side. This was a tall, pink-cheeked,
+well set-up youth looking as though, like Tom, he had seen military
+service, and with an abundance of light hair above his broad brow. At
+school Chessleigh Copley had been nicknamed "Lasses" because of that crop
+of hair.
+
+He entered into conversation with Ruth at once, and he found her so
+interesting (or she found him so interesting) that Ruth had little
+attention to give to her _vis-a-vis_ across the table.
+
+The latter's countenance grew heavier and heavier, his dark brows drawing
+together and his black eyes smouldering.
+
+If anybody noticed this change in Tom's countenance it was his twin
+sister, sitting on Ruth's side of the table. And perhaps she understood
+her brother's mood. Now and then her own eyes flashed something besides
+curiosity along the table on her side at Ruth and Chess Copley, so
+evidently lost in each other's companionship.
+
+But it was a gay party. How could it be otherwise with Jennie at the
+table? And everybody was bound to second the gaiety of the bride. The
+groom's pride in Jennie was so open, yet so very courteously expressed,
+that half the girls there envied Jennie her possession of Henri Marchand.
+
+"To think," drawled Ann Hicks, who had come East from Silver Ranch, "that
+Heavy Stone should grab off such a prize in the matrimonial grab-bag.
+My!" and she finished with a sigh.
+
+"When does your turn come, Ann?" asked somebody.
+
+"Believe me," said the ranch girl, with emphasis, "I have got to see
+somebody besides cowpunchers and horse-wranglers before I make such a
+fatal move."
+
+"You have lost all your imagination," laughed Helen, from across the
+table.
+
+"I don't know. Maybe I used it all up, back in those old kid days when I
+ran away to be 'Nita' and played at being 'the abused chee-ild'.
+Remember?"
+
+"Oh, _don't_ we!" cried Helen and some of the other girls.
+
+Something dropped on Tom Cameron's plate. He glanced up, then down again
+at the object that had fallen. It was a piece of plaster from the
+ceiling.
+
+Chess Copley likewise shot a glance ceilingward.
+
+There was a wide gap--and growing wider--on his side of the chandelier. A
+great piece of the heavy plaster was breaking away from the ceiling, and
+it hung threateningly over his own and Ruth Fielding's head.
+
+"Look out, Ruth!" shouted Tom Cameron, jumping to his feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A RIFT IN HIS LUTE
+
+
+Tom Cameron, no matter how desirous he might be of saving Ruth from hurt,
+could not possibly have got around the table in time. With a snarling,
+ripping noise the heavy patch of plaster tore away from the ceiling and
+fell directly upon the spot where the chairs of Ruth and Chess Copley had
+been placed!
+
+The screams of the startled girls almost drowned the noise of the
+plaster's fall, but Ruth Fielding did not join in the outcry.
+
+With one movement, it seemed, Copley had risen and kicked his own chair
+away, seized Ruth about her waist as he did so, and so dragged her out
+from under the avalanche.
+
+It was all over in a moment, and the two stood, clinging to each other
+involuntarily, while the dust of the fallen plaster spread around them.
+
+For a moment Ruth Fielding had been in as perilous a situation as she had
+ever experienced, and her life had been rather full of peril and
+adventure since, as a girl of twelve, and in the first volume of this
+series, we met her as "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill."
+
+At the time just mentioned, the orphaned Ruth had appeared at her
+great-uncle's mill on the Lumano River, near Cheslow, in one of the New
+England States, and had been taken in by the miserly old miller rather
+under protest. But Aunt Alvirah Boggs, who was Uncle Jabez Potter's
+housekeeper, had loved the child from the very beginning. And in truth
+the old miller loved Ruth too, only he was slow to admit it.
+
+Ruth's first young friends at the Red Mill were the Cameron twins, and
+with Helen she had spent her schools days and many of her vacations, at
+Briarwood Hall, in the North Woods, at the seashore, in the West, in the
+South, Down East, and in other localities, the narrated adventures of
+which are to be found in the several volumes of the Ruth Fielding Series.
+
+In the book just preceding this present story, "Ruth Fielding in the
+Great Northwest," Helen was likewise with Ruth when she made her famous
+moving picture, "Brighteyes" in connection with the Alectrion Film
+Corporation, the president of which, Mr. Hammond, had first encouraged
+Ruth to turn her entire time and talent to the writing of moving picture
+scenarios.
+
+The fall before the time of this wedding party in which the girl of the
+Red Mill was taking part, fortune threw in Ruth's way a charming young
+woman, a full-blood Osage Indian, in whom Mr. Hammond saw possibilities
+of development for screen acting. At least, to use the trite and
+bombastic moving picture phrase, Wonota, the Indian princess,
+"photographed like a million dollars."
+
+The Great War's abrupt conclusion brought Tom Cameron home just as eager
+as he had been for two years past to have Ruth agree to his plans for the
+future. As Ruth saw it (no matter what may have been her secret feeling
+for Tom) to do as Tom wished would utterly spoil the career on which she
+had now entered so successfully.
+
+Tom, like most young men in love, considered that a girl's only career
+should be a husband and a home. He frankly said that he was prepared,
+young as he was, to supply both for Ruth.
+
+But their youth, in the first place, was an objection in the very
+sensible mind of Ruth. It was true, too, that a second objection was the
+fact that she wanted to live her own life and establish herself in the
+great career she had got into almost by chance.
+
+And then too Tom himself, since his return from France, had shown little
+determination to settle himself at work. Being the son of a wealthy
+merchant and possessing, now that he was of age, a fortune in his own
+right inherited from his mother's estate, Tom Cameron, it seemed to Ruth,
+was just playing with life.
+
+Like many another young fellow so recently from the battlefield, it
+seemed as if he could not settle to anything. And his sister encouraged
+him in this attitude. Ruth secretly blamed Helen for this. And therefore
+her own attitude to Tom had grown more stern.
+
+It was now June--the June following the armistice--the loveliest and most
+accepted time for a bridal. The ceremony of Jennie Stone's wedding to
+Major Henri Marchand had passed off, as we have seen, very smoothly. Even
+Tom, as best man, had found the ring at the right moment, and nobody had
+stepped on Jennie's train.
+
+But this accident at the breakfast table--and an accident that might have
+resulted fatally for Ruth Fielding--threatened to cause not only
+excitement but to sober the whole party.
+
+In a moment, however, in spite of the dust rising from the broken
+plaster, the others saw that Ruth and Chess Copley were both safe. The
+latter was repeating, over and over and in much anxiety:
+
+"You are all right, Ruth! I've got you. You are all right."
+
+The girl herself was quite breathless. Copley held her in rather a close
+embrace, and for a much longer time than appeared necessary--to Tom
+Cameron at least. Tom had got around the table just too late to be of any
+assistance.
+
+"We see you've got her, 'Lasses," Tom observed, rather tartly. "The
+close-up is shot. Break away."
+
+His words started the laughter--and there was much relief expressed in
+the laughter in which all about the table joined. People are apt to laugh
+when serious danger is over. But it might have been observed by his
+friends at another time that Tom Cameron was not usually tart or unkind
+of speech.
+
+Ruth said nothing, and Chess Copley flushed hotly. Jennie had got up with
+Henri in the moment of excitement, and now she quickly seized her goblet
+of grape-juice in which the party had previously toasted the bride and
+groom, and raised the glass on high.
+
+"Hear! Hear!" cried Ann Hicks. "The bride speaks."
+
+"This is a good omen," declared Jennie clinging to Henri's arm. "Our Ruth
+was wounded in France and has been in danger on many occasions, as we all
+know. Never has she more gracefully escaped disaster, nor been aided by a
+more chivalrous cavalier. Drink! Drink to Ruth Fielding and to Chessleigh
+Copley! They are two very lucky people, for that ceiling might have
+cracked their crowns."
+
+They drank the toast--most of them with much laughter.
+
+"Some orator, Jennie," commented Helen. "We are just beginning to
+appreciate you."
+
+"You will all be sorry that you did not treat me better--especially as a
+chee-ild," returned the plump bride, with mock solemnity. "Think! Think
+how you all used to abuse my--my appetite at Briarwood Hall. It is only
+Mammy Rose who is kind to me," and she pointed to the old colored woman's
+gift that had a place of honor before her own plate and that of Major
+Marchand's.
+
+"Let me give a toast," cried Helen gaily. "Let us drink to Jennie's
+appetite--long may it wave."
+
+"Goodness me! Don't speak of waves and appetite in the same breath, I
+beg. Remember we are going directly aboard ship from the house and--and I
+never was a good sailor. Waves! Ugh!"
+
+The fun went on while the serving people swept up the debris and removed
+those dishes that had been covered with dust.
+
+Aside, Ruth, taking for the moment little part in the chatter and
+merriment, for she had received a considerable shock, stood talking with
+Copley. Ruth had given him her hand again and Chess clung to it rather
+more warmly--so the watchful Tom thought--than was needful. But the girl
+felt that she really had a great deal to thank Copley for.
+
+"Jennie in her fun spoke quite truly," Ruth said in a low voice. "You are
+a friend in need."
+
+"And I hope you consider me a friend indeed, Ruth," rejoined the young
+fellow.
+
+"I certainly do," agreed the girl of the Red Mill with her customary
+frank smile.
+
+"I--I am afraid," Chess added, "that I am not considered in that light by
+all your friends, Ruth. Helen Cameron hasn't spoken to me to-day."
+
+"No? Is it serious?"
+
+"It is serious when a fellow gets turned down--snubbed--and not a word of
+explanation offered. And, in the words of the old song, we were
+'companions once, but strangers now'."
+
+"Oh, don't mind. Helen usually gets over the mollygrubs very quickly."
+
+Chess turned to see the other Cameron twin eyeing him with no great
+favor.
+
+However, the throng of guests who were invited to the reception began
+coming in, and for the next two hours the parlors were crowded with the
+many friends of the plump girl, who, as Helen had said, found this the
+greatest day of her life, and there was little time for much individual
+chat, though, it seemed to Tom, Chess Copley kept as close as possible to
+Ruth's side.
+
+It was after Jennie had gone to put on her traveling dress, and the
+immediate wedding party, who were to accompany the bridal couple to the
+dock to see them embark, were hurrying out of the room to put on street
+clothes that Tom, in a low voice, demanded of Chess:
+
+"What are you trying to do--put a label on Ruth? Don't forget she belongs
+to all of us."
+
+Chess Copley had not won his commission in the war and wore only a
+sergeant's chevrons. But the war was over and he could tell his captain
+just what he thought of him. And he did.
+
+"Do you know what you are, Tom Cameron?" he drawled, smiling a hard
+little smile. "You are a regular dog in the manger, and I'm frank to tell
+you so!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+RICE AND OLD SHOES
+
+
+"It is the greatest day in a girl's life," declared Helen Cameron,
+sitting on the edge of one of the twin beds in the room she and Ruth
+occupied while they were at the Stone house. She buckled her fingers
+around her knee to hold one limb crossed over the other--a very mannish
+and independent position. "I don't know that I ever envied Heavy before
+in my life. But she has got something now that we haven't, Ruth."
+
+"Cat's foot!" exclaimed Ann Hicks from her chair. "Who'd want a Frenchman
+for a husband?"
+
+Ruth laughed. "Not to say that Major Marchand is not a fine fellow, I
+agree with Ann that I don't want a husband. Not--right--now!"
+
+"Oh! Very well," said Helen complacently. "But if you thought you'd never
+be able to get one----"
+
+"Shucks!" exclaimed Ann. "As though our Ruth couldn't have all she wants
+if she wants them."
+
+"I really wish you would not speak plurally of them, Ann," cried Ruth,
+laughing. "You will make me feel like the Queen of the Amazons. They say
+she keeps a masculine harem--like a bey, or a sultan, or something of
+that kind."
+
+"Be serious," rejoined Helen. "I mean what I say. Jennie's great day has
+arrived. And she is the first of all our old bunch that went to
+Briarwood--and surely of those who went to Ardmore College--to fetter
+herself to a man for life."
+
+"Well, I shall never be fettered, even if I am married," observed Ann.
+"I'd like to see myself!"
+
+"If the right man comes riding by, Ann, even you will change your mind,"
+Ruth said softly.
+
+"Then I suppose the right man has never ridden up to the Red Mill and
+asked for you?" demanded Helen, with a glance at her chum that was rather
+piercing.
+
+"Perhaps he has," said Ruth composedly, "but I wasn't at home. Aunt
+Alvirah thinks I am almost never at home. And, girls, as I told you
+yesterday, I am going soon on another journey."
+
+"Oh, Ruth, I've been thinking of that!" Helen rejoined, with a sudden
+access of interest and excitement. "To the Thousand Islands! And at the
+loveliest time of all the year up there."
+
+"And that is only the truth," said one of the other bridesmaids. "We
+spent last summer there."
+
+"The Copleys always go," Helen remarked quietly.
+
+"No! Do you mean it?" cried Ruth, showing some surprise. "Well, indeed."
+
+"So you will see a lot more of 'Lasses Copley," remarked Ann.
+
+"I shall be glad if Chess Copley is there when and where we make this
+picture, for I think he is very nice," was Ruth's composed reply.
+
+"Oh, he's nice enough," agreed Helen, rather grumblingly however. "I've
+got nothing to say against Chess--as a general thing."
+
+"And you don't seem to say much for him," put in the Western girl
+curiously.
+
+But Helen said nothing further on that topic. Ruth broke in, answering
+one of the other girls who spoke of the forthcoming picture Ruth was
+going to make for the Alectrion Corporation.
+
+"Of course our famous Wonota is going to be in the picture. For she is
+famous already. 'Brighteyes' appeared for two successive weeks in one of
+the big Broadway picture houses and we are making a lot of money out of
+its distribution.
+
+"But we know Wonota is a find for another very unmistakable reason," she
+added.
+
+"What is that?" asked Helen.
+
+"Other producers have begun to make Wonota and her father offers. For
+Chief Totantora has become interested in the movie business too. Mr.
+Hammond used Totantora in a picture he made in Oklahoma in the spring;
+one in which Wonota did not appear. She was off at school at the time. We
+are going to make of the princess a cultivated and cultured young lady
+before we get through with her," and Ruth laughed.
+
+"A Red Indian!" cried somebody.
+
+"That makes no difference," said Ruth placidly. "She is amenable to white
+customs, and is really a very smart girl. And she has a lovely
+disposition."
+
+"Especially," put in Helen, who remembered the occasion clearly, "when
+she wanted to shoot Dakota Joe Fenbrook when he treated her so unkindly
+in his Wild West show. But, I wanted to shoot him myself," she added,
+frankly. "Especially after he tried to hurt Ruth."
+
+"Never mind him," said her chum at that. "Joe Fenbrook is in the
+penitentiary now, and he is not bothering us. But other people are
+bothering Mr. Hammond about Wonota."
+
+"How?" asked Helen.
+
+"Why, as I said, there are other picture producers who have seen
+'Brighteyes' and would like to get the chief and his daughter under
+contract. They have told Totantora that, as the contract with his
+daughter was made while she was not of age, it can be broken. Of course,
+the Indian agent agreed to the contract; but after Totantora returned
+from Europe, where he had been held a prisoner in Germany during the war,
+the guardianship of Wonota reverted to her father once more.
+
+"It is rather a complicated matter," went on Ruth, "and it is giving Mr.
+Hammond and his lawyers some trouble. There is a man named Bilby, who has
+been a picture producer in a small way, who seems to have some influence
+with the head of the Government Bureau of Indian Affairs. He seems to
+have financial backing, too, and claims to have secured a series of
+stories in which Wonota might be featured to advantage. And he certainly
+has offered Totantora and the girl much more money than Mr. Hammond would
+be willing to risk in a star who may, after all, prove merely a flash in
+the pan."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Ann. "I thought she was a sure-fire
+hit."
+
+"No amateur screen actress--and that is all Wonota is as yet--is ever a
+'sure-fire hit', as you call it," said the practical Ruth. "Many a
+producer has been badly bitten by tying up a new actor or actress to a
+long-time contract. Because a girl films well and is successful in one
+part, is not an assurance that she can learn to be a really great actress
+before the camera.
+
+"In 'Brighteyes' Wonota merely played herself. I was successful in
+fitting my story to her individuality. But she cannot always play the
+same part. In this story we are about to do on the St. Lawrence, she will
+be called upon to delineate a character quite different from that of the
+heroine of 'Brighteyes.'"
+
+"Dear me, Ruth," sighed Helen, "what a business woman you are getting to
+be. Your career has really begun--and so promisingly. While I can't do a
+thing but play the fiddle a little, daub a little at batik, and crochet!"
+
+"And make most delightful fudge!" cried Jennie Stone, just then coming
+into the room in her traveling dress, fresh from the hands of her maid
+and Aunt Kate. "How do I look, girls?"
+
+The bride's appearance drove everything else out of her friends' minds
+for the time being. It was two o'clock and the automobiles were at the
+door. The bridal couple, attended by bridesmaids, the best man, the
+ushers, and other close friends, departed for the dock amid showers of
+rice and a bombardment of old shoes which littered Madison Avenue for
+half a block and kept even the policemen on special duty for the
+occasion, dodging!
+
+They all trooped aboard the steamship where arrangements had been made to
+have the passports of the bride and groom examined.
+
+Mr. Stone had done everything well, as he always did. The bridal suite
+was banked with flowers. Even the orchestra belonging to the ship had
+been engaged specially to play. A second, though brief, reception was
+held here.
+
+The ship's siren sent a stuttering blast into the air that seemed to
+shake the skyscrapers opposite the dock. The young folks trooped back to
+the pier. Tom did his best to escort Ruth; but to his amazement and anger
+Chess Copley pushed in front of him and Ruth took the sergeant's arm.
+
+Helen came along and grabbed her brother with a fierce little pinch. Her
+eyes sparkled while his smouldered.
+
+"I guess we are relegated to the second row, Tommy-boy," she whispered.
+"I do not see what has got into Ruth."
+
+"It's not Ruth. The gall of that 'Lasses!" muttered the slangy Tom.
+
+"So you think he is at fault?" rejoined his sister. "Oh, Tommy-boy! you
+do not know 'us girls'--no indeed you do not."
+
+It was a gay enough party on the dock that watched the big ship back out
+and being turned in the stream by the fussy tugs. The bride and groom
+shouted until they were hoarse, and waved their hands and handkerchiefs
+as long as they could be seen from the dock.
+
+If Helen and Tom Cameron were either, or both, offended by Ruth, they did
+not show it to the general company. As for the girl of the Red Mill, she
+enjoyed herself immensely; and she particularly liked Chess Copley's
+company.
+
+It was not that she felt any less kindly toward Tom; but Tom had
+disappointed her. He seemed to have changed greatly during this past
+winter while she had been so busy with her moving pictures.
+
+Instead of settling down with his father in the offices of the great
+drygoods house from which Mr. Cameron's fortune had come, Tom, abetted by
+Helen, had become almost a social butterfly in New York.
+
+But Chess Copley, although no sober-sides, had thrown himself heart and
+soul into the real estate business and had already made a tidy sum during
+the six months that had ensued since his discharge from the army.
+
+It was true, Chess was looking forward to taking a vacation at the
+Thousand Islands with his family. He told Ruth so with enthusiasm, and
+hoped to see her again at that resort. But Chess, Ruth felt, had earned
+his vacation, while Tom remained a mere idler.
+
+Chess accompanied the Cheslow young people to the Grand Central Terminal
+when they left the dock and there bade Ruth good-bye.
+
+"I shall see you in a fortnight at the Thousand Islands," he assured her,
+and shook hands again. "I shall look forward to it, believe me!"
+
+Tom hung about, gloomy enough, even after they boarded the train. But the
+girls were gay and chattering when they entered their compartment. Ann
+Hicks was going home with Helen for a brief visit, although she would be
+unable to go elsewhere with them during the early part of the summer,
+owing to previous engagements.
+
+"I am determined to go to the St. Lawrence with you, Ruth," declared
+Helen. "And I know Tommy-boy is aching to go."
+
+"I thought," said Ruth rather gravely, "that he might really take to
+business this summer. Doesn't your father need him?"
+
+"Plenty of time for work, Tommy thinks," rejoined Tom's sister gaily.
+
+But Ruth did not smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+BILBY
+
+
+The old, shingled Red Mill, which Jabez Potter had revamped each spring
+with mineral paint, was as brilliant a landmark on the bank of the Lumano
+River as ever it had been. In fact, it seemed as though Ben, the hired
+man, had got the red of the shingles and the trim a little redder and the
+blinds a little greener this last spring than ever they had been before.
+
+Overshadowed by great elms, with the yard grass growing thick and lush
+right up to the bark of the trees, the surroundings of the mill and
+farmhouse connected with it (at least, all of those surroundings that
+could be seen from the Cheslow road), were attractive indeed.
+
+Although the old house seemed quite as it always had been from without,
+many changes had been made inside since first Ruth Fielding had stepped
+out of Dr. Davison's chaise to approach her great-uncle's habitation.
+
+At that time Ruth had been less than a mote in the eye of Uncle Jabez.
+She was merely an annoyance to the miller at that time. Since then,
+however, she had many and many a time proved a blessing to him. Nor did
+Jabez Potter refuse to acknowledge this--on occasion.
+
+When Ruth began to do over the interior of the old house, however, Uncle
+Jabez protested. The house and mill had been built a hundred and fifty
+years before--if not longer ago. It was sacrilege to touch a crooked
+rafter or a hammered nail of the entire structure.
+
+But Ruth insisted that she be allowed to make her own rooms under the
+roof more comfortable and modern. Ruth had seen old New England
+farmhouses rebuilt in the most attractive way one could imagine without
+disturbing their ancient exterior appearance. She gathered ideas from
+books and magazines, and then went about replanning the entire inside of
+the mill farmhouse. But she began the actual rejuvenation of the aspect
+of the structure in her own rooms, and had had all the work done since
+her return from the war zone the year before.
+
+She now had a bedroom, a sitting room, a dressing room and bathroom up
+under the roof, all in white (Helen said "like a hospital"), and when one
+opened Ruth's outer door and stepped into her suite it seemed as though
+one entered an entirely different house. And if it was a girl who
+entered--as Wonota, the Osage princess, did on a certain June day soon
+after Jennie Stone's marriage--she could not suppress a cry of delight.
+
+Wonota had stayed before at the Red Mill for a time; but then the workmen
+had not completed Ruth's new nest. And although Wonota had been born in a
+wigwam on the plains and had spent her childhood in a log cabin with a
+turf roof, she could appreciate "pretty things" quite as keenly as any
+girl of Ruth's acquaintance.
+
+That was why Ruth--as well as Mr. Hammond of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation--believed that the Indian girl would in time become a
+successful screen actress. Wonota, though her skin was copper-colored,
+liked to dress in up-to-date clothes (and did so) and enjoyed the
+refinements of civilization as much as any white girl of her age.
+
+"It is so pretty here, Miss Ruth," she said to her mentor. "May I sleep
+in the other bed off your sitting room? It is sweet of you. How foolish
+of people wanting to see on the screen how poor Indians live in their
+ignorance. I would rather learn to play the part of a very rich New York
+lady, and have servants and motor-cars and go to the opera and wear a
+diamond necklace."
+
+Ruth laughed at her, but good-naturedly.
+
+"All girls are the same, I suppose, under the skin," she said. "But we
+each should try to do the things we can do best. Learn to play the parts
+the director assigns you to the very best of your ability. Doing that
+will bring you, quicker than anything else, to the point where you can
+wear diamonds and ride in your own motor-car and go to the opera. What
+does your father, Chief Totantora, say to your new ideas, Wonota?"
+
+"The chief, my father, says nothing when I talk like that to him. He is
+too much of an old-fashioned Indian, I fear. He is staying at a country
+hotel up the road; but he would not sleep in the room they gave him (and
+then he rolled up in his blanket on the floor) until they agreed to let
+him take out the sashes from all three windows. He says that white people
+have white faces because they sleep in stale air."
+
+"Perhaps he is more than half right," rejoined Ruth, although she laughed
+too. "Some white folks even in this age are afraid of the outdoor air as
+a sleeping tonic, and prefer to drug themselves with shut-in air in their
+bedrooms."
+
+"But one can have pretty things and nice things, and still remain in
+health," sighed Wonota.
+
+Ruth agreed with this. The girl of the Red Mill tried, too, in every way
+to encourage the Indian maiden to learn and profit by the better things
+to be gained by association with the whites.
+
+There were several days to wait before Mr. Hammond was ready to send Mr.
+Hooley, the director, and the company selected for the making of Ruth's
+new picture to the Thousand Islands. Meanwhile Ruth herself had many
+preparations to make and she could not be all the time with her visitor.
+
+As in that past time when she had visited the Red Mill, Wonota was
+usually content to sit with Aunt Alvirah and make beadwork while the old
+woman knitted.
+
+"She's a contented creeter, my pretty," the old woman said to Ruth. "Red
+or white, I never see such a quiet puss. And she jumps and runs to wait
+on me like you do.
+
+"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" exclaimed Aunt Alvirah, rising
+cautiously with the aid of a cane she now depended upon. "My rheumatism
+don't seem any better, and I have had it long enough, seems to me, for it
+to get better," she added.
+
+"Poor dear!" said Ruth. "Don't the new medicine do any good?"
+
+"Lawsy me, child! I've drenched myself with doctor's stuff till I'm
+ashamed to look a medicine bottle in the face. My worn out old carcass
+can't be helped much by any drugs at all. I guess, as my poor old mother
+used to say, the only sure cure for rheumatics is graveyard mould."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Alvirah!"
+
+"I don't say it complainingly," declared the little old woman, smiling
+quite cheerfully. "But I tell Jabez Potter he might as well make up his
+mind to seeing my corner of his hearth empty one of these days. And he'll
+miss me, too, cantankerous as he is sometimes."
+
+But Uncle Jabez was seldom "cantankerous" nowadays when Ruth was at home.
+To the miller's mind his great-niece had proved herself to be of the true
+Potter blood, although her name was Fielding.
+
+Ruth was a money-maker. He had to wink pretty hard over the fact that she
+was likewise a money spender! But one girl--and a young one at
+that--could scarcely be expected (and so the old miller admitted) to
+combine all the virtues which were worth while in human development.
+
+"Keep a-making of it, Niece Ruth," Uncle Jabez advised earnestly. "You
+never can tell when you are going to want more or when your ability to
+make money is going to stop. I'd sell the Red Mill or give up and never
+grind another grist for nobody, if I didn't feel that perhaps by next
+year I should have to stop, anyway--and another year won't much matter."
+
+"You get so little pleasure out of life, Uncle Jabez," Ruth once said in
+answer to this statement of the old man.
+
+"Shucks! Don't you believe it. I don't know no better fun than watching
+the corn in the hopper or the stuns go round and round while the meal
+flour runs out of the spout below, warm and nice-smellin'. The millin'
+business is just as pretty a business as there is in the world--when once
+you git used to the dust. No doubt of it."
+
+"I can see, Uncle Jabez, that you find it so," said Ruth, but rather
+doubtfully.
+
+"Of course it is," said the old man stoutly. "You get fun out of running
+about the country and looking at things and seeing how other folks live
+and work. And that's all right for you. _You_ make money out of it. But
+what would I get out of gadding about?"
+
+"A broader outlook on life, Uncle Jabez."
+
+"I don't want no broader outlook. I don't need nothing of the kind. Nor
+does Alviry Boggs, though she's got to talking a dreadful lot lately
+about wanting to ride around in an automobile. At her age, too!"
+
+"You should own a car, Uncle Jabez," urged Ruth.
+
+"Now, stop that! Stop that, Niece Ruth! I won't hear to no such
+foolishness. You show me how I can make money riding up and down the
+Lumano in a pesky motor-car, and maybe I'll do like Alviry wants me to,
+and buy one of the contraptions." "Hullo, now!" added the miller
+suddenly. "Who might this be?"
+
+Ruth turned to see one of the very motor-cars that Uncle Jabez so scorned
+(or pretended to) stopping before the wide door of the mill itself.
+
+But as it was the man driving the roadster, rather than the car itself,
+Uncle Jabez had spoken of, Ruth gave her attention to him. He was a
+ruddy, tubby little man in a pin-check black and white suit, faced with
+silk on lapels and pockets--it really gave him a sort of minstrel-like
+appearance as though he should likewise have had his face corked--and he
+wore in a puffed maroon scarf a stone that flashed enough for half a
+dozen ordinary diamonds--whether it really was of the first water or not.
+
+This man hopped out from back of the wheel of the roadster and came
+briskly up the graveled rise from the road to the door of the mill. He
+favored Ruth with a side glance and half smile that the girl of the Red
+Mill thought (she had seen plenty of such men) revealed his character
+very clearly. But he spoke to Uncle Jabez.
+
+"I say, Pop, is this the place they call the Red Mill?"
+
+"I calkerlate it is," agreed the miller dryly. "Leastways, it's the only
+Red Mill I ever heard tell on."
+
+"I reckoned I'd got to the right dump," said the visitor cheerfully. "I
+understand there's an Injun girl stopping here? Is that so?"
+
+Uncle Jabez glanced at Ruth and got her permission to speak before he
+answered:
+
+"I don't know as it's any of your business, Mister; but the Princess
+Wonota, of the Osage Nation, is stopping here just now. What might be
+your business with her?"
+
+"So she calls herself a 'princess' does she?" returned the man, grinning
+again at Ruth in an offensive way. "Well, I have managed a South Sea
+Island chief, a pair of Circassian twins, and a bunch of Eskimos, in my
+time. I guess I know how to act in the presence of Injun royalty. Trot
+her out."
+
+"Trot who out?" asked the miller calmly, but with eyes that flashed under
+his penthouse brows. "Wonota ain't no horse. Did you think she was?"
+
+"I know what she is," returned the man promptly. "It's what she is going
+to be that interests me. I'm Bilby--Horatio Bilby. Maybe you've heard of
+me?"
+
+"I have," said Ruth rather sharply.
+
+At once Mr. Bilby's round, dented, brown hat came off and he bowed
+profoundly.
+
+"Happy to make your acquaintance, Miss," he said.
+
+"You haven't made it yet--near as I can calkerlate," gruffly said Uncle
+Jabez. "And it's mebbe a question if you get much acquainted with Wonota.
+What's your business with her, anyway?"
+
+"I'll show you, old gent," said Bilby, taking a number of important
+looking papers from his pocket. "I have come here to get this princess,
+as you call her. The Indian Department has sent me. She is a ward of the
+Government, as you perhaps know. It seems she is held under a false form
+of contract to a moving picture corporation, and Wonota's friends have
+applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to look into the matter and get
+at the rights of the business."
+
+Ruth uttered a cry of amazement; but Uncle Jabez said calmly enough:
+
+"And what have you got to do with it all, Mister--if I may be so curious
+as to ask?"
+
+"The girl is given into my charge while her affairs are being looked
+into," said Mr. Horatio Bilby, with an explanatory flourish which
+included both the miller and Ruth in its sweeping gesture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+TROUBLE IN PROSPECT
+
+
+Ruth Fielding wished that Mr. Hammond was within reach; but she knew he
+was already on his way to the Thousand Islands, for which she herself
+expected to start the next day with Wonota and her father. She had not
+heard much about this Bilby; but what she had learned--together with what
+she now saw of him--impressed her not at all in his favor.
+
+In any event she was not willing to accept either Horatio Bilby or his
+declaration at face value. And she was glad to see that the hardheaded
+old miller was not much impressed by the man, either.
+
+"I don't know much about this business, Mister," said Uncle Jabez, with
+much calmness. "But it strikes me that you'd better see the girl's
+father."
+
+"What girl's father?" demanded the visitor, and now he seemed surprised.
+
+"Wonota's. Chief Totantora is the name he goes by. It strikes me that he
+ought to have a deal more to say about the girl than any Government
+department."
+
+"Why, he's nothing but a blanket Injun!" ejaculated Bilby, with disgust.
+
+"Mebbe so," rejoined Uncle Jabez. "But his wearing a blanket (though I
+never see him with it on; he wears pants and a shirt when he comes here)
+don't figger none at all. He still remains the girl's father."
+
+"I guess you don't know, Pop, that these Injuns are all wards of Uncle
+Sam."
+
+"Mebbe so," again observed the miller. "And I have sometimes thought that
+Uncle Sam ain't always been any too good to his red relations. However,
+that isn't to the point. The girl's here. She's sort of in my care while
+she is here. Unless Chief Totantora shows up and asks to have her handed
+over to you, I calkerlate you won't get her."
+
+"See here, my man!" exclaimed Bilby, at once becoming blusterous, "you'll
+get into trouble with the Government if you interfere with me."
+
+"That doesn't scare me none," was the prompt reply of Jabez Potter.
+"Right now the Government of the United States don't look so important to
+me as our local constable. I guess to get possession of the girl you will
+have to bring an officer with you to certify to all this you say you are.
+Until you do, I might as well tell you, first as last, that you ain't got
+a chance--not a chance!--to even see Wonota."
+
+Mr. Bilby grew even redder in the face than nature seemed to have
+intended him to be. And his little greenish-gray eyes sparkled angrily.
+
+"You'll get into trouble, old man," he threatened.
+
+"Don't you let that bother you none," rejoined the miller. "I've had so
+much trouble in my life that I'm sort of used to it, as you might say.
+Now, if that is all you got to offer, you might as well get back into
+that go-cart of yours and drive on."
+
+Mr. Potter turned on his heel and went back into the mill, beckoning to
+Ruth to come with him. She did so--for a little way at least; but she
+soon stopped to peer out and watch the man, Bilby.
+
+When they were, as he thought, out of hearing, he gave vent to several
+grunts, kicked a pebble across the road, and scowled ferociously. He said
+something about "these rubes are smarter than they used to be." He seemed
+convinced that he could do nothing further in the matter he had come
+upon. Not at this time, it was quite plain.
+
+He turned and climbed into the roadster. But he did not drive back toward
+Cheslow; instead he went up the river road, and Ruth Fielding remembered
+that Wonota's father was stopping at the country inn which was only three
+or four miles up that road.
+
+"But nothing can happen because of that, of course," the girl thought, as
+she entered the passage that led to the farmhouse from the mill. "Wonota
+is perfectly safe here, and surely Totantora can take care of himself
+with that little fat man, or with anybody else!"
+
+She entered the kitchen expecting to find the Indian girl at work with
+Aunt Alvirah in the old woman's sunny corner of the great room. The old
+woman was alone, however.
+
+"Where is Wonota?" Ruth asked.
+
+Before Aunt Alvirah could reply an automobile siren echoed outside of the
+house. Aunt Alvirah was smiling and waving at somebody and Ruth hurried
+to the window to look out.
+
+"Here's Helen come for you, my pretty, in that beautiful big car of
+hers," said Aunt Alvirah. "Isn't it fine to be rich?"
+
+"Wait till I make a few more pictures, Aunty, and we'll have a car too.
+If Uncle Jabez won't buy one, I've made up my mind to get a car if it's
+only to take you to drive once in a while."
+
+"It wouldn't hurt Jabez Potter to buy a car," declared the old woman.
+"She's coming in Ruthie. Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" she murmured, as
+she got up to receive the visitor.
+
+Helen swept into the house gaily. She always had a kiss for the little
+old woman who thought her, next to Ruth, the finest girl who ever lived.
+
+"You're always a sight for anyone to look on with pleasure, Helen
+Cameron," said Aunt Alvirah. "And you're mighty smart in that long coat
+and cap."
+
+"And do you put on your coat and bonnet, Aunty," cried Helen, patting her
+wrinkled cheek. "I've come to take you for a spin. And Ruth, too."
+
+"There's Wonota," suggested Ruth.
+
+"Of course. The princess shall join us," Helen cried merrily. "Where is
+she? Tell her to leave her everlasting beadwork long enough to ride in
+the white man's motor-car."
+
+"I suppose," said Ruth, starting for the stairway, "Wonota must be up in
+her own room."
+
+"No, no!" Aunt Alvirah called from her bedroom, to which she had hobbled
+for her cloak and bonnet. "I was just about to tell you, my pretty.
+Wonota has gone out."
+
+"Where did she go?" and Ruth suddenly turned back, and with surprise if
+not exactly with a feeling of alarm.
+
+"She said she would walk up the road to see her father. She is quite fond
+of her father, I believe," added Aunt Alvirah, coming back with her wrap
+and bonnet. "Of course, Indians have family feelings, if they do seem to
+hide 'em so well."
+
+"I am sorry she went out alone," murmured Ruth.
+
+"Pooh! she isn't a child. And she'll not lose her way, that's sure,"
+laughed Helen. "Anyway, we'll overtake her and give her a ride. Chief
+Totantora, too, if he will deign to step into the white man's car."
+
+Ruth said no more. But after the visit of Bilby to the mill she could not
+help but feel some little anxiety. She remembered that Dakota Joe, in
+whose show Wonota had once worked, had tried his best to make trouble for
+her and Mr. Hammond because of the Osage maiden; and this Bilby was
+plainly a much shrewder person than the Westerner had been.
+
+She and Helen aided Aunt Alvirah out to the car. It was a heavy, seven
+passenger machine; but Helen could drive it as well as Tom himself.
+
+"And Tommy-boy," she explained as she tucked the robe about Aunt Alvirah
+before following Ruth into the front seat, "went to town to-day with
+father."
+
+"I hope he will really get down to work now," said Ruth softly, as Helen
+began to manipulate the levers.
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed Helen carelessly. "Work was made for slaves. And Tom
+had a hard time over in France. I tell dad he ought not to expect
+Tommy-boy to really work for a long, long time to come."
+
+"Do you think that is right, Helen?" admonished her chum. "Idleness was
+never good for anybody."
+
+"It isn't as though Tom was poor. He hasn't got to toil and delve in an
+old office--"
+
+"You know it isn't that," cried Ruth warmly. "But he should make good use
+of his time. And your father needs him. He ought to be idle now, not
+Tom."
+
+"Grandmother Grunt!" laughed Helen. "You're twice as old as Aunt Alvirah
+right now."
+
+"After what we have been through--after what the world has been through
+for five years--we all ought to be at work," said Ruth rather severely.
+"And Tom is no exception."
+
+"Why, I never knew you to be hard on Tommy-boy before!" pouted Tom's
+sister.
+
+"Perhaps I never had occasion to be hard on him before," Ruth answered.
+"He is only one of many. Especially many of those who were over there in
+France. They seem to be so unsettled and--and so careless for the
+future."
+
+"Regular female Simon Legree, you are, Ruthie Fielding."
+
+"But when Tom first came back he was as eager as he could be to get to
+business and to begin a business career. And lately, it seems to me, he's
+had an awful slump in his ambition. I never saw the like."
+
+"Oh, bother!" muttered Helen, and started the car.
+
+The car shot ahead, and in five minutes they passed the country inn, but
+saw nothing of either Wonota or the Indian chief. In a cove below the
+river bank, however, Ruth caught a glimpse of a small motor-boat with two
+men in it. And backed into a wood's path near the highway was a small
+motor-car.
+
+Was it the smart roadster Mr. Horatio Bilby had driven to the Red Mill?
+Ruth could not be sure. But she did not enjoy the ride with Helen and
+Aunt Alvirah very much for thinking of the possibility of its being Mr.
+Bilby's car so close to the inn where Chief Totantora was stopping.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN ABDUCTION
+
+
+The ride in Helen's car was enjoyable, especially for Aunt Alvirah. How
+that old lady did smile and (as she herself laughingly said) "gabble" her
+delight! Being shut inside the house so much, the broader sight of the
+surrounding country and the now peacefully flowing Lumano River was
+indeed a treat.
+
+Helen drove up the river and over the Long Bridge, where she halted the
+car for a time that they might look both up and down the stream. And it
+was from this point that Ruth again caught a glimpse of the motor-boat
+she had before spied near the roadside inn.
+
+There was but one man in it now, and the boat was moored to the root of a
+big tree that overhung the little cove. Not that there was anything
+astonishing or suspicious in the appearance of the boat. Merely, it was
+there and seemed to have no particular business there. And the girl of
+the Red Mill recalled that Mr. Horatio Bilby's motor-car was backed into
+the bushes near that spot.
+
+Had Mr. Bilby, who had announced that his business in this vicinity was
+to obtain possession of Wonota, anything to do with the men in the boat?
+The thought may have been but an idle suggestion in Ruth's mind.
+
+Intuition was strong in Ruth Fielding, however. Somehow, the abandoned
+car being there near the inn where Totantora was staying and to which
+Wonota had gone to see her father, and the unidentified motor-boat
+lurking at the river's edge in the same vicinity, continued to rap an
+insistent warning at the door of the girl's mind.
+
+"Helen, let's go back," she said suddenly, as her chum was about to let
+in the clutch again. "Turn around--do."
+
+"What for?" asked Helen wonderingly, yet seeing something in the
+expression of Ruth's face that made her more than curious.
+
+"I--I feel that everything isn't right with Wonota."
+
+"Wonota!"
+
+Ruth, in low tones, told her chum her fears--told of Bilby's call at the
+mill--mentioned the fact that the Indian girl was probably at this time
+at the roadside inn and that the rival moving picture producer was
+perhaps there likewise.
+
+"What do you know about that!" gasped Helen. "Is there going to be a real
+fight for the possession of Wonota, do you think?"
+
+"And for Totantora too, perhaps. For he figures importantly in this
+picture we are about to make up on the St. Lawrence."
+
+"Fine!" exclaimed Helen Cameron. "There is going to be something doing
+besides picture making. Why, Ruth! you couldn't keep me from going with
+you to-morrow. And I know Tommy-boy will be crazy to be in it, too."
+
+Ruth made an appealing gesture as Helen began to back and turn the car.
+
+"Don't frighten Aunt Alvirah," she whispered.
+
+Helen was delighted with any prospect for action. It must be confessed
+that she did not think much about disappointment or trouble accruing to
+other people in any set of circumstances; she never had been particularly
+thoughtful for others. But she was brave to the point of recklessness,
+and she was at once excited regarding the suggested danger to her chum's
+plans.
+
+Bilby had already, Ruth understood, offered more money to Wonota and
+Totantora for their services than Mr. Hammond thought it wise to risk in
+the venture. And, after all, the temptation of money was great in the
+minds of the Indians. It might be that Bilby could get them away from
+Ruth's care. And then what would the Alectrion Film Corporation do about
+this next picture that had been planned?
+
+Aunt Alvirah made no complaint as to how or where the car went--as long
+as it went somewhere. She admitted she liked to travel fast. Having been
+for so many years crippled by that enemy, rheumatism, she seemed to find
+some compensation in the speed of Helen's car.
+
+The inn was several miles away from the Long Bridge; but the road was
+fairly straight, and as the car went over the ridges they could now and
+then catch glimpses of the hotel. On the right were cornfields, the dark
+green blades only six or eight inches high; and scattered over them the
+omnipresent scarecrows which, in the spring, add at least picturesqueness
+to the New England landscape.
+
+Above the purring of the motor Aunt Alvirah raised her voice to remark to
+the chums on the front seat:
+
+"I don't see it now--did it fall down?"
+
+"Did what fall down, Aunty?" asked Ruth, who, though troubled as she was
+by her suspicions, could not ignore the little old woman.
+
+"That scarecrow I see coming up. I thought 'twas a gal picking up stones
+in that field--the one this side of the hotel. It had a sunbonnet on, and
+it was just as natural! But it's gone."
+
+"I don't see any scarecrow there," admitted Ruth, turning to look.
+
+At that moment, however, the car she had seen parked in the bushes
+wheeled out into the highway ahead of them. It started on past the hotel.
+There was another figure beside that of the tubby Horatio Bilby on the
+seat. Ruth recognized Bilby at once.
+
+"Who's that?" asked Helen, slowing down involuntarily.
+
+"That's the man I spoke of," explained Ruth, "I--I wonder who it is
+that's with him?"
+
+"A girl!" exclaimed Helen. "Do you suppose he has got Wonota?"
+
+"Wonota--with a sunbonnet on?" cried her chum.
+
+"I bet he's running away with Wonota!" cried Helen, and started to speed
+up after the other car.
+
+Ruth laid a quick hand on her chum's arm.
+
+"Wait! Stop!" she cried. "See what a curiously acting thing that is he
+has got beside him? Is--It can't be a girl, Helen!"
+
+"It certainly isn't a boy," declared her friend, with exasperation.
+"He'll get away from us. That is a fast car he is driving."
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Ruth again, and as Helen brought her machine to an
+abrupt stop Aunt Alvirah was heard saying:
+
+"Now, ain't that reediculous? Ain't it reediculous?"
+
+"What is ridiculous?" asked Helen, looking back with a smile at the
+little old woman while Ruth opened the door and leaped out to the side of
+the road nearest the river.
+
+"Why, where are your eyes, Helen Cameron?" demanded Aunt Alvirah.
+"There's that scarecrow now. That feller is a-running away with it!"
+
+Helen flashed another look along the road. The figure beside Bilby on the
+seat had been set upright again. Now the girl saw that it was nothing but
+a figure. It was no girl at all!
+
+"What under the sun, Ruth--"
+
+But Ruth was not in hearing. She had dashed into the bushes and to the
+spot where she had previously seen the roadster belonging to Horatio
+Bilby parked. The bushes were trampled all about. Here and there were
+bits of torn cloth hanging to the thorns. Yonder was a slipper with
+rather a high heel. She recognized it as one belonging to Wonota, the
+Osage girl, and picked it up. The Indian maid was really attempting the
+fads, as well as the fancies, in apparel of her white sisters!
+
+But what had become of the girl herself? She certainly would not have
+removed one of her pumps and thrown it away. Like Aunt Alvirah and Helen,
+Ruth knew that the figure beside Bilby in the car was not the missing
+Indian girl. He had attempted to use the scarecrow he had stolen from the
+cornfield across the road to bewilder anybody who might pursue him.
+
+And this very attempt of the rival picture producer to foul his trail
+impressed Ruth that something serious regarding Wonota and her father was
+afoot. If the Indian girl had not gone with Bilby, where had she gone?
+And where was Totantora?
+
+Ruth could not believe that either Wonota or her father would prove
+faithless to their contract with Mr. Hammond--not intentionally, at
+least. She hesitated there in the trampled bushes for a moment, wondering
+if she ought not first to go on to the hotel and make inquiries.
+
+Then she heard something thrashing in the bushes not far away. She
+started, peering all about, listening. The noise led her to the head of a
+gully that sloped down toward the river's edge. It was bush-bestrewn and
+the way was rough. Ruth plunged down the slant of it, and behind the
+first clump of brush she came upon a man struggling on the ground.
+
+His ankles and his wrists were lashed, and when the girl turned him over
+she was amazed to see that he was most cruelly gagged with a piece of
+stick and a handkerchief.
+
+"Totantora!" she screamed. "What is the matter? Where is Wonota?"
+
+His glaring eyes seemed almost popping from their sockets. His
+copper-colored face was a mask of demoniacal rage. His dignity as an
+Indian and his feelings as a father had been outraged. Yet, Ruth was
+positive that the figure in the roadster beside Horatio Bilby was not
+Wonota, the chief's daughter.
+
+Her strong and nimble fingers had gone to work almost at once upon the
+cord that held the Indians wrists. She loosened them in a few moments.
+
+Totantora leaped to his feet, drew a clasp-knife from the pocket of his
+trousers, snapped it open, and slashed through the cords about his
+ankles.
+
+"Where is Wonota? What has happened?" Ruth cried.
+
+The Indian slashed the handkerchief that held the gag in place, dragged
+it out, and cast it away. He made no reply to Ruth's question, but
+lifting up his head sent a long and quavering cry through the grove--a
+cry that might have been the war-whoop of his tribe generations before.
+
+However, Ruth knew it was a signal to his daughter that he was free and
+was in pursuit. If Wonota was where she could hear!
+
+Speaking not at all to the anxious Ruth, Totantora started down the gully
+to the riverside. The girl followed him, running almost as wildly as did
+the Indian chief.
+
+Bounding out into the more open grove at the edge of the stream,
+Totantora uttered another savage yell. Ruth heard, too, the _put, put,
+put_, of a motor-boat. When she reached the water the boat she had
+previously observed was some few yards from the bank. There were two men
+in it now, and Ruth saw at first glance that Wonota, likewise bound and
+gagged, lay propped up against the small over-decked part of the launch.
+
+The Indian chief halted not even to kick off his moccasins. He ran to the
+edge of the bank and, the water being deep, dived on a long slant into
+the river. He rose almost instantly to the surface, and with a long,
+swift side-stroke followed after the motor craft, which was now gaining
+speed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+EXPEDIENCY
+
+
+Up in the Big North Woods Ruth Fielding had seen loons dive and swim (and
+of all the feathered tribe, loons are the master divers) and she had
+wondered at the birds' mastery of the water. But no loon ever seemed more
+at home in that element than did the Indian chief.
+
+Totantora tore through the water after the escaping motor-boat as though
+he, too, were propelled by a motor. And his motor was more powerful, in a
+short race at least, than that driving the launch in which Wonota was
+held prisoner.
+
+Before the men who had abducted the Osage maiden could get their boat out
+of the little cove, Totantora reached the stern of it. He rose breast
+high in the water and clutched the gunwale with one hand. One of the men
+swung at him with a boathook; but the other picked up his canvas coat and
+managed to smother the chief's head and face in it for a minute.
+
+Totantora flung himself backward and dragged the canvas coat out of the
+man's hand. Indeed, he came near to dragging the man himself into the
+water.
+
+The coat did not retard the Indian much. He grabbed it with both hands,
+spread it abroad, and then plunged with it under the stern of the
+motor-boat. At once the propeller ceased turning and the boat lost
+headway. Totantora had fouled the propeller blades with the canvas
+jacket, and the abductors could not get away.
+
+The Indian lunged for the gunwale of the boat again. One of the men was
+now attending to the mechanism. The other beat at Totantora's hands with
+the boathook.
+
+In a flash the chief let go of the rail with one hand and seized the
+staff of the implement. One powerful jerk, and he wrenched the boathook
+from the white man's grasp. The latter fell sprawling into the bottom of
+the boat. With a display of muscle-power at which Ruth could not but
+marvel, Totantora raised himself over the gunwale of the boat and
+scrambled into it.
+
+The second white man turned on him, but the Indian met him stooping,
+seized him around the waist, and tossed him, seemingly with scarcely an
+effort, into the water. The other abductor scrambled forward to get out
+of his reach. The chief bent for a minute over his daughter, and then
+Ruth saw that the girl was free and that she stood up, unhurt. It was all
+over so quickly that it left Ruth breathless.
+
+"Miss Ruth! Miss Ruth!" cried the Indian girl. "I am all right. My
+father, Chief Totantora, would not let these bad white men carry me away
+a captive."
+
+Ruth waved her hand to the younger girl. But she watched the white man
+who was swimming for the shore. She was not afraid of him--any more than
+the Indian chief was fearful of the other white man perched in the bow of
+the motor-boat.
+
+The swimmer reached the bank, caught hold of an overhanging bush, and
+dragged himself out of the river. He was a hang-dog looking sort of
+fellow, anyway; and in his saturated condition his appearance was not
+improved. He lay panting for a minute like an expiring fish, and Ruth
+looked down at him perhaps more contemptuously than she realized.
+
+"Well, who you looking at?" he growled at length.
+
+"I suppose I am looking at one of Mr. Horatio Bilby's choice assistants,"
+Ruth returned scornfully.
+
+"Huh? What do you know about Bilby?" demanded the fellow, evidently much
+surprised.
+
+"I know nothing very good of him, I am sure," the girl of the Red Mill
+replied coolly. "And I am quite confident that you are a fit companion
+for him."
+
+The fellow sat up and leered at her.
+
+"I ain't such a mighty fine sight just now, I guess," he said. "But there
+are worse than me. I didn't know there were any white folks interested in
+this business."
+
+"You make a perfectly proper distinction," Ruth told him. "Bilby is not a
+white man--not in his business ethics I am sure. I want to warn you that
+those Indians have powerful friends and you would do well to have nothing
+more to do with them."
+
+"I get you," growled the fellow. "But take it from me; that Injun don't
+need no friends. He can take care of himself. He's as strong as a bull."
+
+"And with a temper you would best not ruffle. I do not know what Bilby's
+scheme was, or how he got you into it. But take my advice and keep out of
+any further association with Bilby in this matter."
+
+"You don't have to warn me and my partner," said the fellow. "We got
+enough right now. Is he coming ashore?"
+
+He turned to look at the boat, and then leaped to his feet in some fear.
+Totantora, by leaning well over the stern of the boat, had dragged the
+torn coat out of the propeller, and now he was coolly examining the
+mechanism with the evident idea of starting the boat. The Indian seemed
+familiar with the driving power of such a craft.
+
+"I think he will bring his daughter ashore," Ruth said composedly. "If I
+were you I would not cross him further."
+
+"I ain't going to, Miss," said the fellow, now on his feet. "I see Jim is
+keeping as far away from him as he can. Jim can't swim."
+
+"Go aside somewhere. When they reach the bank I will try to take
+Totantora and the girl away with me. Do nothing to cross him, for the
+temper of an Indian is not easily quelled. It just simmers and may break
+out again at any time."
+
+"Believe me," said the fellow, starting off through the bushes, "I ain't
+aiming to have another run-in with him. Not with my bare hands. I hope he
+don't smash the boat, that's all."
+
+"I will do all I can to pacify Totantora," said Ruth, and she really was
+somewhat anxious on this point, for the grim countenance of the Indian
+chief threatened further reprisal.
+
+He was busy with the engine for a time; but by and by the regular popping
+of the exhaust revealed the fact that everything was all right with it.
+The boat described a circle and came back into the cove and to the place
+where Ruth stood on the bank.
+
+The second white man, who was younger and looked less like a drowned rat,
+remained in the bow, staring back in apprehension at the Indian. The
+moment he could do so, this man leaped ashore.
+
+"Say nothing to him," advised Ruth. "I will try to take them both away.
+And, as I have warned your companion, have nothing more to do with Bilby
+or his schemes. These Indians are my friends, and they have other friends
+who are much more powerful than I am, I can assure you."
+
+"Yes, Miss," said the man, politely enough. "I don't want to mix in with
+that redskin. I guess not!"
+
+Wonota stepped ashore and Ruth gave her the shoe she had lost. Her father
+followed her. He turned as though to set the boat adrift, but Ruth laid
+her hand upon his wet sleeve.
+
+"Let it alone, Totantora. I hope you will be advised by me. We will go
+right away from here. Instead of waiting until to-morrow, let us leave
+here to-night and start for the North."
+
+Wonota said something to her father in their own tongue, and he looked at
+Ruth more peacefully.
+
+"White lady is always my friend, I know; and Wonota's friend," he
+observed. "But these bad men tried to steal Wonota."
+
+"Tell me how it happened," Ruth put in, hoping to change his trend of
+thought and determination.
+
+"I will tell you, my friend," said the Indian girl. "A little fat man
+came in a car when Chief Totantora and I were walking in the road. He got
+us to sit down yonder and talk to him. He is one of those who have tried
+to get Chief Totantora and me to go away from you to make pictures. He
+offers much money. And while we talked, those other two men crept up
+behind us and they all seized Chief Totantora and me. We were bound and
+our mouths closed before we knew how many, or how few, our enemies were.
+Then my father was left in the wood and I was carried to the boat. I do
+not know what became of the little fat man."
+
+"I saw him drive away," Ruth said. "It made me suspicious. I had already
+seen and talked with the fat man, whose name is Bilby. Don't forget that
+name, Wonota."
+
+"I will remember," said the Indian girl, composedly.
+
+"He may make some other attempt to get possession of you. Some attempt by
+aid of the courts."
+
+"The white man's law is very strange," muttered Totantora.
+
+"But we will get ahead of Bilby before he can do anything else," Ruth
+went on. "Miss Cameron's car is outside in the road. Go to the hotel and
+change your clothes, Totantora, and I will take both you and Wonota back
+to the Red Mill. Until we get away for the North I shall not want you out
+of my sight."
+
+The Indian shook himself much as a dog might. A lighter expression
+flickered over his dark face.
+
+"I shall not suffer cold from a wetting," he said. "It is nothing. I have
+nothing at the hotel. We will go now."
+
+"Come on, then," rejoined Ruth, promptly. "It is best that we get away
+before Bilby can learn that his plan to make Wonota a captive miscarried.
+Hurry!"
+
+She swept them in her earnestness out to the road where Helen and Aunt
+Alvirah saw them with considerable surprise--particularly because of the
+saturated condition of the Indian.
+
+"I declare, Ruth!" cried Helen, "you do manage to get into such perfectly
+lovely rows. What is the matter?"
+
+But Ruth postponed all explanation for a later time. On their way back to
+the Red Mill she did explain to Helen, however, that she intended to take
+the two Indians to Cheslow and get a train for Albany that evening.
+
+"I will fool Bilby and whoever is aiding him. We will get away."
+
+"If you go to-night, so do I!" exclaimed her chum. "You can't lose me,
+Ruth Fielding. I can see that we are going to have perfectly scrumptious
+times before this picture you are going to make is finished."
+
+"I hope we'll fool Bilby--leave him behind," sighed Ruth.
+
+"The worst of it is, we must leave Tommy-boy behind," said Tom's twin.
+"Won't he be sore when he hears about it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AT CHIPPEWA BAY
+
+
+Helen pronounced that exodus from the Red Mill "some hustle;" and really
+it was but a brief time that Ruth allowed for packing, dressing, and
+getting to Cheslow for the eight-forty-five train, bound north. This was
+a through train with sleeping cars, and stopped at Cheslow only on
+special occasions. Ruth determined that this was one of those occasions.
+
+She hustled Ben, the hired man, off to town ahead, and by the good
+offices of Mercy Curtis a compartment and berth were obtained on that
+especial train. Mercy kept the wires hot arranging this for her friend.
+
+Meanwhile, Helen rushed home in her car, packed her trunk and bag, had
+them loaded into the front of the car, and drove up the road again to the
+Red Mill where she picked up the two Indians and Ruth. Uncle Jabez and
+Aunt Alvirah were sorry enough to see Ruth go; but this trip promised not
+to be a long one, for the picture should be made in five or six weeks.
+
+The Cameron's chauffeur had been instructed by Helen to "burn up the
+road," for there was none too much time before the train was due, and he
+did as he was ordered. Indeed, there were ten minutes to spare when they
+reached the station platform, and the girls spent that time chatting with
+Mercy Curtis leaning out of her window of the telegraph office.
+
+"So, you are off on your travels again," said the lame girl. "I wish I
+was a butterfly of fashion, too."
+
+"'Butterfly,'!" scoffed Helen. "Ruth, at least, is no butterfly. She
+might be called a busy bee with more truth."
+
+"Ah-ha, Miss Helen!" returned Mercy, shaking her finger, "you are the
+improvident grasshopper--no less."
+
+Helen giggled. "Tom says that that old proverb, 'Go to the ant, thou
+sluggard;' should read: 'Go to the ant and slug her.' He does not love
+work any more than I do."
+
+Again Ruth's expression of countenance was one of disapproval, but she
+made no comment on Tom. The train thundered toward the station, slowing
+down as though resenting being stopped in its swift career for even a few
+moments.
+
+Mr. Curtis, the station master, made a point himself of seeing that the
+baggage of the party was put into the baggage car. The conductor and
+porter helped the girls aboard, and they found their sections.
+
+Ruth was determined that Wonota should not get out of her sight again,
+and the Indian girl was to occupy a berth in the stateroom. Totantora was
+to have had the berth; but when he saw it made up and noted the cramped
+and narrow quarters offered him, he shook his head decidedly. He spent
+the night in the porter's little room at the end of the car, and the
+porter, when he found out Totantora was an Indian chief, did not dare
+object for fear of being scalped!
+
+The party reached Hammond the following afternoon. Here they alighted
+instead of at Redwood, the more popular station of those wishing to reach
+the Thousand Islands by way of the electric road to Alexandria Bay. Ruth
+and her party were going direct to Chippewa Bay, for it was upon some of
+the more northern of the fourteen hundred or more isles that constitute
+the "Thousand Islands" that Mr. Hammond had arranged for the film
+company's activities at this time.
+
+A big touring car was waiting for the party, for one of the telegrams
+Ruth had caused to be sent the evening before was to Mr. Hammond, and
+they were glad to leave the Pullman and get into the open air. Totantora,
+even, desired to walk to Chippewa Bay, for he was tired of the white
+man's means of locomotion. Ruth and Wonota would not hear to this.
+
+"I guess we have eluded Bilby," said the girl of the Red Mill; "but I
+shall not feel that Wonota is safe, Totantora, unless you are near her at
+all times. You must keep watch of your daughter. She is a valuable
+possession."
+
+For once Totantora smiled--although it was grimly.
+
+"A squaw did not use to be counted for much in my nation," he said. "But
+Wonota is not like the old squaws."
+
+"Wonota is quite an up-to-date young woman, let me tell you, Mr
+Totantora," Helen told him briskly.
+
+The party remained over night at a small hotel at Chippewa Bay; but in
+the morning Ruth and her companions entered a motor launch and were
+transported to an island where the film producing company had been
+established in several bungalows which Mr. Hammond had rented for the
+time of their stay.
+
+The water between the small islands was as calm as a mill pond; but the
+party caught glimpses from the launch of the breadth of the St. Lawrence,
+its Canadian shore being merely a misty blue line that morning. The rocky
+and wooded islands were extremely beautiful and as romantic in appearance
+as the wilderness always is. Now and then a privately owned island,
+improved by landscape gardening into a modern summer estate, offered
+contrast to the wilder isles.
+
+The girls spent most of the day in getting settled. No work on the new
+picture could be done for a couple of days, and Helen, naturally, looked
+for amusement. There were canoes as well as motor boats, and both the
+chums were fond of canoeing. Wonota, of course, was mistress of the
+paddle; and with her the two white girls selected a roomy canoe and set
+out toward evening on a journey of exploration among the closer islands.
+
+One of the largest islands in the group was in sight--Grenadier Island;
+but that they learned was beyond the American line. They saw it only from
+a distance, keeping close to the New York shore as they did on this brief
+voyage. The tall tamaracks and the other trees crowded some of the
+islands until they seemed veritable jungles.
+
+Some few, however, were bold and precipitous in the extreme. "Just the
+sort of place for pirate dens and robber caves," Helen declared,
+shivering gleefully.
+
+"What a romantic puss you are," laughed Ruth.
+
+"Well, those cracks in the rock yonder look so dark and dismal. And there
+_might_ be dark-skinned men with red bandanas bound around their heads,
+and knives in their belts, along with the rest of the scenery, Ruthie,"
+complained Helen.
+
+Wonota stared at her. "Do you mean, Miss Helen, that there are
+cholos--are greasers--in these woods? My geography book that I study
+shows this country to be far, far from Mexico."
+
+"Oh, my aunt!" chuckled Helen. "She thinks nobody but Mexicans can wear
+gay handkerchiefs bound about their noble brows. Wait till you see
+sure-enough pirates--"
+
+"That is perfect nonsense, Wonota," said Ruth, warningly. "Helen is only
+in fun."
+
+"Ah," said the practical Indian maid, "I understand English--and
+American; only I do not always grasp the--er--humor, do you call it?"
+
+"Good!" applauded Ruth. "Serves you right, Helen, for your silly
+nonsense."
+
+"The Indians' fun is different," explained Wonota, not wishing to offend
+the white girl.
+
+"You are a pair of old sober-sides, that is what is the matter," declared
+Helen gaily. "Oh, Ruth! drive the canoe ashore yonder--on that rocky
+beach. Did you ever see such ferns?"
+
+They brought the canoe carefully in to the shore, landing on a sloping
+rock which was moss-grown above the mark of the last flood. Ruth fastened
+the tow-rope to the staff of a slender sapling. Wonota got out to help
+Helen gather some of the more delicately fronded ferns. Ruth turned her
+back upon them and began climbing what seemed to be a path among the
+boulders and trees.
+
+This was not a very large island, and it was well out from the American
+shore, but inside the line between the States and Canada. Although the
+path Ruth followed seemed well defined, she scarcely thought the island
+was inhabited.
+
+As they had paddled past it in the canoe there had been no sign of man's
+presence. It had been left in the state of nature, and nothing, it
+seemed, had been done to change its appearance from the time that the
+first white man had seen it.
+
+Some rods up the ascent Ruth came to an open place--a table of rock that
+might really have been a giant's dining-table, so flat and perfectly
+shaped it was. She could look down upon Helen and Wonota, and they looked
+up and called to her.
+
+"Look out for the pirates!" shouted Helen, with laughter.
+
+Ruth waved her hand, smiling, and, crossing the rock, parted the brush
+and stepped out of sight of her friends. Two steps she took through the
+clinging bushes when a most surprising figure started up before her.
+
+There was plenty of light, even if the sun had gone down. She was not
+uncertain at all as to the nature of the figure that confronted her--that
+of a man.
+
+She saw almost instantly that the old man's brown eyes were more like a
+child's in expression than like an angry man's. He grinned at her, but
+the grimace was involuntary or meaningless.
+
+"Hush!" he whispered. "Hush!"
+
+Ruth remained both quiet and speechless, looking into his wrinkled old
+face calmly. She thought he must be a beggar from his clothing, but she
+could not imagine him a robber, nor even one of Helen's "pirates." As she
+said nothing the old man repeated his sibilant warning:
+
+"Hush!"
+
+"I am 'hushing' just as hard as I can," whispered the girl in return, and
+smiling a little now. "Why must I 'hush'?"
+
+"Hush!" he said again, quite as earnestly. "You are in danger of your
+life, young woman."
+
+"Not from you, I am sure," she returned. "You would not try to hurt me."
+
+"Hush!" he repeated, looking back over his shoulder into the thicker
+wood. "They may come at any moment now. And although I am their king,
+they would kill you. You see, kings aren't as powerful now as they used
+to be before the war."
+
+"So I understand," agreed Ruth soberly. "But who are you king of--or
+what?"
+
+"I am King of the Pipes," whispered the old man. "You don't know what
+that means," he added, scanning her puzzled face. "No. And that's the
+secret. You cannot be told."
+
+"Oh," murmured Ruth, somewhat amused, yet pitying his evident mental
+state.
+
+"Hush!" he said again. "You are in danger. Go away from this place at
+once, and don't come here again. If my courtiers see you--Ha! Off with
+her head! I shall have to follow the kingly custom. It is not my fault,"
+he added, in the same low tone, shaking his head mournfully. "We kings
+have to lead our lives, you know."
+
+"It must be a dreadful life, if you have to order people's heads cut off
+when they have done you no harm," Ruth ventured.
+
+"But my people would not believe that you would do no harm," he
+explained. "I can see that you are quite harmless. But they have not the
+intelligence I possess. You understand?"
+
+"Quite," said Ruth. "And I will go right away. Thank you for your
+kindness."
+
+"That is right, young woman. Go away. And do not return. It is not safe
+here."
+
+"Can't--can't I do anything for you?"
+
+"Hush!" warned the old man. "No, I do not think you can. I do not care to
+divide my power with any consort. And, unless you are of noble blood I
+could not make you Queen of the Pipes. That would never do. Such a
+mesalliance would never do. My people would never stand for it--oh,
+never!"
+
+"I quite understand that," said Ruth, having difficulty to keep from
+smiling.
+
+"Now go, young woman," the man said pompously. "And do not return."
+
+"I will obey you," said Ruth soberly. "If you are sure I cannot help
+you."
+
+"Hush!" he warned her again, waving his hand. "They are likely to come at
+any moment. And then--"
+
+The girl backed through the bushes and stepped upon the table-like rock.
+She would have bade him good-bye, but he hissed after her another
+sibilant "hush!" and disappeared as mysteriously as he had come.
+
+Ruth descended to the canoe and waited until they were well away from the
+island before she said a word to the other girls about the queer old man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A FILM MYSTERY
+
+
+"I told you there were pirates there," Helen declared that evening, when
+she and Ruth were in the room they shared together. Wonota slept in a
+room adjoining and had already retired.
+
+"I don't think that poor old man was a pirate," returned Ruth, smiling a
+little.
+
+"Didn't he tell you he was 'king of the pirates'?" demanded Helen.
+
+Ruth laughed outright. "He said he was 'king of the pipes'--whatever that
+may mean. Poor old fellow!"
+
+"Well, it seems he most certainly had been 'smoking the pipe'--or do they
+call it 'hitting the pipe'?"
+
+"Don't ask me to aid you with any information on slang," admonished her
+friend. "I don't suppose he is really king of anything except of a
+country of his dreams--poor fellow."
+
+"Dear me!" grumbled Helen. "You never will boost romance, Ruth Fielding.
+Maybe there are pirates on that island."
+
+"Or pipes," said Ruth calmly.
+
+"Never mind. When the boys come I am going to shoo them on to that
+place."
+
+"What boys?" demanded Ruth in surprise.
+
+"The Copleys arrive to-morrow. And their place is not five miles away
+from this very spot. We'll get a motor-boat and go down there to-morrow
+evening and welcome them. I got a telegram from Tom when I came back from
+canoeing. I forgot to tell you."
+
+"Tom!" exclaimed Ruth, and for perhaps the first time in her life she
+seemed undesirous of hearing about Tom Cameron.
+
+Helen gave her a somewhat puzzled side glance as she found the telegram
+and gave it to her chum, who read:
+
+  "Vacation begins to-morrow. Will be with you next day. Tom."
+
+Helen giggled. "You can make up your mind that he knows Chess Copley has
+started for this neck of woods. Tom is becoming Mr. Jealous Jellaby. Did
+you ever?"
+
+"I am sorry Tom considers it necessary to take a vacation when he has
+only just begun work with your father, Helen."
+
+"There you go again!" exclaimed her chum. "I don't understand you at all,
+Ruth Fielding. Tom doesn't have to work."
+
+"It might be better if he did," said Ruth, and refused to discuss the
+point further that evening.
+
+The next day was just as lovely as that first one. Preparations were
+under way all over the island Mr. Hammond had rented for the making of
+the picture which Ruth had written. The continuity was being studied by
+Mr. Hooley, the director; and the principals had been furnished with
+their detail.
+
+The ordinary participants in the filming of a picture--the "extras"--seldom
+know much about the story. They merely appear in certain scenes and do what
+they are told. As the scenes are not made in sequence these actors of the
+smaller parts have little idea of the story itself.
+
+Ruth, under the advice of Mr. Hammond, had chosen a certain series of
+incidents relating to early French-Canadian history, and it began with an
+allegory of the bringing of the Christian religion to the Indians by the
+first French priests. This allegory included the landing of the French
+upon the shore of a rocky island where they were met by the wondering
+Indians, and Mr. Hooley's assistant had chosen the spot for this scene to
+be "shot," not far from the place where the company had its headquarters.
+
+Ruth paid little attention to the locations until the moment arrived for
+the camera work. In fact, after supplying the detailed script she had
+little to do with the preparation of the picture until the scenes were
+made. She had never made continuity, as it is called, for that is more or
+less of a mechanical process and is sure to interfere with the creative
+faculty of the screen writer.
+
+In the afternoon of this day Helen engaged a motor-boat, and she and Ruth
+set out for the Copley island, which was some miles away, toward
+Alexandria Bay. Caretakers and servants had been at work there for some
+time, it was evident, for the lawns were neatly shaved, the gardens in
+full growth, and the family were already comfortably settled in their
+summer home.
+
+Chess Copley must have been on the watch (could it be possible that he
+had inside information about this early visit of Helen and Ruth?) for he
+came running down to the dock before the gardener could reach that point
+to fasten the boat's line.
+
+"Hurrah!" he shouted. "I was just wondering if we would see you girls
+to-day; and if you hadn't come I should have got out our launch and tried
+to find your camp this evening."
+
+"Oh, hullo, Chess," Helen said coolly as she stepped ashore, refusing his
+assistance. "Where are the girls?"
+
+"There they are--waiting for you on the porch," he said, rather subdued
+it would seem by her bruskness.
+
+Helen started directly for the wide veranda of the villa-like house that
+topped the higher part of the island. There were several acres of grounds
+about the Copley house, for the whole island was cultivated to the
+water's edge. There was nothing wild left in the appearance of the
+property, save a few of the tall forest trees that had been allowed to
+stand and some huge boulders almost covered with climbing vines.
+
+Ruth gave Chess her hand--and he squeezed it warmly. She gave him a frank
+smile, and Chess seemed comforted.
+
+"Nell's dreadfully tart with a fellow," he grumbled. "She's nothing like
+she used to be. But you are kind, Ruth."
+
+"You should not wear your heart on your sleeve," she told him briskly, as
+they followed Helen Cameron toward the veranda.
+
+The two girls from the moving picture camp passed a pleasant evening with
+their New York friends. The Copley girls always managed to gather, Helen
+declared, "perfectly splendid house parties;" and they had brought with
+them several companionable girls and young men.
+
+Music and dancing filled the evening, and it was ten o'clock when the two
+chums from Cheslow sought their motor-boat and set out for the camp on
+the Chippewa Bay island. Chess Copley had kept by Ruth's side almost all
+the evening, and although Helen treated him so cavalierly, she seemed
+provoked at her chum for paying the young man so much attention.
+
+"I don't understand what you see in Chess," she said in a vexed tone to
+the girl of the Red Mill. "He's nothing much."
+
+"He is pleasant, and you used to like him," said Ruth quietly.
+
+"Humph!" Helen tossed her head. "I found him out. And he's not to be
+compared with Tommy-boy."
+
+"I quite agree with you--that is, considering Tom as a brother," observed
+Ruth, and after that refused to be led into further discussion regarding
+Chess Copley.
+
+It was not often that Ruth and Helen had a disagreement. And this was not
+really of importance. At least, there was no sign of contention between
+them in the morning.
+
+To tell the truth, there was so much going on, on this day, that the
+girls could scarcely have found time to quarrel. The sun was bright and
+the sky cloudless. It was an ideal day for out-of-door "shots," and the
+camera men and Mr. Hooley had the whole company astir betimes.
+
+The few real Indians, besides Wonota and Totantora, in the company, and
+all those "extras" who were dressed as aborigines, got into their
+costumes before breakfast. Soon after eight o'clock the company got away
+in barges, with launches to tow them through the quiet waterways.
+
+In a costume play like this that had been planned, the participants
+naturally make a very brilliant spectacle wherever they appear. But among
+the islands of Chippewa Bay there were few spectators at this time save
+the wild fowl.
+
+"And they," Helen said, "might be descendants of the very birds who
+looked on the actual first appearance of the white man in this
+wilderness. Isn't it wonderful?"
+
+When Mr. Hooley, megaphone in hand and stationed with the two cameras on
+one of the decked-over barges, had got his company in position and the
+action was begun, it was indeed an impressive picture. Of course, a scene
+is not made off-hand--not even an outdoor pageant like this. The detail
+must be done over and over again before the cranks of the cameras are
+turned. It was almost noon before Mr. Hooley dared tell the camera men to
+"shoot the scene."
+
+The flag-decorated barge bearing the Frenchmen to the rocky shore moved
+forward into focus in a stately way, while the Indians gathered in a
+spectacular group on the sloping shore--tier upon tier of dark faces,
+wearing nodding feather head-dresses, blankets, deerskin leggings, and
+other garments of Indian manufacture--all grouped to make a brilliant
+spectacle.
+
+Totantora, a commanding figure, and his daughter as _White Fawn_, the
+demure yet dominant princess of the Hurons, stood forth from the
+background of the other Indians in a graceful picture. Helen was
+delighted and could not help shouting to the Osage girl that she was
+"great"--a remark which elicited a frown from the director and an
+admonition from Ruth.
+
+Behind the grouped Indians was the greenery of the primeval forest with
+which this rocky island seemed to be covered. The cameras whirred while
+the barge containing the actors representing the Frenchmen pushed close
+into the shore and the whites landed.
+
+A boy carried ashore the great cross, and with him came a soldier bearing
+the lilies of France, the standard of which he sank into the turf. The
+detail of costume and armament had been carefully searched out by Ruth
+herself, and the properties were exact. She was sure that this part of
+the picture at least could not be criticised but to be praised.
+
+It was three o'clock before the party disembarked and went back to the
+camp for a delayed lunch. The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to
+the taking of several "close-ups" and an interior scene that had been
+built on the island rather than in the city studio of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation.
+
+The films taken earlier in the day were developed, and that evening after
+dinner Ruth and Helen joined Mr. Hammond and Mr. Hooley in the projection
+room to see a "run" of the strip taken at the island where the Frenchmen
+landed.
+
+"Do you know that that island is the one we landed on ourselves the other
+evening, Ruth?" Helen remarked, as they took their seats and waited in
+the darkness for the operator to project the new film.
+
+"Do you mean it? I did not notice. The island where I met that strange
+old man?"
+
+"The pirate--yes," giggled Helen. "Only we went ashore at the far end of
+it."
+
+"I never thought of it--or of him," admitted Ruth. "Poor, crazy old
+fellow--"
+
+The machine began its whirring note and they fell silent. Upon the silver
+sheet there took shape and actuality the moving barge with its banners
+and streamers and costumed actors. Then a flash was given of the Indians
+gathering on the wild shore--wondering, excited, not a little fearful of
+the strange appearance of the white men. The pageant moved forward to its
+conclusion--the landing of the strangers and the setting up of the
+banners and the cross.
+
+But suddenly Ruth shrieked aloud, and Mr. Hammond shouted to the operator
+to "repeat." The dense underbrush had parted behind the upper tier of
+Indians and in the aperture thus made appeared a face and part of the
+figure of a man--a wild face with straggling hair and beard, and the
+upper part of his body clad in the rags of a shirt.
+
+"What in thunder was that, Hooley?" cried Mr. Hammond. "Somebody butted
+in. It's spoiled the whole thing. I thought your men warned everybody off
+that island?"
+
+"I never saw that scarecrow before," declared the director, quite as
+angrily.
+
+But Ruth squeezed Helen's hand hard.
+
+"The King of the Pipes," she whispered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A SMELL OF SMOKE
+
+
+The discovery of the face and figure of the old man whom Ruth had once
+met and spoken with on the island thrust out of the undergrowth and
+showing through a good part of the length of film that had been made that
+first day, caused a good deal of disturbance. The King of the Pipes, as
+he had called himself, was entirely "out of the picture." His
+representation on the celluloid could not be removed. And he had been in
+focus for so many feet of the film that it was utterly impossible to cut
+it, and thus save the picture.
+
+"It is a wretched piece of business," Mr. Hammond said to Ruth, as they
+came from the projection room after seeing the reel run off again and
+again. "The entire scene will have to be made over. And, aside from that
+irremediable fault, I consider the work remarkably good. Mr. Hooley may
+never again be able to get it so good."
+
+Ruth and Helen had told him about the old crazy man--a hermit,
+perhaps--and Mr. Hammond had given instructions that before the retaking
+of the scene was tried the island should be searched for the King of the
+Pipes.
+
+"Whoever, or whatever, he is," the producer said, "he's got to be looked
+after while we are making this picture. He is likely to burst most
+unexpectedly into any of the outdoor scenes, and on any location, and
+break up the show. This is going to cost money, Miss Ruth."
+
+"I know it, Mr. Hammond. But it never crossed my mind that it was on that
+very island I had my meeting with the man."
+
+"When Hooley tries to shoot the picture again we must send somebody up
+into that island to watch for the old fellow. He'd better be under
+confinement, anyway, if he's crazy."
+
+"The poor old thing." Ruth sighed. "I don't think he means any harm--"
+
+"He's harmed us all right," grumbled the president of the Alectrion Film
+Corporation. "I tell you, a day's work like this--with such salaries as
+we pay, and supplies and all--mounts into real money."
+
+"Oh," said Ruth, "some of the film can be saved. All that until the
+Frenchmen land--"
+
+"We won't dare risk it. In a costume story like this somebody is sure to
+get his dress, or armor, or something, different next time from what it
+was to-day. And if we try to save any part of this piece of film the
+change will show up in the finished picture. Every critical spectator
+will see the break and will comment upon it. Might as well make up our
+minds to take the loss; but we must be sure that a similar accident does
+not occur again."
+
+"Will Mr. Hooley risk taking the scene over on that island?" asked Ruth
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Why not? It is a fine location--couldn't be beat. We've got to shoo that
+old man out of it, that's all."
+
+The girl had an idea that if she could meet the queer old man again she
+might be able to convince him that some other island would serve quite as
+well for his "kingdom" as that particular isle. At any rate, she hated
+the thought of his being abused or roughly treated.
+
+Soon after the fiasco in the projection room, Tom Cameron arrived by
+motor-boat from the town across the bay. Now, Ruth was secretly very glad
+to see Tom. She always would be glad to see his sunny face, no matter how
+or when. But she could not approve of his being here at the Thousand
+Islands at this particular time.
+
+Tom had grown up to be one of those young men who do not know what they
+want to do in life, and the reaction from the strain of his military life
+had, as was natural, intensified this tendency to drift. After the time
+that he had determined to be a soldier, then to go West and hunt Indians
+and grizzly bears, and then shifted to the desire to be a pirate or a
+policeman, Tom Cameron had really expressed very little taste for any
+commercial pursuit.
+
+He had made his mark in his preparatory school and college in several
+lines of athletics. But a boy in his position would scarcely become a
+professional baseball player or pull an oar for a living. To tell the
+truth, Tom had never shown much aptitude for his father's business. Dry
+goods did not interest him.
+
+Yet when he had come home after the armistice Ruth thought he was going
+to buckle right down to business with Mr. Cameron's firm. There seemed to
+be a super-abundant supply of energy in Tom that had to be worked off.
+And Ruth thought it would be worked off properly under the yoke of
+business. Besides, Mr. Cameron was getting no younger, and he ought to
+have the support of his only son in business affairs.
+
+But the last winter, since Ruth and the Cameron twins had returned from
+the Northwest, things had not gone with Tom quite as the girl of the Red
+Mill would have chosen.
+
+Yet she felt that it was not really her business to interfere. Indeed,
+she did not purpose to interfere. If she undertook to advise Tom it would
+please him only too well--that she knew, of course.
+
+For Tom considered Ruth quite as much his property as Helen--only in a
+slightly different way. And if Ruth showed in any manner that she
+considered Tom her property--well, it would be all off, to use one of
+Helen's favorite expressions.
+
+There was no engagement between Ruth and Tom--not even a tacitly
+recognized one. In times of stress and need Tom had proved himself to be
+a very good friend indeed, and Ruth fully appreciated this. But during
+this past winter he had been somewhat spoiled--or so the girl thought.
+
+In the first place, Helen was determined to make a hero of her handsome
+brother. Captain Cameron was pushed to the fore by his sister in every
+possible way and manner. Helen had many gay friends in New York--she had
+met them through the Stones, for Helen had often been with Jennie when
+Ruth was elsewhere and more seriously engaged.
+
+Naturally Tom had been one with his sister in gay parties, dances,
+theater groups, supper crowds, and all the rest. Business had gone by the
+board with Tom; and before Ruth realized it the young returned soldier
+had lapsed into a butterfly existence that busy Ruth did not approve.
+Especially, did she believe, was such an aimless life bad for Tom
+Cameron.
+
+She met him in the living room of the bungalow, however, with her usual
+warmth; perhaps "lack of warmth" would be the better expression. For
+although Ruth was always quietly cordial with most people, she was never
+"hail fellow, well met" with anybody, unless it was her own, dear, old
+girl friends of Briarwood Hall.
+
+She resisted, however, making any criticism upon Tom's presence in the
+moving picture camp. Everybody in the house--and there were several
+members of the company there besides Mr. Hammond and the director--greeted
+Tom Cameron cordially. He was a favorite with them all.
+
+And the minute Totantora heard of Tom's arrival, the Osage chief appeared
+at the door, standing with glittering eyes fixed on the ex-captain and
+unmoved expression of countenance while he waited to catch Tom's
+attention.
+
+"Bless my heart!" cried the rollicking Tom, "here's my old buddy!
+Totantora, how are you?"
+
+They shook hands, the Indian gravely but with an expression in his eyes
+that revealed a more than ordinary affection for the young white man. In
+France and along the Rhine Totantora, the Osage chief, had become the
+sworn follower of the drygoods merchant's son--a situation to cause
+remark, if not wonder.
+
+Tom had learned a few words of the Osage tongue and could understand some
+of Totantora's gutturals. What the chief said seemed at one point to
+refer to Ruth, who, quite unconscious, was talking with Mr. Hammond
+across the room. Tom glanced at Ruth's back and shook his head slightly.
+But he made no audible comment upon what the Indian said.
+
+He did not, indeed, see much of Ruth that night; but in one moment of
+privacy she said to Tom:
+
+"Do you want to make an early morning excursion--before Lazybones Helen
+is roused from her rosy slumbers?"
+
+"Bet you!" was Tom's boyish reply.
+
+"Six o'clock, then, at the dock. If you are there first rouse out Willie,
+the boatman, and offer him a five dollar bill from me to take us through
+the islands in the _Gem_. That's his boat."
+
+"I'll find him to-night and make sure," said Tom promptly.
+
+"You are a faithful servitor," laughed Ruth, and left him before Tom
+could take any advantage of her kindness.
+
+The appointment was kept to the letter and minute in the morning. Helen
+was still asleep when Ruth dressed and stole out of the bungalow. Not
+many of the people on the island, save the cooks and dining-room
+employees, were astir. But Tom and the boatman--and the _Gem_--were at
+the dock in readiness.
+
+Ruth gave Willie his instructions. He was to make a landing at the far
+end of the island on which the picture had been taken the day before. It
+was too early for any of Mr. Hooley's men to be over there looking for
+the old man whose face had spoiled several hundred feet of good film.
+Ruth wished, if possible, to first interview the strange man.
+
+She took Tom into her confidence at once about the King of the Pipes. She
+did not believe the man was so crazy that he ought to be shut up in an
+asylum. He was merely "queer." And if they could get him off the island
+and out of the way while the picture was being shot, he might then go
+back to his hermit life and play at being king all he wished to.
+
+"What a lark!" exclaimed Tom, looking at the matter a good deal as his
+twin sister did. "And you are constantly falling in with queer
+characters, Ruth."
+
+"You might better say they are falling in with me, for I am sure I do not
+intentionally hunt them up," complained Ruth. "And this poor old man has
+cost us money enough."
+
+"It is too bad," was Tom's comment.
+
+"Worse than that, perhaps Mr. Hooley will never again get as fine an
+allegorical picture as he did yesterday. They were all in the spirit of
+the piece when the shot was made."
+
+They arrived at the sloping stone beach and landed as Ruth and the girls
+had before disembarked. Ruth led Tom up the rough path into the woods
+beyond the table-rock. The trees stood thick, and the bushes were thorny,
+but they pushed through to an open space surrounding an old, gnarled,
+lightning-riven beech. The top of this monarch of the ancient forest had
+been broken off and the line of its rotted trunk and branches could be
+marked amid the undergrowth. But the staff of it stood at least thirty
+feet in height.
+
+"What a spread of shade it must have given in its day," said Tom. "All
+these other tall trees have grown up since the top broke off."
+
+"Quite so," agreed Ruth. "But where do you suppose that queer old man has
+his camp?"
+
+They looked all about the island, coming back at last to the riven beech.
+But they found no mark of human occupancy on the island.
+
+"I smell wood smoke, just the same," Tom declared, sniffing the air.
+"There is a fire somewhere near."
+
+They saw no smoke, however, nor did they find any cavity in the rocks
+that seemed to have been occupied by man or used as the rudest kind of
+camp.
+
+"Maybe he doesn't live on this island after all," said Tom. "He could get
+to half a dozen other islands from here in a light canoe. Or even on a
+raft."
+
+"He spoke as though he considered this particular island his kingdom,"
+rejoined Ruth. "This was the only place he warned me away from--not from
+the islands in general. I don't understand it at all, Tom. And I don't
+want the men to be unkind to him."
+
+"Well, it looks to me," observed her friend, "that if we cannot find him,
+they will be unable to find him as well. So I wouldn't worry, Ruth."
+
+But the girl went back to the Gem and sailed again to the headquarters of
+the moving picture company not at all satisfied as to the result of their
+undertaking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+BILBY AGAIN
+
+
+The work of picture making that day went without a hitch. Mr. Hooley sent
+several men into the woods above the spot on the shore of the "Kingdom of
+Pipes," as Helen insisted upon calling the island where the prologue of
+the picture was made, and they remained on watch there during the
+activities of the company below.
+
+When the film was developed and run off in the projection room that
+evening it was pronounced by all--even by Mr. Hammond--as good in detail
+as the spoiled reel.
+
+From that point the work went on briskly, for the weather remained
+perfect for picture taking. Ruth was busy; but she could give some time
+to enjoyment, too, especially in the evening; and that next evening when
+Chess Copley appeared in his own motor-boat, the _Lauriette_, she was
+glad to join a moonlight boating party which ventured as far as
+Alexandria Bay, where they had supper and danced at the pavilion,
+returning to the picture camp in the early hours of the morning.
+
+Ruth was Chessleigh's particular guest on this occasion, and Tom and
+Helen Cameron went in another launch.
+
+The moonlight upon the islands and the passages of silvery water between
+them was most beautiful. And Ruth enjoyed herself immensely. That is, she
+found the occasion enjoyable until they got back to the bungalow and had
+bidden the Copleys and their party good night. Then the girl of the Red
+Mill found her roommate rather irritable. Helen pouted and was frankly
+cross when she spoke.
+
+"I don't see what you find so interesting in Chess Copley," she observed,
+brushing her hair before the glass.
+
+"He is nice I think," replied Ruth placidly.
+
+"And you just ignore Tommy-boy."
+
+"I could not very well refuse Chess when he invited me into his launch. I
+did not know you and Tom were going in the other boat."
+
+"Well, I wasn't going with Chess. And I wouldn't let Tommy tag after
+you."
+
+"I wish you wouldn't be so foolish, Helen," sighed her chum.
+
+"If you act this way," declared the rather unreasonable Helen, "you'll
+spoil our whole visit at the Thousand Islands."
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed Ruth, for once showing exasperation, "you do not
+talk very sensibly, Helen. I have come here to work, not to play. Please
+bear that in mind. If you think I spoil your sport I will not join any
+other evening parties."
+
+The next evening when the Copley party came over to get acquainted with
+some of the moving picture people and arrange for a big dance on Saturday
+night, Ruth was as good as her word, and remained in Mr. Hammond's
+office, recasting certain scenes in her story that Mr. Hooley proposed to
+make next day.
+
+Helen was sure Ruth was "mad" and kept out of the way intentionally. She
+told Tom so. But she did not choose to relieve Chess Copley's loneliness
+when she saw him mooning about.
+
+Whenever Chess tried to speak to Helen in private she ran away from him.
+Whether it was loyalty to her brother, Tom, or some other reason that
+made Helen treat Copley so unkindly, the fact remained that Chess was
+plainly not in Helen's good books, although she made much of the two
+Copley girls.
+
+The next day Ruth was quite as busy, for the making of the picture was
+going ahead rapidly while the good weather lasted. This story she had
+written was more of a pageant than anything she had yet essayed. The
+scenes were almost all "on location," instead of being filmed under a
+glass roof.
+
+Helen and Tom did not seem to understand that their friend could not go
+off fishing or sailing or otherwise junketing whenever they would like to
+have her. But picture making and directors, and especially sunlight, will
+not wait, and so Ruth tried to tell them.
+
+It was Chess Copley, after all, who seemed to have the better
+appreciation of Ruth's situation just at this time. Before a week had
+passed he was almost always to be found at Ruth's beck and call; for when
+she could get away from the work of picture making, Chess turned up as
+faithfully as the proverbial bad penny.
+
+"You are not a bad penny, however, Chess," she told him, smiling. "You
+are a good scout. Now you may take me out in your motor-boat. If it is
+too late to fish, we can at least have a run out into the river. How
+pretty it is to-day!"
+
+"If everybody treated me as nicely as you do, Ruth," he said, rather
+soberly, "my head would be turned."
+
+"Cheer up, Chess," she said, laughing. "I don't say the worst is yet to
+come. Perhaps the best will come to you in time."
+
+"You say that only to encourage me I fear."
+
+"I certainly don't say it to discourage you," she confessed. "Going
+around like a faded lily isn't going to help you a mite--and so I have
+already told you."
+
+"Huh! How's a fellow going to register joy when he feels anything but?"
+
+"You'd make a poor screen actor," she told him. "See Mr. Grand to-day. He
+has an ulcerated tooth and is going to the Bay to-night to have it
+treated. Yet, as the French voyageur, he had to make love to Wonota and
+Miss Keith, both. Some job!"
+
+"That fellow makes love as easy as falling off a log," grumbled Chess. "I
+never saw such a fellow."
+
+"But the girls flock to see him in any picture. If he were my brother--or
+husband--I would never know when he was really making love or just
+registering love. Still actors live in a world of their own. They are not
+like other people--if they are really good actors."
+
+Copley's _Lauriette_ shot them half way across the broad St. Lawrence
+before sunset, and from that point they watched the sun sink in the west
+and the twilight gather along the Canadian shore and among the islands on
+the American side.
+
+When Chessleigh was about to start the engine again and head for the
+camp--and dinner--they suddenly spied a powerful speed boat coming out
+from the Canadian side. It cleaved the water like the blade of a knife,
+throwing up a silver wave on either side. And as it passed the
+_Lauriette_ Ruth and her companion could see several men in her cockpit.
+
+"There are those fellows again," Chess remarked. "Wonder what they are up
+to? That boat passed our island yesterday evening and the crowd in her
+then acted to me as though they were drunk."
+
+"I should think----Why!" exclaimed Ruth suddenly breaking off in what she
+was first going to say, "one of those men is a Chinaman."
+
+"So he is," agreed Chessleigh Copley.
+
+"And that little fat man--see him? Why, Chess! it looks like----"
+
+"Who is it?" asked the young fellow, in surprise at Ruth's excitement.
+
+"It's Bilby!" gasped Ruth. "That horrid man! I I hoped we had seen the
+last of him. And now he's right here where we are working with Wonota."
+
+She had said so much that she had to explain fully about Bilby, while
+they sat and watched the speed boat disappear up the river. Ruth was sure
+she had made no mistake in her identification of the rival picture
+producer who had made her so much trouble back at the Red Mill.
+
+"I must tell Mr. Hammond at once," she concluded. "If Bilby is here, he
+is here for no good purpose, I can be sure. And if he has a boat like
+that at his command, we must keep double watch."
+
+"You think he would try to abduct Wonota again?" queried Chess.
+
+"I would believe that fellow capable of anything," she returned. "I mean
+anything that did not call for personal courage on his part."
+
+"Humph!" murmured Chess thoughtfully. "I wonder what he was doing with
+the Chinaman in his party. You know, sometimes Chinamen are smuggled
+across from Canada against the emigration laws of the States."
+
+He headed the _Lauriette_ for the camp then, and they arrived there in a
+rather serious mood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE DANCE AT ALEXANDRIA BAY
+
+
+"You might have been mistaken, I suppose, Miss Ruth?" suggested Mr.
+Hammond, the president of the film corporation, sitting at his desk in
+the room of the main bungalow which he used as an office. "It was growing
+dark when that speed boat passed you and your friend, was it not?"
+
+"Not out on the river, Mr. Hammond. It was light enough for us to see the
+men in that boat plainly. Just as sure as one of them was a Chinaman, the
+short, fat man was Horatio Bilby."
+
+"It doesn't seem possible that the fellow would chase away up here after
+us when he so signally failed down below. My lawyer tells me that he had
+no real authority from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to secure Wonota's
+services, after all."
+
+"He is a man who would not need much authority to attempt any mean
+thing," said the girl hotly.
+
+"That may be true," admitted Mr. Hammond. "But it seems quite too
+sensational." He smiled, adding: "Quite too much like a movie plot, eh?"
+
+"You say yourself that he has obtained the production rights to those
+'Running Deer' stories that have appeared in the _Gotham Magazine_," said
+Ruth, with earnestness. "They are good stories, Mr. Hammond. I have read
+them."
+
+"Yes. I believe they are pretty good material for pictures. That is, if
+they were handled by a practical scenario writer like yourself."
+
+"It is too bad you did not get them."
+
+"Well, Bilby was ahead of us there. Somehow, he got backing and bought
+the picture and dramatic rights to the tales outright. He can find
+somebody besides Wonota to play _Running Deer_."
+
+"He seems to have set his heart on our Wonota."
+
+"Yes. He did make Totantora a whacking good offer. I must admit he did. I
+could not begin to see such a price for the girl's services. And on a
+mere speculation. But I pointed out to Totantora that, after all, a
+promise is only a promise. He and Wonota have already had considerable
+hard cash from us," and Mr. Hammond ended with a laugh.
+
+He was evidently not so much impressed by the possible danger of Bilby's
+presence in the Thousand Islands as Ruth could have wished. She
+determined herself, however, to be sharply on the watch for the
+reappearance of the coarse little fat man who had so troubled her and the
+Indians at the Red Mill.
+
+She took Totantora into her confidence, after speaking to Mr. Hammond,
+although she did not say a word to Wonota. Despite the natural stoicism
+of the Osage maiden, Ruth did not know but that Wonota might become
+nervous if she knew the plotting Bilby was near at hand.
+
+The chief listened to Ruth's warning with a certain savage anger in his
+look that warned Ruth not to push the suggestion of Bilby's determination
+to obtain possession of Wonota too far. The chief was not a patient man,
+and the possible threat against the safety of his daughter roused in him
+the instinct of defence.
+
+"Me watch," he said. "That fat man come here, me chase him away. Yes!"
+
+"Don't do him any harm, Totantora," warned Ruth. "But tell Mr. Hammond or
+me if you see him."
+
+Nobody saw Bilby immediately, however; and as several days passed Ruth
+began to wonder if, after all, she had not been mistaken in her
+identification of the fat man in the boat.
+
+Meanwhile, the making of the picture went on steadily; but something
+else--and something Helen Cameron at least considered of moment--was
+planned during this time.
+
+Many other summer residents of the Thousand Islands besides the Copleys
+had now arrived, and the gaiety of the season was at its height. There
+was one very large hotel at Alexandria Bay, and it was planned to use its
+ballroom for a "big war dance," to quote Helen. It was to be a costume
+dance, and everybody that appeared on the floor must be dressed in Indian
+costume.
+
+Wonota helped the chums and the actresses with the Alectrion Film
+Corporation who attended, in the getting up of their costumes and the
+staining of their faces and arms. The Osage girl herself wore a beautiful
+beaded robe, feather-trimmed and brilliantly dyed. It was her "coronation
+robe" in the picture she was helping to film. But Mr. Hammond, who
+likewise attended the dance, allowed the girl to wear this finery, which
+really was part of the "props" of the company.
+
+Launches were engaged from Chippewa Bay to take most of those from the
+camp who attended the dance, either as participants in the costume review
+or as spectators, but Chess Copley arranged to come for his particular
+friends in the _Lauriette_.
+
+Helen was tempted to refuse to go in the Copley launch; but when she saw
+Jean and Sara Copley beside their brother, she went aboard with Ruth and
+Tom. There actually was no friction between the two young men, although
+Tom usually addressed Chess by that opprobrious nickname, 'Lasses, while
+Chess retorted by scoffing at all the ex-captain's opinions and advice on
+any and all subjects.
+
+Really, had she not felt that she was partly the cause of this mild
+strife, Ruth would have laughed at the two. They were, after all, but
+grown-up boys.
+
+It was a gay party aboard the _Lauriette_, nevertheless. Even Wonota
+(whom Ruth was keeping with her) was gay. And she was so pretty in her
+beautiful costume that when they arrived at the hotel the young men at
+the dance vied in their attempts to have her for a partner on the floor.
+
+There was a fine band and the dancing floor was smooth. Even Mr. Hammond
+went on to the floor, having secured a costume, and Mother Paisley, who
+acted as chaperon for the moving picture girls, was as light as anybody
+on her feet and the embodiment of grace.
+
+"Actor folk nowadays," the old woman told Ruth once, "are not trained as
+they once were. I came of circus folk. My people had been circus
+performers in the old country for generations before my father and mother
+came over here. My husband was a trapeze performer.
+
+"And working on the bars makes one supple and limber beyond any other
+form of exercise. Afterward, while still a young girl, I was in the
+ballet. At least, when one has had my training, one brings to the
+speaking stage a grace and carriage that can scarcely be secured in any
+other way.
+
+"As for this moving picture business," she sighed, "I see these poor
+girls as awkward as heifers--and they are really learning very little.
+They depend upon the director to tell them how a lady should enter a
+room, and how to walk. But often the director has never seen a real lady
+enter a room! Directors of moving pictures are not masters of deportment
+as our old dancing masters were."
+
+Ruth always listened to strictures upon the moving picture art and gained
+what she could from such criticism. And the harshest critics the motion
+pictures have are the people who work in them. But, after all, Ruth had a
+vision.
+
+She felt that in spite of all the "great," "grand," "magnificent,"
+"enormous" pictures already advertised upon the billboards, the public
+was still waiting for a really well made and properly written and acted
+series of pictures that claimed neither more sensationalism than they
+possessed, nor were hastily and carelessly made.
+
+Ruth liked to work with Mr. Hammond, and he had been very kind and
+considerate of her. But she felt that, untrammeled, she would be able to
+make better pictures than she had made with him. She wanted a free hand,
+and she felt the insistence of the treasurer's office at her elbow. Money
+could be lavished upon anything spectacular--for instance, like this
+French-Indian picture they were making. But much had to be "speeded up"
+to save money in other phases of production.
+
+Mr. Hammond, like most of the other moving picture producers, thought
+only of the audience coming out of the theater with "ohs!" and "ahs!"
+upon their lips regarding the spectacular features in the film shown.
+Ruth wanted to go deeper--wanted to make the impression upon the minds
+and intelligence of the audiences. She felt that the pictures could be
+something bigger than mere display.
+
+But this is all aside from the fun they had at the costume dance. Ruth
+and Helen both danced with Mr. Hammond and Mr. Grand and with several
+others of the moving picture people, as well as with their own friends.
+Chess got the second dance with Ruth; and then he had the third; and then
+got the sixth. He might have gone on all the evening coming back to her
+and begging the favor had Ruth not insisted upon his devoting himself to
+some of his sisters' friends.
+
+But, at the same time, Ruth was somewhat piqued because Tom Cameron did
+not come near her all the first part of the evening. She could not
+understand what the matter really was with him--why he acted in so offish
+a manner.
+
+After that sixth dance (and Ruth had danced them all with one partner or
+another) she sent Chess away from her definitely. She went in search of
+Tom. The orchestra began playing for the next dance. Ruth looked keenly
+about the brilliant assembly. She knew Tom's costume--it was distinctive
+and could not be mistaken. But she could not mark it at all in the
+throng.
+
+Two or three men asked her to dance, but she pleaded fatigue and
+continued to walk about the edge of the ballroom. Finally, in an alcove,
+sitting at an empty table, and with no companion, she spied the recreant
+Tom.
+
+"Why, Tom!" she cried cheerfully, "are you sitting out this dance too?
+And the music is so pretty."
+
+"The music is all right," he agreed.
+
+"Don't you want to dance?"
+
+"No. I do not want to dance," he answered sourly.
+
+"Not--not even with me, Tom?" she ventured, smiling rather wistfully at
+his averted face.
+
+"With nobody. I am waiting for Helen and the rest of you to get enough of
+this foolishness and go home."
+
+"Why, Tom! You--you are not ill?" she ventured, putting out a hand to
+touch his shoulder yet not touching it.
+
+"Not at all, Ruth," he said, and now he glanced up at her. His look was
+cold. "Not at all."
+
+"You are not yourself," she said, more composedly. "What are you thinking
+of?"
+
+"I am thinking," said Tom, looking away again and with the same
+moodiness, "that I was a fool to leave the army. That was my job. I
+should have stuck to it. I should have used my commission and father's
+influence to stay in the army. But it's too late now. I guess I had my
+chance and didn't know enough to use it."
+
+He arose abruptly, bowed stiffly, and walked away. If Tom had actually
+slapped her, Ruth could have felt no more hurt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE KINGDOM OF PIPES
+
+
+Ruth Fielding at first felt only hurt; then she felt angry. She was no
+longer the timid, sensitive girl who had faced Jabez Miller when she
+first came to the Red Mill with a tremulous smile, to be sure, but tears
+standing thick in her eyes. No, indeed!
+
+The present Ruth Fielding, a young woman of purpose and experience, not
+only could hide her feelings--especially if they were hurt ones--but
+possessed a saving sense of humor. And to her mind, just a moment later,
+Tom Cameron's very military looking shoulders and stride seemed rather
+funny.
+
+He had hurt her; but then, he had hurt her as a boy might. It was true,
+perhaps, Tom was not grown up. Ruth considered that she was--very much
+so!
+
+There he was, daring to complain because his army career had ended so
+suddenly--wishing that he had remained in uniform. And how would his
+father and his sister have felt if he had done so!
+
+"He's a great, big booby!" Ruth whispered to herself. Then her smile came
+back--that wistful, caressing smile--and she shook her head. "But he's
+Tom, and he always will be. Dear me! isn't he ever going to grow up?"
+
+So she hid her hurt and accepted the first partner thereafter who
+offered; but it was not Chess. Secretly she knew what the matter with Tom
+was. And she was too proud to let the ex-captain see that she cared.
+Nevertheless she was sorry that the party from down the river broke up as
+they did when the time to go home came.
+
+She found herself in the Copley's launch again, with Chess' sisters and
+the members of the house party the Copleys were entertaining at their
+island. This dividing of the clans made it possible for Chess after
+letting the others out at the Copley dock, to take Ruth to the moving
+picture island alone.
+
+It was a lovely, soft, moonlight night. The haze over the islands and the
+passages between could not be called a fog, but it was almost as
+shrouding as a fog. When Chess ran the launch outside into the main
+stream, where the current was broad and swift, the haze lay upon the
+rippling surface like a blanket.
+
+They were going very swiftly here, for it was with the current. Suddenly
+Chess shut off the engine. The "plop" of the exhaust ceased. They drifted
+silently on the bosom of the St. Lawrence.
+
+"I don't see why I am treated so, Ruth," Chess suddenly burst out. "Do
+you know, I'm awfully unhappy?"
+
+"You poor boy!" said Ruth in her warm-hearted way. "I think you are
+over-sensitive."
+
+"Of course I am sensitive. I shall always be when I am--am--interested in
+any person and their treatment of me. It is congenital."
+
+"Dear, dear!" laughed Ruth. "They have discovered that even incipient
+congenital idiocy can be cured by the removal of the adenoids. But I
+don't suppose such an operation will help you?"
+
+"Oh, don't tease a fellow," complained her friend.
+
+He reached for the throttle, then hesitated. Somewhere in the mist ahead
+was the throb of another engine.
+
+"Who's this?" muttered Chess.
+
+"Maybe it is Tom--looking for us," said Ruth, chuckling.
+
+"The gall of him," exclaimed the heated Copley. Then he made a gesture
+for silence. A long, quavering "co-ee! co-ee!" came through the mist and
+from the south.
+
+"From one of the islands," said Chess quickly.
+
+"What island is that over there?" demanded Ruth, in a whisper. "Isn't it
+the one we took the first picture on?"
+
+"It sure is," agreed the young fellow, but wonderingly.
+
+"The Kingdom of Pipes," murmured Ruth.
+
+"What's that?" asked Chessleigh.
+
+Ruth repeated Helen's name for the rocky island on which Ruth had met the
+queer old man. "That call came from the island, didn't it?" she asked.
+
+"I believe it did. What's going on here?"
+
+"Hush!" begged Ruth. "That launch is coming nearer."
+
+As she spoke, a moving object appeared in the mist. There was no light
+upon this strange craft. Chessleigh shuttered his own cockpit lamp
+instantly.
+
+"Good boy," acclaimed Ruth. "There is something going on here----"
+
+They heard the call from the island again. There was a low reply from the
+strange launch--a whistle. Then the launch pushed on and was hidden by
+the mist again from the curious eyes of Ruth and her companion.
+
+But they knew it had gone close to the island, if it had not really
+touched there. Its engine was stilled. All they heard for a time was the
+lapping of the waves.
+
+"I'd like to know what it means," grumbled Chess.
+
+Ruth agreed. "Let's wait a while. We may hear or see something more."
+
+"Won't see much, I guess," replied her companion.
+
+"Never mind. Let the boat drift. We're all right out here in the current,
+are we not?"
+
+"Guess so. It beats my time," said her friend. "They say there is a lot
+of smuggling done along the border."
+
+"Do you say so?" gasped Ruth, clasping her hands and almost as excited as
+Helen might have been. "Smugglers! Think of it!"
+
+"And bad eggs they are."
+
+"Of course there is no danger?"
+
+"Danger of what?" he asked.
+
+"Wouldn't the smugglers hurt us if we caught them?"
+
+"Don't know. I've got a loaded pistol in the cabin. Guess I'll get it
+out," said Chess.
+
+"I guess you won't!" Ruth exclaimed. "We'll go right away from here
+before we get into a fight!"
+
+"Humph!" grunted Chess. "You don't suppose they would welcome any spies
+if they are smugglers, do you?" he asked.
+
+"But what do they smuggle? Diamonds? Precious stones?"
+
+"Don't know. Maybe. There is a heavy internal revenue tax on diamonds,"
+Chess said.
+
+"Goodness! wouldn't Helen like to be here."
+
+"She'd want to go ashore and take a hand in it," grinned Copley. "I know
+her."
+
+"Yes, Helen is brave," admitted Ruth.
+
+"Humph! She's foolish, you mean," he declared. "Whatever and whoever
+those fellows are, they would not welcome visitors I fancy."
+
+Their launch had been drifting by the island, the upper ridge and trees
+of which they could see quite plainly. Suddenly a breath of wind--the
+forecast of the breeze that often rises toward daybreak--swooped down
+upon the river. It split the mist and revealed quite clearly the upper
+end of the island where Ruth had interviewed the queer old man, and which
+Copley's launch had now drifted past.
+
+A light showed suddenly, and for a few moments, close to the water's
+edge. It revealed enough for the two in the drifting launch to see
+several figures outlined in the misty illumination of the light.
+
+There was the bow of the mysterious boat close against the landing place.
+At least three men were in the boat and on the shore. Ruth could not be
+sure that either of them was the old man she had spoken with.
+
+But she and Chess Copley saw that they were unloading something from the
+boat--square, seemingly heavy boxes, yet not so heavy that they could not
+be passed from hand to hand. One was about all the weight a man might
+easily lift.
+
+"What do you suppose those boxes are?" whispered Ruth, as the Copley
+launch drifted into the mist again and the end of the island and the
+other boat were blotted out of sight.
+
+"Give it up. Provisions--supplies. Maybe they are going to camp there.
+Lots of people camp out on these smaller islands."
+
+"The King of the Pipes will have something to say about that," laughed
+Ruth. "One thing sure about it," she added the next moment, as Chess
+started his engine again. "Those boxes don't contain diamonds."
+
+"I should say not!"
+
+"So if we saw smugglers they are smuggling something besides precious
+stones," said the girl gaily. "Won't Helen be interested when I tell
+her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A DEMAND IS MADE
+
+
+Helen had gone to bed when Ruth went into their bedroom that morning, and
+either she was asleep or did not want to speak to her chum. Ruth felt
+that, after what had gone on at the ball at Alexandria Bay, she had
+better not wake Helen up to tell her about the strange launch that had
+landed at the Kingdom of the Pipes.
+
+And in the morning the attitude of both Helen and Tom closed Ruth's lips
+on all subjects. The twins were plainly offended. Why? Because Ruth had
+shown ordinary interest in other people besides themselves!
+
+At least, that is how Ruth saw it. She thought it very silly for Helen to
+be jealous. Tom's jealousy was another matter; but he had brought the
+situation on himself.
+
+For once Ruth was determined not to give in, as she so often did when
+Helen showed spleen. Fortunately, Ruth was busy with her picture work, so
+she had good reason to excuse herself from much association with the
+Cameron twins during the next two days.
+
+Then something happened to give them all an entirely different topic of
+thought and conversation. That day had been spent in taking close-ups and
+scenes under the canvas and glass roof of the make-shift studio that had
+been built at the camp. The great pageant of historical times along the
+St. Lawrence was moving swiftly on its way. The scenes of a picture are
+seldom taken in any sequence at all, but Mr. Hooley had gone so far now
+that the bulk of the scenes had been filmed; and as they had been run off
+in the little projection room, both Mr. Hammond and Ruth had expressed
+their approval of almost every finished length of celluloid.
+
+The work was practically over for the day at four o'clock and the actors
+in their costumes--especially the Indians, including Wonota and her
+father--made a brilliant picture as they wandered about the lawns and in
+and out of the several bungalows on the island.
+
+From the direction of Chippewa Bay appeared a chugging motor-launch that
+came directly to the dock. It was not one of the hired launches used by
+the picture company, nor were those in the launch men who had anything to
+do with Mr. Hammond's corporation.
+
+But when Ruth idly looked into the launch from her seat with Helen and
+Miss Keith and Mrs. Paisley on the porch of their house, the girl of the
+Red Mill got up suddenly, uttering an astonished exclamation:
+
+"That horrid man again!"
+
+"Hoity-toity!" exclaimed Mrs. Paisley. "What man deserves such a title as
+that, Miss Fielding?"
+
+"That Bilby!" exclaimed Ruth. "I just felt it in my bones--like Aunt
+Alvirah--that that creature would annoy us again."
+
+"Then you are not disappointed," said Helen drily. "Is that the
+fellow--that big gawk in the blue suit?"
+
+"No, no! I don't know him," said Ruth. "The little fat man tagging after
+the big fellow."
+
+For two men from the launch had now stepped ashore. In accordance with
+orders from Mr. Hammond, the visitors were stopped at the head of the
+dock. Nobody was allowed on the island without invitation or a permit.
+
+"Let me tell you," said the man in blue pompously, "that I am a county
+officer. You'd better have a care, young fellow."
+
+"Say! I don't care if you are the King of the Yaps," said Willie, the
+boatman. "I have my orders. This is private property. Stay where you
+are--right where you are, mind!--till I send for the boss."
+
+"You send for them two Injuns--that is who our business is with," put in
+Bilby. "That Totantora and Wonota. I want to see them--not that Hammond."
+
+Ruth had run to another house to warn those very individuals to get out
+of the way and to keep out of sight until Bilby's visit was over. She did
+not know, of course, who the big man in blue was.
+
+The latter was inclined to be pompous and commanding, even when Mr.
+Hammond came down to the head of the dock to see him. It was evident that
+Bilby's money felt warm in the deputy sheriff's pocket, and he was
+determined to give the little fat man full weight for his cash.
+
+"This here business is something that can be settled without any row, Mr.
+Hammond--if that's your name," said the officer, puffingly.
+
+"It is my name, all right," returned the president of the Alectrion
+Corporation. "And I don't expect any row. What do you want--and that
+fellow behind you?"
+
+Horatio Bilby grinned rather sheepishly. "Well, you know, Mr. Hammond,
+all's fair in love and war."
+
+"This is certainly not love," said the moving picture man. "Now, what do
+you both want?"
+
+"You are ordered to bring two people into court," said the deputy
+sheriff, "and show cause why they shouldn't be handed over to Mr. Bilby
+pending certain proceedings to break their contract with you."
+
+"Blunt enough," admitted Mr. Hammond, but without excitement. "Let's see:
+You have a paper of some kind, I suppose, to serve on me?"
+
+"I've a summons for you," said the officer, drawing forth some papers,
+"and I propose to take the two Indians back to the Bay with me."
+
+"You can serve me, and I will arrange for my representative to appear for
+me in your court," said Hammond. "But Totantora, to whom I suppose you
+refer, is a citizen of the United States, and you will have to find him
+to serve him."
+
+"He's nothing but an Injun!" squealed Bilby, in wrath.
+
+"Being an Osage Indian, and owning properly surveyed oil lands in
+Oklahoma, the Government has acknowledged his citizenship," was the quiet
+reply. "He certainly is a good American and will doubtless answer to any
+court demand--if you can serve him legally."
+
+"You got him hid away somewhere?" demanded the deputy sheriff.
+
+"And the girl, too!" cried Bilby. "I want the girl more than I do the
+crazy old Indian."
+
+"You'll think he's crazy if he ever sets eyes on you again, Mr. Bilby,"
+was Mr. Hammond's warning. "He hasn't forgotten you."
+
+Bilby drew back--and he looked frightened, too. "I--I don't want him
+right now," he muttered.
+
+Hammond accepted the summons of the local court, glanced at it, and put
+it in his pocket.
+
+"I see I have five days' grace," he remarked. "All right. I will see that
+proper representation is made before the court."
+
+"But we want them Indians," said the deputy.
+
+"This island is private property. I have hired its use for a certain
+term. I will allow you on it only under proper legal motion. Have you a
+search warrant?" Hammond asked the deputy.
+
+"I ain't got a warrant. I don't need a warrant for a couple of Indians.
+They ain't got any standing in this community. I know Indians all right.
+You give 'em over."
+
+"I do not even acknowledge that the two individuals you demand are under
+my control. At least, I know very well that no United States court can
+touch the young woman, Wonota, except through her guardian. That guardian
+is her father. I don't see him here--do you?"
+
+"You'd better produce him," threatened the deputy.
+
+"You can't make me. Go back and get proper authority--if you can,"
+advised Mr. Hammond. "And don't come here again--either of you--without
+proper authority. Willie!"
+
+"On the job," said the boatman, grinning.
+
+"Don't let these fellows upon the island again--not even on the dock. Not
+unless they are armed with a proper warrant."
+
+He turned his back on the visitors and started toward the nearest
+bungalow.
+
+"You'll be sorry for this, Hammond!" shouted Horatio Bilby. "I'll get you
+yet, and don't you forget it."
+
+"To get me, as you call it, you will have to have both right and might on
+your side, Bilby. And just now you do not seem to have either," was the
+Parthian shot the president of the Alectrion Corporation sent over his
+shoulder.
+
+Willie hustled the deputy and the fat man back into their launch.
+
+"Go on away from here," advised Willie. "I know you, Tom Satchett--known
+you all my life. All you are fit for is to jump a few fishermen and game
+hunters that break the law. This job is too big for you. You're up
+against money and influence, both, this time."
+
+"I won't forget you, Willie," growled the deputy. "You'll want something
+of me some time----"
+
+"I want something of you right now," put in the boatman. "A good reason
+for punching you. Go on into your boat before I find it."
+
+So the pair retreated. But Ruth came to Mr. Hammond in some little
+disturbance.
+
+"What shall we do?" she demanded. "Suppose they take Wonota away before
+the picture is finished?"
+
+"They won't. At least, I don't believe the court will allow it. I will
+telegraph to a good lawyer and have him come up here and watch
+proceedings."
+
+"But, if it should happen, we would be in a bad fix, Mr. Hammond. Mr.
+Hooley says nobody could double for Wonota."
+
+"Let's not cross bridges until we come to them," returned her friend.
+
+But perhaps Mr. Hammond felt less confidence than he managed to get into
+his voice and appearance at that moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE YELLOW LADY
+
+
+There could be no further haste about the making of the picture, "The
+Long Lane's Turning." Although most of the big scenes were already shot,
+those that remained to do held in them the more poignant action of the
+piece and must be rehearsed over and over again.
+
+Much time is sometimes spent upon a single scene--a few feet of a reel.
+Infinite patience, repetition and experimenting go into the making of a
+pictured story. Infinite detail and a close attention to that detail make
+the successful picture.
+
+To stage a "big" scene may seem to be a marvelous feat of the director.
+But in a big scene, with a large number of actors, the latter are divided
+into groups, each group has its captain, and each individual actor has to
+follow the lead of his particular captain. The groups are trained and
+perfected in every little motion before they come into the real scene
+before the camera.
+
+Thus the allegorical picture that was a prologue to "The Long Lane's
+Turning" had been gone over and rehearsed again and again by the
+principal actors in it, even before the company left New York City.
+
+Now, with all these "big" scenes filmed, the more difficult work of
+making the individual scenes of action came to the fore. Wonota had to be
+coached over and over again in her scenes with Mr. Grand and Miss Keith.
+Both the latter were well-practised screen actors and could register the
+ordinary gamut of emotions as easily as they ate their breakfast or
+powdered their noses.
+
+With Wonota, however, it was different. In the first place, she came of a
+tribe of people in whom it was bred to smother all expression of
+emotion--even the most poignant. Wonota almost worshiped her father; but
+did she ever look upon Chief Totantora with a smile of pride or with
+affection beaming in her eyes?
+
+"Not so you'd notice it," said Helen, on one occasion. "Ordinarily, as
+far as her looks go, Totantora might be a stranger to her."
+
+"Is there any wonder, then," sighed Ruth, "that we find it so hard to
+make her register affection for Mr. Grand? And she already should have
+learned to do that in that first picture we took out West."
+
+"Maybe that's the reason," said Helen wickedly. "If she did not know Mr.
+Grand's foibles so well, she might the better show interest in him.
+Goodness knows he's handsome enough."
+
+"Better than that, he can act," said Ruth thoughtfully. "Not many of
+these handsome screen heroes can do that. But perhaps if Wonota did not
+disdain him so much (and she does, secretly) she could play up to him
+better."
+
+"Is there much more for her to do?" Helen asked, with renewed interest.
+
+"Several scenes--and some of them most important. Mr. Hooley can not give
+all his time to her. I am trying to coach her in them. But there is so
+much going on here at the island----"
+
+"Why not take her away to some other place and just pound it into her?"
+
+"Not to the Kingdom of Pipes!" laughed Ruth suddenly.
+
+"No. Let the old pirate have that place to his heart's content. But there
+are other islands."
+
+"True enough. Fourteen hundred of them."
+
+"Come on!" exclaimed the energetic Helen. "Let's get Willie and the _Gem_
+and go somewhere with Wonota. You've all day to hammer at her. Get your
+continuity and try to get it into Wonota's head that she is deeply and
+desperately in love with Grand."
+
+In spite of Helen's brusk way of speaking, Ruth decided that her idea
+might be well worth following. Helen took some knitting and a
+parasol--and a hamper. Ruth gathered her necessary books and script; and
+likewise got Wonota. Then they boarded the launch and Willie took them up
+the river to a tiny islet not far from the Kingdom of Pipes, after all.
+
+"I don't see anybody moving over there," Helen remarked, as Willie landed
+them at the islet selected. She was looking at the island on which Ruth
+had had her adventure with the King of the Pipes. "It looks deserted
+enough. We might have gone there just as well as not."
+
+"I feel as well satisfied to keep away from that queer old fellow," her
+chum said.
+
+"Who's that?" asked Willie, the boatman, overhearing their remarks.
+
+Ruth told him about the strange man, and Willie laughed.
+
+"Oh! That old jigger? Was he the fellow the boss wanted we should shoo
+off that island? Why didn't he say so? Old Charley-Horse Pond. We all
+know him about here."
+
+"Oh!" cried Helen. "Is he crazy?"
+
+"Not enough to make any difference. Just got a twist in his brain. Calls
+himself a king, does he? Mebbe he will be a duke or an emperor next time.
+Or a doctor. Can't tell. He gets fancies."
+
+"And of course he is not dangerous?" said Ruth.
+
+"Just about as dangerous as a fly," drawled Willie. "And not so much. For
+flies bite--sometimes, and old Charley-Horse Pond ain't even got teeth to
+bite with. No, Ma'am!"
+
+"But what are the 'pipes' he talks about? Why 'King of the Pipes'?"
+demanded the insistent Helen.
+
+"Got me. Never heard of 'em," declared Willie. "Now, you ladies all right
+here?"
+
+"All right, Willie," said Ruth as the _Gem_ was backed off the island.
+
+"I'll come for you at half past three, eh? That's all right, then," and
+the boatman was off.
+
+The three girls, really glad to be away from the crowd and the confusion
+of the moving picture camp, settled down to several hours of
+companionship. Helen could be silent if she pleased, and with her
+knitting and a novel proceeded to curl up under a tamarack tree and bury
+herself for the time being.
+
+Helen had not, however, forgotten the "inner woman," as she pronounced
+it. When lunch time came she opened the covered basket which she had
+brought in addition to the book and the knitting, and produced sandwiches
+and cake, besides the wherewithal for the making of a cup of tea over a
+can of solidified alcohol. They lunched famously.
+
+It was while they were thus engaged, and chatting, that the staccato
+exhaust of a motor-boat drew their attention to the Island of Pipes. From
+the other side, a boat was poking around into the passage leading to the
+American shore.
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed Helen, "the King of the Pipes isn't in that
+boat, is he?"
+
+"Not at all," Ruth assured her. "I see nobody who looks like him among
+those men--"
+
+"All are not men, Miss Ruth," interrupted Wonota, the keen-eyed.
+
+"What do you mean, Wonota?" gasped Helen, whirling around to gaze again
+at the passing launch.
+
+But Ruth did not say a word. She had been examining the boat closely. She
+saw it was the very speedy boat she and Chess Copley had seen out on the
+wider part of the river several weeks before. The launch was not moving
+rapidly now, but Ruth was sure that it was a powerful craft.
+
+It was Helen who marked the figure Wonota had spoken of in the boat. It
+certainly did not appear to be a man.
+
+"Why Ruth! See! That is a woman!"
+
+"A yellow-faced lady," said Wonota calmly. "I saw her first, Miss Ruth."
+
+All three of the girls on the island stared after the moving motor-boat.
+Ruth saw the woman. She was dressed plainly but in modern garments. She
+did not seem to be one of the summer visitors to the islands. Indeed, her
+clothing--such as could be seen--pointed to city breeding, but nothing
+was chosen, it would seem, for wear in such a place as this. She might
+have been on a ferryboat going from shore to shore of the Hudson!
+
+"She _is_ a yellow lady," Wonota repeated earnestly.
+
+"I should say she was!" exclaimed Helen. "What do you think of her,
+Ruth?"
+
+"I am sure I do not know what to say," the girl of the Red Mill answered.
+"Does she look like a white woman to you, Helen?"
+
+"She is yellow," reiterated Wonota.
+
+"She certainly is not an Indian," observed Helen. "What say, Ruth?"
+
+"She surely is not," agreed her chum.
+
+"A yellow lady," murmured Wonota again, as the boat drew behind another
+island and there remained out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+MAROONED
+
+
+"I wonder if the boat did come from that island over yonder?" Ruth
+murmured, after a few moments of thought.
+
+"For goodness' sake! what are you worrying about?" asked Helen Cameron.
+
+"I'm not worrying at all," Ruth returned, smiling. "But I am curious."
+
+"About that yellow lady?"
+
+"About what happens on that island the queer old man lives on."
+
+"You don't know that he really lives there," was the prompt rejoinder.
+
+"That is so. He may not be there now. But--"
+
+"But me no buts, unless you mean to go on," said Helen, as Ruth hesitated
+again.
+
+"It does seem queer," said Ruth thoughtfully. "Other people go there
+besides the King of the Pipes."
+
+"Indeed! We all went there when that allegory was staged."
+
+"And since then," said Ruth, and proceeded to tell the two girls what she
+and Chess Copley had seen early one morning.
+
+"Men landing boxes on the island?" cried Helen, while Wonota merely
+looked puzzled. "There is a camp there, like enough. And those men--and
+the woman--in the launch might have come from there, of course. When
+Willie comes back for us, let's sail around the island and see if we can
+spy where their tent is set up. For of course there is no house there?"
+
+"Tom and I found no habitation when we went to search for the old man,"
+admitted Ruth.
+
+"All right. It must be a tent, then," said her chum with conviction.
+"We'll see."
+
+But as it turned out, they made no such search that day. Indeed, Willie
+and the _Gem_ did not return for them. The camp launch was not the first
+craft that appeared. Ruth was again coaching Wonota after lunch when
+Helen spied something on the water that caused her to cry out, drawing
+the other girls' attention.
+
+"Who under the sun is this coming in the canoe?" Helen demanded. "Why! he
+is making it fairly fly. I never!"
+
+Wonota scarcely glanced in the direction of the distant moving picture
+camp, and she said composedly:
+
+"It is Chief Totantora. He comes for me."
+
+The Indian in the canoe caused the craft to tear through the water. No
+such paddling had the two white girls ever seen before. Not a motion was
+lost on the part of Chief Totantora. Every stroke of his paddle drove the
+craft on with a speed to make anybody marvel.
+
+"Something has happened!" gasped Ruth, standing up.
+
+"He comes for me," repeated Wonota, still calmly.
+
+"What for?" queried Helen, quite as much disturbed now as her chum.
+
+Before the Indian girl could have answered--had she intended to
+explain--the canoe came close in to the bank of the island, was swerved
+dexterously, and Totantora leaped ashore--a feat not at all easy to
+perform without overturning the canoe. It scarcely rocked.
+
+He stooped and held it from scraping against the rock, and shot up at his
+daughter several brief sentences in their own tongue. He paid no
+attention to Ruth, even, although she stepped forward and asked what his
+errand was.
+
+"I must go, Miss Ruth," said Wonota quickly. "Mr. Hammond has sent him.
+It was arranged before."
+
+"What was arranged?" demanded Ruth, with some sharpness.
+
+"We are going yonder," she pointed to the hazy shore of Grenadier Island
+that was in view from where they stood. "It is said by Mr. Hammond that
+yonder the man with the little green eyes--the fat man--cannot have us
+taken."
+
+"For goodness' sake!" gasped Helen, "she's talking of that Bilby, isn't
+she?"
+
+"What does it mean? Has Bilby come again?" cried Ruth, speaking directly
+to Totantora.
+
+"We go," said the chief. "Hammond, he say so. Now. They come for me and
+for Wonota with talking papers from the white man's court."
+
+"Then Mr. Hammond's lawyer could not do all Mr. Hammond expected," sighed
+Ruth. "The picture will be ruined."
+
+"I never heard of such a thing," cried Helen angrily. "I'd like to know
+what sort of courts and judges they have up here in these woods?"
+
+But Ruth wanted to know more. She held Wonota back as she would have
+stepped into the canoe.
+
+"Wait," she urged. "Tell me more, Totantora. Where are you taking
+Wonota?"
+
+It was the Indian girl who answered.
+
+"Over on that shore," said she, pointing again to the Canadian island,
+"these courts cannot touch us. Mr. Hammond told my father so. We go there
+to wait until the trouble is over. Mr. Hammond spoke of it before.
+Totantora is informed."
+
+"But it means delay and expense," cried Ruth.
+
+"How mean!" exploded Helen. "I'd like to do something to that Bilby."
+
+"Have you money--plenty of money?" Ruth demanded of the Indian.
+
+"I have money," said Wonota, touching the bosom of her blouse. "We do not
+need much. We shall live quietly there until Mr. Hammond sends for us. We
+will be faithful to you, Miss Ruth."
+
+She turned, with more impulsiveness than she usually showed, and kissed
+the white girl's cheek.
+
+"You are so good to me!" she cried. "I will not forget all you have
+taught me. And I will rehearse every day so to be perfect when Mr. Hooley
+wants me again."
+
+There was no way to stop her. Indeed, as Mr. Hammond had advised this
+sudden move, Ruth knew she had no right to interfere. It was evident that
+an emergency had arisen of which she, herself, knew nothing. In some way
+the enemy had forced Mr. Hammond's hand. Totantora and his daughter were
+in danger of being brought into court after all, and Mr. Hammond did not
+wish that to come about.
+
+The Indian girl stepped lightly into the canoe and picked up the extra
+paddle. Her father leaped in after her, pushed the light craft away from
+the rock, and seized his own paddle. In another moment the canoe shot
+away from the island and off toward the broad expanse of the open St.
+Lawrence.
+
+Helen and Ruth stared after them--then at each other. Naturally it was
+Helen who first regained her voice and gave expression to her amazement.
+
+"What do you know about that?" she demanded.
+
+"I--I don't know what to say," murmured Ruth.
+
+"Oh! I know what to say, all right," said the disgusted Helen. "It's no
+joke."
+
+Ruth herself admitted it was nothing to laugh about. She saw difficulties
+in the way of the completion of "The Long Lane's Turning" of which Helen
+knew but little--or of which she did not think.
+
+Ruth knew that there were scenes--some of them she had been studying with
+Wonota this day--that could not be changed nor eliminated. Wonota must be
+in them. No "double" could be used.
+
+In the first place, the Indian girl's personality was distinct. It could
+not easily be matched.
+
+Ruth knew that, even at that time, one of the most popular screen
+actresses, because of her inability longer to look the child, was using a
+double for all her "close-ups" when she was forced to play those childish
+parts that a hungry public of "movie fans" demanded.
+
+Nothing like this would save "The Long Lane's Turning." The throne room
+scene in Paris, which was yet to be photographed, was too delicate a
+matter to put in the hands of any double. Wonota was herself--even in
+this picture she was a distinct personality--and she must be shown to the
+very end of the last reel and the last "fade-out."
+
+The thoughts caused Ruth to feel very, very sober. Helen looked at her
+with some appreciation of her chum's despair; yet she could not
+appreciate the situation in full.
+
+Suddenly the lighter-minded Helen leaped to her feet from the bank on
+which she was sitting, and exclaimed:
+
+"My goodness, Ruth! do you realize that we are marooned?"
+
+"Marooned?" was the wondering rejoiner.
+
+"Yes. Just as though we had been put ashore here by a crew of mutineers
+and deserted--a pair of Robinson Crusoesses!"
+
+"Your English--"
+
+"Bother my English!"
+
+"It would surely bother Mrs. Tellingham--if she could hear it, poor
+dear."
+
+"Now, don't sidetrack me," remarked Helen. "Don't you see we are cast
+away on this desert isle with no means of getting back to the camp unless
+we swim?"
+
+"Willie will be after us."
+
+"But, will 'e?" asked the roguish Helen, punning on the boatman's name.
+
+"Do be sensible--"
+
+"Even good sense will not rescue us," interrupted Helen. "I'd like to get
+back to camp and hear all the exciting details. Totantora certainly can
+say less in a few moments than any person I ever saw. And Wonota is not
+much better."
+
+"It does not matter how much they said or how little. The fat is all in
+the fire, I guess," groaned Ruth.
+
+"Chirk up! Something is sure to turn up, I suppose. We won't be left here
+to starve," and Helen's eyes flashed her fun.
+
+"Oh, _you_!" began Ruth, half laughing too. Then she stopped and held up
+her hand. "What's that?" she whispered.
+
+The sound was repeated. A long-drawn "co-ee! co-ee!" which drained away
+into the depths of the forest-covered islands all about them. They were
+not where they could see a single isle known to be inhabited.
+
+"Who is calling us?" demanded Helen.
+
+"Hush!" commanded Ruth. "That is not for us. I have heard it before. It
+comes from the King of the Pipes' island--to be sure it does."
+
+"He's calling for help!" gasped Helen.
+
+"He is doing nothing of the kind. It is a signal." Ruth told Helen
+swiftly more of that early morning incident she and Chess Copley had
+observed when they saw the boxes carried ashore from the motor-boat.
+
+"Seems to me," grumbled Helen, "you have a lot of adventures with 'Lasses
+Copley, Ruth."
+
+"Your own fault that you don't," returned her chum promptly. "You could
+have been along. But you don't like Mr. Copley."
+
+"What has that to do with it?" rejoined Helen smartly. "I would go
+adventuring with any boy--even 'Lasses."
+
+"Don't call him that," commanded Ruth.
+
+"Pooh! He likes it. Or he used to."
+
+"He is a nice fellow," Ruth declared, with more earnestness than there
+really seemed to be necessity for.
+
+"I--de-clare!" murmured Helen. "Really! Does the wind sit in that
+quarter?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A DETERMINATION
+
+
+However the wind might sit and whatever may have been her secret opinion
+of Ruth Fielding's interest in Chessleigh Copley, Helen suddenly became
+mute regarding that young man.
+
+But, after a moment, she was not at all mute upon the subject of the King
+of the Pipes and what might be going on on the island where they believed
+the queer old man had his headquarters.
+
+"If it should be smugglers over there--only fancy!" sighed Helen
+ecstatically. "Diamonds and silks and lots of precious things! My, oh,
+my!"
+
+"Better than pirates?" laughed Ruth.
+
+"Consider!" cried her chum boldly. "I said that island looked like a
+pirate's den from the start."
+
+"Your fore-sight-hind-sight is wonderful," declared Ruth, shaking her
+head and making big eyes at her friend.
+
+"Don't laugh--Oh! What's that?"
+
+From over the water, and unmistakably from the rocky island on the summit
+of which the blasted beech stood--a prominent landmark--came the strange
+cry, "co-ee! co-ee!" which they had heard before.
+
+"Do you suppose that poor old man is calling for help?" hesitated Ruth.
+
+"Your grandmother's aunt!" ejaculated Helen, in disgust.
+
+"We-ell that is even a more roundabout relationship than that between
+Aunt Alvirah Boggs and me. Poor old soul, she is nobody's relation, as
+she often says, but everybody's aunt."
+
+"There goes the signal again, and here comes that boat!" exclaimed Helen
+suddenly.
+
+"What boat?" demanded Ruth, looking in the direction of the distant
+Canadian island, toward which the canoe, with Totantora and Wonota in it,
+had now disappeared.
+
+"Turn around--do!" exclaimed Helen. "This way. That is the same boat we
+saw going by some time ago. The boat with the yellow lady in it, as
+Wonota called her."
+
+"This is very strange," murmured Ruth.
+
+"But the yellow lady is not with those men now," said Helen.
+
+"I do not see any woman aboard," admitted her friend.
+
+The boat--going not so fast now--crossed their line of vision and finally
+rounded the end of the island on which the two chums believed the queer
+old man resided. At least, somebody had uttered the strange, shrill cry
+from that very spot.
+
+"Oh, dear! If we were not marooned here!" grumbled Helen.
+
+"What would you do?"
+
+"If we had a boat--even a canoe--we could follow that motor-launch and
+see if those pirates make a landing."
+
+"Pirates!" repeated Ruth.
+
+"Smugglers, then. Your own Chess Copley says they may be smugglers, you
+know."
+
+"I wish you would not speak in that way, Helen," objected Ruth. "He is
+not my Chess Copley----or anything else."
+
+"Well, he certainly isn't mine," retorted Helen, with more gaiety. "I
+can't say I approve of him--and I long since told you why."
+
+"I believe you are unfair, Helen," said Ruth seriously.
+
+"Dear me! if you don't care anything about him, why are you so anxious to
+have me change my opinion of 'Lasses?"
+
+"For your own sake," said her friend shortly.
+
+"I wonder! For _my_ sake?"
+
+"Yes. Because you are not naturally unfair--and Chess feels it."
+
+"Oh, he does, does he?" snapped Helen. "I hope he does. Let him feel!"
+
+This heartless observation closed Ruth's lips on the subject. The two
+girls watched the other island. They did not see the boat again. Nor did
+they see anybody on the island or hear any other cry from there.
+
+They both began to grow anxious. No boat appeared from the direction of
+the camp, and it was past the hour now when Willie was to have called for
+them with the _Gem_. Why didn't he come?
+
+"Of course, Mr. Hammond doesn't expect us to swim home," complained
+Helen.
+
+"Something must have occurred. Totantora's being sent off so suddenly
+really worries me. Perhaps Mr. Hammond himself was obliged to leave the
+camp and perhaps he went in the _Gem_, and Willie cannot return for us
+until later."
+
+"But where is Tom? Surely he must know all about this sudden trouble."
+
+"What was Tom going to do to-day?" asked Ruth quietly.
+
+"Oh, that's so! I had forgotten," said Tom's sister, in despair. "He was
+going around to Oak Point with some of the men. That's down the river,
+beyond Chippewa Point, and they could scarcely get back in the other
+motor-boat before dark."
+
+"That's the answer, I guess," sighed Ruth.
+
+"Then we are marooned!" ejaculated Helen. "I do think it is too mean--and
+my goodness! we ate every crumb of lunch."
+
+"The two 'Robinson Crusoesses,' then, may have to go on short rations,"
+but Ruth said it with a smile. "I guess we are not in any real danger of
+starvation, however."
+
+"Just the same, a joke can easily become serious when one is deserted on
+a desert island."
+
+"But you were looking for adventure," retorted Ruth.
+
+"Well!"
+
+"Now you have it," said Ruth, but soberly. "And worrying about it will
+not help us a particle. Might as well be cheerful."
+
+"You are as full of old saws as a carpenter's abandoned tool-chest," said
+Helen smartly. "Oh! What is this I hear? The smuggler's boat again?"
+
+They did hear a motor, but no boat appeared from the other side of the
+Kingdom of Pipes. The sound drew nearer. The motor-boat was coming down
+the river, through a passage between the island where the girls were and
+the American side.
+
+"Come on! I don't care who it is," cried Helen, starting to run through
+the bushes. "We'll hail them and ask them for rescue."
+
+But when she came in sight of the craft, to Ruth's surprise Helen did not
+at once shout. Ruth only saw the bow of the boat coming down stream
+herself; but suddenly she marked the small name-board with its gilt
+lettering:
+
+                               LAURIETTE
+
+"Here's Chess, I do believe!" she cried.
+
+"Humph!" grumbled Helen.
+
+"Now, Helen Cameron!" gasped Ruth, "are you going to be foolish enough to
+refuse to be taken off this island by Chessleigh Copley?"
+
+"Didn't say I was."
+
+"And don't be unkind to him!" pleaded Ruth.
+
+"You seem so terribly fond of him that I guess he won't mind how I treat
+him."
+
+"You know better," Ruth told her admonishingly. "Chess thinks a great
+deal of you, while you treat him too unkindly for utterance."
+
+"He'd better not think of me too much," said Helen scornfully. "His head
+won't stand it. Tom says 'Lasses never was strong in the deeper strata of
+college learning."
+
+Ruth was not to be drawn into any controversy. She called to the young
+man when, dressed in flannels and standing at his wheel and engine, he
+came into view.
+
+"Hurrah! Here's good luck!" shouted Chess, swerving the bow of the
+_Lauriette_ in toward the island instantly.
+
+"Hurrah! Glad you think it's good luck," said Helen sulkily. "I guess you
+never were marooned."
+
+"That's navy blue you've got on--not maroon," said Chess soberly. "Do you
+suppose I am color-blind?"
+
+"Smarty!"
+
+"Now, children, this is too serious a matter to quarrel over," admonished
+Ruth, but smiling because her chum showed, after all, interest enough in
+the young man to be "scrappy." "What do you suppose we have seen, Chess?"
+
+"I'd like to know first of all how you came here without a boat?"
+
+"My goodness, yes!" gasped Helen. "I'd almost forgotten about Wonota and
+Totantora."
+
+Ruth shook her head. "I am not likely to forget that," she said.
+
+She explained to the young man as they got into the launch and he pushed
+out from the shore about the difficulty that had arisen over the Indians.
+He was naturally deeply interested in Ruth's trouble and in the fate of
+the Indians. But on top of that Helen eagerly told about the speedy
+launch, the yellow lady, and their suspicions regarding what was going on
+at the island that they had nicknamed the Kingdom of Pipes.
+
+"I tell you what," Chess said, quite as eagerly as Helen, "I was coming
+over to take you all for a sail on the river to-night. Let's get Tom and
+just us four keep watch on that island. I believe there is something
+going on there that ought to be looked into."
+
+"I--I don't know that it is our business to look into it," suggested
+Ruth, doubtfully.
+
+But for once Helen agreed with Chess, and against Ruth's better judgment
+it was determined to come back to this locality after dinner and lurk
+about the mysterious island in the Copley launch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+BILBY'S TRUMP CARD
+
+
+Naturally, Ruth went in search of Mr. Hammond the moment she landed on
+the island where the moving picture company was established. But, as she
+saw that the _Gem_ was not at the dock, she scarcely expected to find the
+president of the company at hand--and in that expectation she was not
+mistaken.
+
+Mr. Hooley, the director, however, told her what he knew about the
+occurrence that had started Totantora so madly from the island in the
+canoe. Bilby and whoever it was that backed him in his enterprise were
+evidently determined to obtain the services of Wonota, the Osage
+princess, if it could be brought about.
+
+"Looks to me," said the director, "as though we were going to have some
+trouble finishing this picture, Miss Fielding."
+
+"We can't finish it without Wonota!" cried the girl.
+
+"You don't think you could rewrite the remaining scenes so that we can
+keep on to the conclusion?" he asked thoughtfully.
+
+"Why, Mr. Hooley! How about the throne-room scene? Wonota must appear in
+that. You say yourself that we cannot use anybody in her place."
+
+"How about cutting out that scene? Finish the play on this side of the
+water. Don't go to France at all."
+
+"Then the picture is spoiled!"
+
+"No picture is spoiled until it goes out of our hands, you know," and Mr.
+Hooley smiled satirically. "You know how it is in the picture business,
+Miss Fielding. Some unfortunate producer buys a script or a story. The
+scenario writer 'saves' the story by his work on the script. Then the
+continuity man 'saves' it a second time. Then the director 'saves' it
+after he gets it into his hands. We know that the star performer always
+'saves' it again. And then the film cutter and the title writer each
+'save' it.
+
+"Most pictures are 'saved' in this way by the omniscience of all who work
+on it so that, when it is finally produced, the writer seldom recognizes
+more than a glimmer of his original idea in the final product.
+
+"You are much better treated than most picture writers, you know very
+well. And here you have a chance to 'save' your own work," and Mr. Hooley
+finished with a laugh.
+
+"It is no laughing matter," she told him. "I wanted this to be a really
+big picture. And I do not want to cut out Wonota. Without that
+throne-room scene it will fall flat."
+
+"We should have taken it in New York," grumbled Mr. Hooley. "I felt it at
+the time. But Mr. Hammond contracted for so many weeks' use of this
+island and the time is running out already."
+
+"And Wonota and Totantora are gone!"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Do you know where they have gone?"
+
+"Haven't the least idea. But Mr. Hammond knows."
+
+"He went to town?" asked Ruth thoughtfully.
+
+"He has gone to confer with the lawyers and see if they can get the court
+to vacate the injunction issued against our use of Wonota. Bilby and the
+sheriff came again. They had a warrant this time. It called for the
+production of Wonota. Luckily you had her off the island at the time.
+They searched every nook and cranny, and meanwhile Totantora got away.
+They wanted him too."
+
+"I think that Bilby is too mean for words!"
+
+"Well, I take it that it was his trump card. He must have some powerful
+influence behind him. But--"
+
+"But what, Mr. Hooley?" asked Ruth eagerly.
+
+"I can see how we might get over the difficulty if the courts will not
+listen to reason."
+
+"Oh! Do tell me!"
+
+"We can move the whole company over the Canadian border, and before Bilby
+can do anything over there we'll have finished 'The Long Lane's Turning.'
+That's the only way I see out of the mess."
+
+"But think of the expense!"
+
+"Sure! I'm thinking of that all the time," grumbled Hooley. "And don't
+you forget that the boss never allows me to lose sight of it. Your
+interest in this picture is greater than mine, Miss Fielding; but my job
+is sort of tangled up in it, too. Mr. Hammond is a good man; but he is a
+good business man first of all. I am afraid that you will be obliged to
+make some changes in the remaining scenes so as to overcome the
+difficulty of losing Wonota."
+
+"I will not do it!" cried the girl, this time in anger.
+
+"Better read your contract. If you won't do it, somebody else will have
+to. You know, we've got a man at the studio who could change Hamlet into
+a slap-stick comedy over night, if the emergency arose."
+
+"I will not agree to have my picture ruined," said Ruth, almost in tears.
+
+"That isn't the way to look at it," Hooley observed more kindly. "Just
+see that you save your story yourself instead of letting some other
+person do it for you. That's the answer, I fear."
+
+Ruth had no appetite for dinner that evening, but she was obliged to meet
+her friends and the actors and actresses who ate at her table with at
+least an appearance of cheerfulness.
+
+It was impressed upon her mind more deeply than ever before, however,
+that her arrangement with the Alectrion Film Corporation was not wholly
+satisfactory. She had learned so much now about the making of a screen
+picture that often her advice in the directing of the action was accepted
+with admiration by Mr. Hooley. Mr. Hammond was not afraid to go away and
+leave the two to film the most important scenes in a script.
+
+And why should she be tied to certain agreements that cramped her?
+Especially in a case of this kind. For the sake of saving expense Mr.
+Hammond was likely to insist that the artistic part of "The Long Lane's
+Turning" should be sacrificed.
+
+Ruth felt that on her part she would spend twenty-five thousand dollars
+more (if she had it to spend) in shipping the whole company over the
+border and making the remainder of the picture in Canada.
+
+"I am going to be in a position some time where I shall have the say as
+to every detail of the picture," she told herself. "I want to be my own
+manager and my own producer. Otherwise I shall never be happy--nor will I
+ever be sure of making worth-while pictures."
+
+For Ruth took this career of hers very seriously indeed. Because she did
+so, perhaps, the fact that Tom Cameron seemed to consider his work so
+lightly caused Ruth to criticise the young man harshly. That could only
+be expected.
+
+Tom did not return for dinner. Nor did Mr. Hammond come back to
+headquarters. Chess Copley was eager to get the girls out in his
+_Lauriette_ again.
+
+"Pooh! it's nothing much, I guess," said Helen, seemingly having lost her
+first interest in the smugglers and the King of the Pipes. "And, anyway,
+I shall not go unless Tom is with us."
+
+"Why, Helen!" cried Ruth, "I thought you were so eager."
+
+"Well, perhaps. If Tom went."
+
+"But we promised Chess."
+
+"You promised him. He wants to do it because you are going."
+
+"Now, Helen, you know--"
+
+"I know just what I am saying. I have no interest in 'Lasses Copley. You
+have."
+
+"You are the most exasperating girl!" exclaimed Ruth, in some warmth.
+
+They were in their room freshening their toilets for the evening.
+
+"I don't seem to suit you any more than Tom does," said her chum coolly.
+
+"I declare, Helen! you go too far."
+
+"I shan't go too far this time--without Tom." Helen laughed in a
+provoking way. "You can run along with your Chessleigh if you like. Not
+me!"
+
+"That is just what I will do," said Ruth quietly, but with flashing eyes.
+"I would not insult him by refusing--now. I will tell him you have a
+headache and cannot come."
+
+"Do as you like," was the ungracious reply. "You are crazy about Chess, I
+guess."
+
+"I believe you are jealous, Helen Cameron!" cried Ruth, in wonder.
+
+"I don't know why I should be," returned Helen lightly. "I've no interest
+in Chess Copley. And I haven't had since--"
+
+"Since when, I'd like to know?"
+
+"Since I found him out. So now! That's enough. I am not going. Unless, of
+course, Tom returns and wants me to go along with you and Chess."
+
+What more was there to say? Ruth did not wish to disappoint Chessleigh.
+She felt that Helen Cameron had no reason for treating the young man as
+she did.
+
+So, as she had done before, and without much interest in the evening
+sailing party, Ruth left the bungalow to join the waiting Chessleigh at
+the dock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+SUSPENSE
+
+
+Tom and his party in the other motor-boat had not appeared, nor had the
+_Gem_ come back from the town of Chippewa Bay with Mr. Hammond. Why
+should not Ruth and Chessleigh spy about among the islands for a time?
+
+It was not now moonlight; and there was some haze which gave a
+smouldering effect to the stars peering through it. But these soft, hazy
+nights had their own charm and Ruth had come to love them.
+
+Especially on the water. Amid the tamarack-clothed islets the motor-boats
+crept in and out in a delightful way. To lie on the cushions in the
+cockpit of the _Lauriette_ and bask in the pearly starlight was an
+experience the girl from Cheslow was not likely to forget.
+
+To-night, when the _Lauriette_ got away from the moving picture camp,
+there were no other boats in sight. Chess dimmed his lights and the craft
+crept through the narrow passages between the islands, heading up stream.
+
+"My idea," he said, "is to land at the back of that island--"
+
+"The Kingdom of Pipes?" interrupted Ruth in surprise.
+
+"Yes. Where you say you landed before--twice."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"That is, if we see nothing or nobody about."
+
+"I don't think we'd better take any great risk--only two of us," observed
+Ruth, with her usual caution.
+
+"Of course, we won't walk right into danger."
+
+"I should hope not! And just what are we going for, anyway?" and she
+suddenly laughed.
+
+"Why, I'm curious about those fellows," said the young man. "And I
+thought you were."
+
+"I'm curious about the King of the Pipes. Charley-Horse Pond, Willie
+calls him."
+
+"Queer old boy, I guess," admitted Chess. "But I want to know more about
+those chaps who unloaded the boxes."
+
+"What could have been in the boxes? Surely there is no camping party on
+that island. At least, no pleasure party."
+
+"I fancy not. If you ask me about the boxes, I am puzzled. Yet, I've a
+glimmer of an idea--Are you sure that was a woman with them to-day in
+their boat?"
+
+"Wonota called her the yellow lady. And Wonota has good eyes."
+
+"With a yellow face, yes? And we saw a Chinaman in the boat that other
+time on the river," said Chess quickly.
+
+"Surely she wasn't a Chinese woman? Yet, she might have been."
+
+"Chinese women aren't usually smuggled over the border, I guess,"
+muttered the young fellow. "But Chinese men are."
+
+"Perhaps we should have reported it to the authorities," Ruth suggested.
+
+"Not until we are sure there is really something wrong. I don't want to
+be laughed at, you know."
+
+But Ruth just then had considered another phase of the matter.
+
+"Oh!" she cried. "There's Bilby! He was in it!"
+
+"In what?"
+
+"In that boat when we first saw it. When we saw the Chinaman, you know,
+out on the Canadian side of the river. If there is anything wrong about
+these men--and the King of the Pipes--Bilby is mixed up with them."
+
+"I guess you are right, Ruth. Maybe that fellow is into more queer games
+than just trying to grab your Osage princess."
+
+"But more than that," said Ruth much worried now, "he may have so many
+friends on the Canadian side that he can trace Wonota and her father over
+there on Grenadier Island."
+
+"Better warn Mr. Hammond when he comes back from town," suggested her
+friend. "That Bilby seems to be universally troublesome. I'll say he is!"
+
+They kept quiet after that, for the outline of the rocky island, with the
+blasted beech visible at its summit, came into view. Nothing stirred upon
+the island, nor was there any other boat in sight.
+
+"Had we better venture ashore?" breathed Ruth, again in doubt.
+
+"Come on. Let's try it. I've got an electric torch in my pocket. We can
+find our way all over the island with that."
+
+It was true that the girl of the Red Mill felt some trepidation, but she
+had confidence in her companion's muscle and courage if not in his
+caution. Besides, she was very curious about the queer old man and the
+doings on his island.
+
+Chess shut off the engine of the _Lauriette_ some distance from the
+island; but first he had gone above the rocky landing, so that the
+sluggish current between the islands drifted the motor-boat back upon
+that strand.
+
+He went forward and, with a line in his hand, leaped ashore the moment he
+could do so, and drew the _Lauriette_ in to the rock. Then he passed the
+line around the very sapling to which Ruth had once fastened the canoe.
+
+"Come on!" he whispered, offering his hand to the girl.
+
+She leaped ashore. They were both wearing canvas, rubber-soled, low shoes
+which made no noise on the stones. Chess drew forth the electric torch
+and tried it, turning the spot of light on the ground at their feet. It
+worked perfectly.
+
+In his right-hand jacket pocket he carried an entirely different article,
+but he did not mention that fact to Ruth. She would not have gone with
+him had she known of the presence of the pistol. The possession of
+firearms would have, to her mind, at once taken the matter out of the
+realm of mere adventure into that of peril, and Ruth was not seeking such
+an experience.
+
+She only half believed in the smugglers. She had seen some men in a boat
+at the island, but she doubted if it meant anything more than a fishing
+party. Those boxes taken ashore meant nothing much to her, if they did
+suggest some particularly interesting situation to Chess.
+
+In fact, Copley had not fully taken Ruth into his confidence. He had
+reason to suspect that whoever might be on this island were law-breakers,
+and he really had no right to bring Ruth here. Tom Cameron would not have
+done it.
+
+Copley was serious, however, in his intention of finding out if possible
+who was on the island; and when they had passed up the rough path to the
+round table-stone, Ruth had got over her little shivery feeling and was
+as eager as Chess himself.
+
+They passed carefully through the fringe of brush and reached the open
+space where the blasted beech tree stood. The faint starlight illumined
+the space, so that Chess did not need to use the torch in his left hand.
+There was no tent set up here nor any other mark of human habitation.
+
+Ruth knew that there was scarcely any other place on the island where a
+camp could be established. Had the people they had seen landing from the
+speedy launch gone away for good and taken their camp equipment with
+them?
+
+Suddenly Copley seized her wrist. His touch was cold and betrayed the
+fact that he was nervous himself.
+
+"Listen!" he whispered, his lips close to Ruth's ear.
+
+Helen would have immediately been "in a fidget," and said so. But Ruth
+could restrain herself pretty well. She nodded so that Copley saw she
+heard him and was listening. They waited several moments.
+
+"There!" breathed the young fellow again.
+
+"What is it?" Ruth ventured.
+
+"Somebody talking. Listen!"
+
+There was a human voice near by. It sounded close to them, and yet its
+direction Ruth could not decide upon. There was a hollow, reverberating
+quality to the sounds that baffled determination as to their origin. But
+it was a human voice without doubt.
+
+Ruth could not, however, understand a word that was spoken. The tones
+were first high, then low, never guttural, and possessed a certain
+sibilant quality. Whether the words spoken were English or not, was
+likewise a mystery.
+
+Ruth and Chessleigh stood first in one place, then in another, in that
+circle about the big beech tree. The young man had gone all around the
+tattered trunk and found no opening. If it was hollow, there was no way
+of getting into it near the ground, nor was there any ladder by which one
+might scale the huge trunk to the top.
+
+"That's no hide-away," mouthed Chess, his lips close at Ruth's ear again.
+"And it seems to me the sound doesn't come from overhead."
+
+"More as though it came up from the ground," returned Ruth, in the same
+low voice. "Do you suppose we are standing on the roof of a cavern, Chess
+Copley?"
+
+"It might be," agreed the young fellow. "But if it is a cavern, where
+under the sun is the mouth of it? How do they get in or out? It beats my
+time!"
+
+Ruth quickly acknowledged that the mystery was beyond her comprehension.
+The sing-song sounds--for such they seemed to be--went on and on,
+meaningless for the two listeners, who could not distinguish a single
+word.
+
+"Think that's your King of the Pipes?" asked Chessleigh finally.
+
+"I don't know. If it is, there must be something more the matter with him
+than Willie says there is. He sounds crazy--that is the way it sounds to
+me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A FAILURE IN CALCULATION
+
+
+"What shall we do now?" asked Ruth finally, and in a whisper.
+
+"Let's go down to that place where we saw the boat land the other
+morning," returned her companion. "I'd like to look about there a bit."
+
+"Do you think it is wise?"
+
+"I don't know about the wisdom of it," chuckled Chessleigh. "But I do
+know that I'm not at all satisfied. Some people are here on the island,
+and I'd like to know where they are."
+
+"I am afraid we will get into trouble."
+
+"If it is only that old man----"
+
+"We don't know that it is. He must be talking to somebody--if that is his
+voice we hear."
+
+"Maybe he is only talking to himself. I don't hear anybody else," replied
+the young fellow. "Come on. Let's see the thing through, now we have
+started."
+
+Indeed Ruth wanted to see it through. She was quite as curious as her
+companion. So she made no further objection.
+
+Pushing through the brush, they climbed carefully down the slope on the
+outer side of the island. The landing where they had fastened their own
+boat was on the inner side of the island, while this side fronted the
+broad expanse of the river.
+
+They could see the hurrying current, glinted here and there by the soft
+starlight. Everything looked ghostly about them. The dim silvery light
+made it possible for them to pick their way without stumbling. They made
+little noise in reaching the shore.
+
+There was a little indention here--a tiny cove. The shore was shelving,
+and of sand and gravel. Chess pointed silently to the unmistakable marks
+of a boat's bow in several places.
+
+"That boat has been here more than once," he whispered.
+
+Ruth breathed "Yes," but said no more.
+
+Up-stream of the cove was a great mass of rock--not one rock, but several
+huddled together and the cracks between overgrown with brush and vines.
+Chess brought into use the electric torch again.
+
+He shot the spotlight into the crannies. Was there a path there between
+two of the big boulders? He drew Ruth's attention to it with a touch on
+her arm. She saw that some of the bushes were broken--the vines torn away
+and dead.
+
+"Somebody has been here," she murmured.
+
+"Of course. That is what we came to find," said the young man. "We are on
+the verge of a discovery, Ruth."
+
+"I hope we are not on the verge of trouble," she returned, in the same
+low tone.
+
+"Don't have a bit of fear," he told her, in a louder voice.
+
+He was about to mention the loaded pistol in his pocket; then thought
+better of it. But he went ahead, venturing into the narrow passage
+between the two boulders.
+
+The ray of the torch showed the way. It played on the ground at their
+feet and upon the rocky sides of the passage. Was that an abrupt end to
+the passage ahead of them, or a sharp turn in it? Chess pressed on, Ruth
+trying to peer over his shoulder, although to do this she had to stand on
+tiptoe.
+
+"By jove!" uttered the young man in surprise, "I believe it is a cavern.
+It's the entrance to a cave."
+
+"Then those voices did come from a cavern. Be careful, Chess--do!"
+
+He had reached the turn in the passage. A jutting shelf of rock roofed
+them over. The young man shut off the lamp and they were in darkness. He
+thrust forward his head to peer around the corner.
+
+As he did so, without the least warning, something swished through the
+air and Ruth heard the sound of a dull blow. Chess pitched forward, with
+a groan of pain, falling to his knees.
+
+Ruth uttered a scream. She did not try to retreat, but seized the young
+man by the shoulders and dragged him back.
+
+Her brave act saved the young fellow from receiving a second and heavier
+blow. A club was being wielded in the hands of a powerful man who had met
+them in the passage!
+
+Chess was speechless and apparently in a confused state of mind. The
+electric torch had fallen from his hand. He seemed struggling to get
+something out of his jacket pocket, but before he could accomplish this a
+light flashed up in the tunnel ahead.
+
+The same sing-song, chattering voice they had heard so faintly on the
+summit of the island broke out close at hand. In the red, flickering
+light of a burning pine torch the frightened girl saw a man in a
+broad-brimmed hat and loose, flapping upper garment bending over Chess
+with a club again raised to strike.
+
+"Don't hurt him! Don't hit him again!" she cried.
+
+Other voices--all speaking in that strange, sing-song tongue--broke out,
+and Ruth suddenly realized that these enemies that confronted them were
+Chinese.
+
+In the red light she saw clearly now, under the round, broad-brimmed hat,
+the yellow face and slanting eyes of the man. Ruth did not understand
+it--she could not imagine why these Orientals should be here on the
+island. But she realized fully that the calculations of Copley and
+herself had gone astray. They were in peril--serious peril.
+
+The leading Chinaman glared into Ruth's frightened face and his thin lips
+curled back from his yellow teeth in a snarl like that of a rabid dog.
+His very look was enough to turn the girl cold. She trembled, still
+striving to drag the half-senseless Chessleigh back.
+
+The Chinaman uttered a long, jabbering howl, turning his face over his
+shoulder as though speaking to those who crowded behind him in the
+passage. Ruth might still have escaped, but she would not desert her
+injured companion.
+
+Suddenly there was a stir in the passage and the big Chinaman was thrust
+aside. Another figure pushed forward--a ragged, bushy-haired figure. It
+was the King of the Pipes!
+
+"Hush!" he commanded in his old way.
+
+He waved the Chinaman back. He seemed to have some authority, for the
+burly Chinaman obeyed. The old man thrust his face forward and peered
+with his wild eyes into Ruth's countenance.
+
+"Hush!" he whispered. "What did I tell you? I know you, of course. I told
+you that I could not divide my kingdom with any one. It was quite useless
+for you to come here again.
+
+"And see what has come of it," he added. "The Pipes have seen you. They
+know your intentions. They will never in this world stand for a divided
+kingdom. I shall have to cut off your head. Too bad! Too bad!"
+
+He seized Ruth's wrist. She tried to draw away from him, but he was much
+more powerful than she had supposed. One quick jerk and she was fairly
+dragged over the crouching figure of Copley and around the corner of the
+narrow passage.
+
+The head Chinaman darted forward and seized Chess. He likewise was
+dragged into the place. Amid the chattering of several high, sing-song
+voices, and only half seeing what was being done because of the
+flickering torchlight, Ruth knew that she was being hurried into a tunnel
+of some size that ran back into the island.
+
+It was rocky all about her--on both sides as well as under foot and
+overhead. It was a natural tunnel, not one made by man. The figures
+flitting before her were gnomelike. She saw clearly only the old man who
+led her, holding her tightly by the arm. She knew that the Chinaman was
+dragging Chess behind them, as though that unfortunate young man was a
+sack of potatoes.
+
+This outcome of their innocent adventure was entirely different from
+anything Ruth had dreamed of. If she did not exactly fear the queer old
+man who called himself the King of the Pipes, she certainly did fear the
+men who were with him in this cavern.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+IN THE CHINESE DEN
+
+
+It was several minutes before Ruth could accustom her sight to the
+uncertain, flickering flame of the torches with which the cavern was
+illuminated. There was, too, a small fire on a stone hearth and above it
+a stone and cement chimney that portrayed ingenuity in its building.
+
+The cavern was a natural one, but man had made of it a not impossible
+habitation. She felt rugs under her feet as she was drawn along by the
+King of the Pipes, and when her eyes became accustomed to the half-gloom
+of the place she saw that there were several low tables and a couch or
+two, the latter likewise covered with rugs.
+
+Not only had some ingenuity been expended in fitting up the cave, but the
+furnishings must have occasioned the expenditure of considerable money.
+It was not at all the sort of place that she would have expected the
+queer old man to occupy on the lonely island.
+
+She was so much interested in Chessleigh's state, however, that she gave
+small attention to these other things. When she could break away from the
+King of the Pipes she flung herself down upon her knees beside the
+recumbent young man and raised his head in her arms.
+
+Chess had received a hard blow from the Chinaman's club. And he had not
+uttered a word. The latter fact caused Ruth more alarm than anything
+else. She feared that he was very badly injured, although he was not
+insensible.
+
+But there was no blood on his head and face. She passed her hand swiftly
+over his crown and found an unmistakable lump there, a lump raised by the
+blow. But, looking more closely into his half open eyes she saw more
+intelligence in their expression than she expected.
+
+Indeed, as she peered closely at him she distinctly saw him wink his left
+eye, and this act, with the bright look in his eyes, warned her that
+Copley was playing possum.
+
+Having been felled by the blow, and feeling himself out-matched by the
+Chinamen who had come jabbering to the scene, Chess had displayed much
+more helplessness than he need have shown. But Ruth decided that he was
+very wise to do this, and she was much relieved to discover this to be
+the fact. She did nothing to attract the attention of their captors to
+his real condition. She moaned over him, and made little pitying sounds
+as though she thought he had been very seriously hurt by the blow he had
+received.
+
+The King of the Pipes put his clawlike hand upon her shoulder again.
+
+"Let him alone. He will have to have his head off, of course. No hope for
+it. But I will try to postpone your decapitation until the thirty-first
+day of June, which comes when there are two Sundays in the same week. Eh?
+Isn't that shrewd? As King of the Pipes I have to show great astuteness.
+Oh, great astuteness!"
+
+"I am sure you will help us, sire," murmured Ruth, standing up once more
+and looking appealingly at the queer old man.
+
+"Well, I will do what I can. But, remember, we kings can't do what we
+once could. Seems to me I told you that before. The war did the business
+for us. And I would not dare suggest taking a consort. The Pipes would
+never stand for it."
+
+"Whom do you call 'the Pipes'?" Ruth asked wonderingly.
+
+"Look about you. See them? Already they are beginning to smoke up again.
+And it is a dirty smell. I have to go out and roam about the island to
+get away from it. Dreadful! To give up my throne room to nasty little
+brass pipes. Ugh!"
+
+While he was speaking the girl stared about her, now better able to see
+the place and the people in it. There were at least half a dozen men. And
+all were Chinamen, as far as she could see, although not all were dressed
+in blouse and loose trousers and wadded slippers--the usual costume of
+the un-westernized Chinaman.
+
+Two of the men were lying down, and there were tiny lamps sputtering on
+the low stools, or tables, set close to their heads. They held
+long-stemmed pipes with small brass bowls, and had begun to smoke
+something that had a very pungent and disagreeable odor.
+
+Ruth's mind had begun to clear. She remembered the heavy boxes she and
+Chess had seen brought ashore, and the Chinaman in the speed launch, and
+then the yellow-faced woman being taken on this very day toward the
+American shore. The whole puzzle began to fit together like a piece of
+patchwork.
+
+Chinamen; a high-powered boat going back and forth across the St.
+Lawrence; a hidden cave on this supposedly uninhabited island; the heavy
+boxes; the smoking of this vile paste which she now saw a third Chinaman
+dip out of a tiny bowl, on a stick, and drop into his pipe in the form of
+a "pill."
+
+_Opium!_
+
+If these men--and the white men of the speed launch--did any smuggling it
+was not diamonds they smuggled. It was opium. And they were probably
+running Chinese across the border as well. Ruth knew that she was in a
+very serious predicament when she had swiftly thought this out, if she
+had not realized it before.
+
+What would these evil-looking yellow men do to her--and to poor Chess?
+The latter, she was relieved to feel, was biding his time. But what
+chance was likely to arise which would lead to their escape from this
+cavern?
+
+She looked about the place. Two of the yellow men were between her and
+the passage through which she and her companion had been dragged. If she
+wanted to, she could not make a dash for liberty.
+
+She turned again to the bedraggled and ragged-haired old man, curiosity
+about whom had led to this predicament. The King of the Pipes was
+watching her with eyes that glittered like a bird's.
+
+"Hush!" he whispered, moving nearer again. "You cannot escape. The Pipes
+are very strong and very agile. They would not let you. To tell the
+truth, they fear so much for my safety that I haven't the freedom myself
+that I would sometimes like."
+
+"Can't you leave this place?" Ruth asked softly.
+
+"Hush!" he warned her in his usual stealthy way. "Don't speak of it. Of
+course a king can do no wrong, and naturally a king can do as he pleases.
+Otherwise, what is kingship? But it is always well to bow to the
+peculiarities and the prejudices of one's subjects. They do not like me
+to leave the throne-room at certain times. So I do not attempt to do so.
+When you met me before, my dear, there was nobody on the island but
+myself. But to-night you see how many are here, and more yet to come."
+
+"More Chinamen?" she whispered.
+
+"No. Perhaps no more of the Pipes," and she thought he showed involuntary
+disgust of the opium-smokers. "But other subjects of mine who must be
+catered to. Oh, dear, yes! Being a king is not all it is cracked up to
+be, I assure you."
+
+For some reason Ruth felt more alarm because of this last statement of
+the poor old man than of anything that had gone before. She realized that
+he, of course, really had no influence with the opium smugglers. But she
+began to understand that there were other men coming here who might be
+more savage than the Chinamen.
+
+She remembered that there had been several white men in the launch when
+she had observed it, and that on one occasion Horatio Bilby had been one
+of them. Now, Ruth felt not only a great distaste for Bilby, but she
+feared him exceedingly.
+
+It might be that the red-faced fat man who had so fretted Mr. Hammond and
+her about Wonota, had only crossed the river in the launch as a
+passenger. He might have no close connection with the opium smugglers.
+
+But knowing Bilby as she did, Ruth could imagine that he might be mixed
+up in almost any illegal business that promised large returns in money.
+If he would attempt to steal the Indian girl, why would he not join hands
+with opium smugglers and Chinese runners, if he saw a possibility of gain
+in those industries?
+
+She wished she might talk to Chess and learn just what was working in his
+mind at that moment. She was quite sure that he was by no means as
+stunned as he appeared to be.
+
+She approved of his feigning, for as long as these men did not seek to
+injure her, why should he incur their further notice? He lay on the rug,
+quite as though he was helpless; but she knew he was alert and was ready,
+if occasion arose, to show much more agility than the Chinamen or the old
+King of the Pipes dreamed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE TWINS' ALARM
+
+
+It was fully an hour after the _Lauriette_ had chugged away from the dock
+at the island where the moving picture company was established that the
+motor-boat which had been to Oak Point returned with Tom Cameron aboard.
+
+Tom, with the other men who had been exploring and fishing all day, was
+ravenously hungry, but he went around to the veranda of the chief
+bungalow where his twin sister and Ruth stayed to see how they were
+before even going to wash and to see if he could bribe one of the cooks
+to set out "a cold snack."
+
+Tom found Helen on the porch, alone. At a glance, too, he saw that she
+was not in a pleasant mood.
+
+"What's gone wrong?" demanded Tom. And with a brother's privilege of
+being plain-spoken, he added: "You look cross. Go in search of your
+temper."
+
+"Who says I've lost it?" demanded Helen sharply.
+
+"I Cagliostro--Merlin--wizard that I am," chuckled Tom. "I am still
+little Brighteyes, and I can see just as far into a spruce plank as the
+next one."
+
+"Well, I am mad, if you want to know," sniffed Helen.
+
+"Where's Ruth?"
+
+"She's whom I am mad at," declared the girl, nodding.
+
+"I don't believe it," said Tom soothingly. "We could not really be mad at
+Ruth Fielding."
+
+"Don't you feel that way yourself--the way she acts with Chess Copley?"
+
+"I wouldn't mind punching 'Lasses' head," returned Tom. "But that's
+different."
+
+"Is that so? What do you know about their being out on the river together
+right now? Humph!"
+
+"Where have they gone?" asked her brother. "Why aren't you with them? Are
+they alone?"
+
+This brought out the full particulars of the affair, and Tom listened to
+the end of a rather excited account of what had happened that
+afternoon--both on the island where Helen and Ruth had been "marooned"
+and here at the camp--together with the suspicions and curiosity about
+the island which had been dubbed the Kingdom of Pipes. Nor did it lack
+interest in Tom's ears in spite of his sister's rather excited way of
+telling it.
+
+"But look here," he asked. "Why didn't you go with Ruth and 'Lasses?"
+
+"Humph! They didn't want me," sniffed Helen.
+
+"Now, Helen, you know better. Ruth never slighted you in the world. I
+know her better than that."
+
+"Well, she makes too much of Chess Copley. She is always praising him up
+to me. And I don't like it. I'll treat him just as I want to--so there!"
+
+Tom looked rather sober at this. He hesitated a moment. He wanted to ask
+his pettish sister a question, but evidently did not know how to go about
+it.
+
+"It can't be helped now, I suppose. They will be back after a while.
+Where were they going besides to that crazy fellow's island?"
+
+"Just there. That's all."
+
+"Come on and watch me eat. I'm starved."
+
+"Thanks! I watched the pythons fed at the zoo once," said Helen with
+unwonted sharpness. "I will sit here till the scene of savagery is over.
+You can come back."
+
+"You are in a fine mood, I see," observed Tom, and went off chuckling.
+
+Nevertheless, he was not feeling very happy himself over the thought that
+Ruth and Chess Copley were out on the river together.
+
+"Looks mighty fishy," muttered Tom Cameron. "I could punch 'Lasses' head,
+the way I feel."
+
+These thoughts seemed to take Tom's appetite away. To his sister's
+surprise, he returned in a very few minutes to the front porch of the
+bungalow.
+
+"I told you that you had boa-constrictor habits," she gasped. "Why, Tom
+Cameron! you must have swallowed your supper whole."
+
+"I didn't swallow as much as I expected," returned the young man,
+smiling. But he grew serious again. "How long was Chess going to stay out
+in his boat?" he asked.
+
+"You don't suppose that I saw him go?" asked Helen, with surprise.
+
+"Do you know that it is after eleven o'clock?" said her brother. "If they
+went no further than that crazy man's island, what do you suppose is
+keeping them?"
+
+"Mercy's sake! is that the time, Tommy-boy? Why, the crazy man himself
+must be keeping them! Do you suppose the King of the Pipes has captured
+Ruth and Chess?"
+
+"Don't try to be funny," advised Tom. "It may be no laughing matter."
+
+"Well, I like that!"
+
+"I don't think that Chess would keep her out so late if everything was
+all right. Sure they were not going to Copley Island?"
+
+"Sure. The girls have gone away. There's no fun going on there."
+
+"Well, of course the motor-boat may have broken down. Such things
+happen," said Tom reflectively.
+
+"Now you have got me stirred up," cried Helen. "I had no idea it was so
+late. And Ruthie does not believe in late hours."
+
+"She would not stay out on the river with me half the night, that is
+sure," grumbled Tom.
+
+"Oh, Tommy-boy!" exclaimed his sister, "I don't believe she cares so much
+for Chess. I really don't."
+
+"Well, that is not here nor there. What's to be done? Where's Mr.
+Hammond--or Willie?"
+
+"They haven't got back from Chippewa Bay with the _Gem_."
+
+"This clumsy old _Tamarack_ is too big for me to handle alone. And the
+boys have all gone to bed by this time."
+
+"The canoes aren't too big for us to handle," Helen said.
+
+"Us?"
+
+"Yes. I insist on going, too, if you start out to look for the
+_Lauriette_. And it will look better too. If we are simply paddling
+about, there being nothing the matter with Chess and Ruth, they won't be
+able to laugh at us. Come on!" exclaimed Helen, picking up her sweater.
+"I am a loyal sister, Tom Cameron."
+
+"Right-o!" he agreed, more cheerfully. "I suppose there really is nothing
+the matter. Yet, whatever else Chess Copley is, he's not the sort of
+fellow to keep a girl out till midnight on the river when there is nobody
+else along."
+
+"Humph! Do you think Ruth is a mere chit of a flapper? You are
+old-fashioned, Tommy-boy. The day of the chaperon is about over."
+
+"You know it isn't over in our set, and never will be," he returned. "You
+girls have a lot of freedom, I admit. But there are limits."
+
+"Baa!" was Helen's utterly impudent remark.
+
+They ran down to the shore and got out one of the canoes. Helen was
+familiar with the use of the paddle and served her brother as a good
+second. They drove the canoe out into the open river, but only just for a
+look up its expanse.
+
+There was no motor-boat in sight or hearing--not even the distant lights
+of one. The current was so strong that the Cameron twins went back among
+the islands where the water was smoother. Besides, it was much more
+romantic, Helen said wickedly, among the islands, and Chess and Ruth were
+more likely to remain in the tortuous passages.
+
+The two laid a pretty direct course, however, for the Kingdom of Pipes.
+As they spied it, and drew nearer, Tom suddenly stopped paddling and held
+up his hand.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded his sister, likewise raising her paddle out
+of the water.
+
+"Listen," warned Tom.
+
+Faintly there came the noise of a motor-boat to their straining ears.
+
+"Here they are!" shrilled Helen.
+
+"Will you be still?" demanded her brother. "That's not Copley's boat.
+It's a deal bigger craft. She's on the other side of the island."
+
+Helen leaned forward and caught at his sleeve. "Look there!" she
+whispered. "There is the _Lauriette_."
+
+She had been the first to see the outline of the Copley launch moored
+close to the shore of the island at its upper end.
+
+"They've gone ashore," said Tom. "Where can they be? If that other boat
+is approaching this island----"
+
+"Oh, Tom! The pirates!"
+
+"Oh, fudge!"
+
+"The smugglers, then. Chess said he believed there were smugglers here."
+
+"What do they smuggle?" demanded Tom with some scorn.
+
+"I don't know. He did not seem very clear about it."
+
+"Just the same," Tom observed, sinking his paddle again in the water,
+"there may be trouble in the air."
+
+"Trouble on the river, I guess you mean," giggled Helen.
+
+But she giggled because she was excited and nervous. She was quite as
+alarmed as Tom was over the possibility that Chess and Ruth had got into
+some difficulty on the King of the Pipes' island.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+TROUBLE ENOUGH
+
+
+Returning to Ruth Fielding in the cavern: Although her heart beat rapidly
+and she really was fearful, she showed little perturbation in her
+countenance and manner after she had talked with Charley Pond, if that
+was the real name of the King of the Pipes.
+
+Just how mentally disturbed the old man was it was difficult for the girl
+to judge. But she feared that he had, after all his claims, absolutely no
+influence with the Chinamen.
+
+She believed that the leader of the Orientals was the heavy-set Chinaman
+who had struck Chessleigh Copley down with the club. The others--some
+smoking the little brass pipes, and others not smoking--were probably men
+who were endeavoring to get into the States without the knowledge of the
+emigration authorities. Indeed, they were already in New York. This
+island was south of the American line. But from the Kingdom of Pipes to
+any city where the Chinamen would be safe from apprehension was a pretty
+big jump.
+
+As for the opium--the smoke of which Ruth smelled now for the first
+time--she had no idea how that commodity might be handled or disposed of.
+She knew that it was valuable, even when imported for medicinal purposes.
+There was a heavy tariff on it, as well as restrictions upon the trading
+in it.
+
+If those boxes--each as heavy as a man could lift and which she and Chess
+had seen brought ashore on this island--contained opium, there might be
+many thousand of dollars' worth of the drug, in its paste form, here now.
+Perhaps it was hidden somewhere in this cave.
+
+Ruth had seated herself upon the end of one of the low tables. She knew
+that all the furniture in the cavern, including the rugs, must be of
+Chinese manufacture. There could be no doubt that the place was fitted up
+for the convenience of the Orientals.
+
+She looked about, trying to penetrate the obscurity of the place. Were
+there passages besides the one by which she and Chess had been dragged
+in? Were there other apartments in the cavern, shut off by some of the
+hanging rugs which she saw?
+
+Her principal thought, however, was of the possibility of escape. And she
+wished heartily that she and Copley could get out of the cave before the
+arrival of the "others" of whom the King of the Pipes had spoken. Whoever
+they might be--or whether Horatio Bilby was one of them--Ruth did not
+want to meet the smugglers and Chinese runners.
+
+She feared very much for her safety, and for that of her companion. The
+law-breakers would know immediately that their safety was threatened.
+They must know that if they allowed Ruth and Chess to depart from the
+cave, their presence here and what they were doing would be reported to
+the police. And men like Bilby, who would stoop to anything for money,
+were not likely to give over such a profitable business as the smuggling
+of opium without a fight.
+
+Just how much did Bilby and his companions care for the law? It was a
+question that created no little anxiety in Ruth's mind. And she wondered,
+too, what Chess thought about it.
+
+The young fellow lay upon the floor of the cavern, silent and immovable.
+She was quite sure, by the exceedingly knowing wink that he had given
+her, that he was neither panic-stricken nor seriously hurt. He was merely
+waiting to see what would turn up.
+
+And what would happen when the new chance did turn up? Already Chess was
+in opposition to at least seven Chinamen, if he attempted anything. And
+if those the old man had spoken of, likewise appeared, what could Copley
+do against such numbers?
+
+There was nothing Ruth, herself, could do. She sat quietly on the end of
+the low table and looked sadly about the dimly lighted place. This was
+certainly a situation from which her usually ingenious mind could invent
+no means of escape.
+
+Suddenly the old man who called himself the monarch of this island came
+from the corner where he had been standing, watching Ruth, and made his
+way swiftly to the entrance to the cave. The big Chinaman got up and
+looked at him. The King of the Pipes waved his hand and pointed through
+the passage.
+
+It seemed to be sufficiently clear--that gesture--for the Chinaman began
+to gabble to his friends. They scrambled to their feet--all but two who
+had fallen into a sluggish state after their indulgence in the use of the
+drug. They looked toward the cavern entrance. The King of the Pipes
+disappeared through the passage.
+
+Ruth stole a stealthy glance at Chess. She saw that he had moved. He was
+lying with his right hand covered by his body. There seemed an alertness
+about him--in posture and in gleaming, half-closed eyes--that startled
+Ruth. What had the young fellow in his mind to do. For what was he
+waiting?
+
+In a minute she heard the ring of quick steps upon the rock-floor of the
+tunnel.
+
+Ruth shrank away from the table and stood at her companion's head. What
+would the newcomers--Bilby, perhaps--do to Copley and to her?
+
+And it was Bilby! The little, red-faced, greenish-eyed man, projected
+himself into the cavern as though he had been shot out of a gun.
+
+"What's the matter here? What's going on, I want to know? That crazy-head
+is trying to tell me something--Ye gods! A girl?"
+
+He saw Ruth vaguely. Then he glanced down at the prostrate Copley.
+
+"Who knocked him out?" demanded Bilby.
+
+The burly Chinaman was the one he addressed, who answered in a form of
+English:
+
+"Allee same me. I get um, Mist' Blibly."
+
+"For mercy's sake!" whined Bilby, wringing his fat hands. "These people
+aren't police. They are some of the summer visitors. Now we _are_ in a
+mess!"
+
+"Allee same look-see," growled the Chinaman. He kicked Chessleigh, and
+not gently. "Number one sneakee--him! She----"
+
+He nodded violently toward Ruth, thus drawing Bilby's attention to the
+girl. Bilby strained his fat neck forward to see the girl more closely.
+There were other sounds coming from the passage.
+
+"What's doing, Mr Bilby?" asked a gruff voice.
+
+The fat little man was panting. He pointed waveringly at Ruth.
+
+"Here's a pretty mess," he gasped. "What between these Chinks and that
+crazy old duffer, they have got me in a nice mess. I know this girl. She
+belongs to that moving picture outfit. Now what are we going to do?"
+
+"Knock her in the head," was the advice of the growling voice.
+
+The advice probably was not intended to be followed. It was said perhaps
+to scare Ruth. But it excited somebody else besides the girl of the Red
+Mill.
+
+Before Bilby could reply or anybody else could speak, Copley came to his
+feet with all the suddenness of a jumping-jack. Bilby squealed and
+started back, falling against the gruff man who had followed him into the
+cave and who was evidently the boatman.
+
+"What's this?" ejaculated this man.
+
+But that was all he said. The Chinamen squealed in unison, and that was
+all from them. Bilby himself faintly groaned.
+
+"Put your hands up--all of you!" commanded Copley, and one of the most
+amazing things about the whole wild extravaganza was that the young
+fellow's voice was perfectly unshaken.
+
+Lads that have been in the army are apt to consider circumstances like
+these as meat and drink to them. Chessleigh had not served Uncle Sam in
+vain. He was as cool as the proverbial cucumber!
+
+"Put your hands up--all of you! There are ten shots in this magazine and
+every one of them will get its man. Quick! Up with 'em!"
+
+In all probability only one of the Chinamen understood this strictly
+American form of expression. But when the burly Chinaman elevated his
+yellow hands, his fellow countrymen did the same.
+
+As for Bilby and the boatman, they reached toward the roof of the cavern
+hastily. There was no hesitation on their part. Although Copley was
+alone, his unwavering attitude and the threat of the automatic pistol,
+played hob with such shreds of courage as the malefactors possessed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A LETTER COMES
+
+
+Nobody had come through the passage into the cave save Bilby and the
+boatman. Chess stood where he could keep half an eye, at least, upon the
+opening, and although the passage was filled with shadow he was quite
+sure there was nobody lurking there who was friendly to the law-breakers.
+
+"Just step around behind those two men and see if they are armed, Miss
+Ruth, will you?" went on Copley. "Take 'em from behind. Don't get in line
+with my pistol. For if I begin to shoot, somebody is bound to get hit.
+Keep your hands up, you fellows!" and he gestured toward the Chinamen.
+
+Even the two of their number who had been half-overcome with the fumes of
+opium had come to attention when Chess produced his pistol. The Chinamen
+huddled together at one side. The boatman and Bilby were opposite the
+doorway of the tunnel. Ruth promptly obeyed Chess and went around behind
+the last-named two of the enemy.
+
+Ruth hesitated a moment in the dusk there at the opening of the passage.
+She hated to touch either Bilby or the other man. But probably both of
+them were armed, and for the sake of safety their weapons must be taken
+from them.
+
+While she hesitated she heard a faint rustle in the passage. Then came
+the softest possible whisper:
+
+"Ss-st!"
+
+Ruth jumped and glanced over her shoulder. Was it friend or enemy who
+evidently tried to attract her attention by this sibilant sound?
+
+A figure moved in the gloom. Before she could cry any warning to Copley
+an arm was put firmly about her and Ruth was almost lifted to one side.
+She saw the gleam of a weapon in the other hand of her neighbor, and the
+point of this weapon was dug suddenly into the broad back of the gruff
+boatman who was Bilby's companion.
+
+"Don't get nervous, 'Lasses," came in Tom Cameron's voice. "We're all
+friends here. Ah! A nice automatic pistol from our friend, Mr. Bilby.
+Just so. Here, Nell!"
+
+But it was Ruth's hand that took the captured weapon, although Helen
+stood at her side squeezing her other hand and whispering:
+
+"My goodness, Ruthie, what a perfectly glorious experience! Are those the
+real smugglers?"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," replied her friend. Then she accepted the revolver
+extracted from the hip pocket of the boatman by Tom Cameron. "Where is
+the King of the Pipes?"
+
+"Taking the air. We heard the talk below here through the hollow tree. Do
+you know," whispered Helen, "that old beech is a regular chimney. And we
+saw the boat come here. Then we grabbed the King of the Pipes outside."
+
+"Tom did not hurt him, I hope?" murmured Ruth.
+
+"Not a bit of it. In fact, the queer old fellow said he was willing to
+abdicate in Tom's favor, and now, I suppose, Tommy-boy is King of the
+Pipes," and Helen, the irrepressible, grinned.
+
+The two ex-army men, however, took the matter quite seriously. Tom
+disarmed the Chinamen as well as the white men. And to search and disarm
+a squirming Oriental, they found not easy work.
+
+"But I disarmed enough Fritzies in Europe to learn my job pretty well.
+How's the weather, Sergeant?"
+
+"All right here, Captain Cameron," said Copley seriously.
+
+"Then I'll back out with this bunch of junk. Here's a pair of brass
+knuckles in the bunch. I'll use 'em on any of these fellows who try to
+run. We'll keep 'em hived up here till the police come. One fellow can
+hold 'em. Unless they try to climb up that hollow beech tree."
+
+"No fear," said Copley. "Get the girls out first."
+
+Tom had already loaded both Ruth and Helen down with the loot from the
+malefactors' pockets. He motioned to the girls to leave the cavern.
+
+"Hold on! Hold on!" Bilby cried. "I beg of you, don't leave me with these
+men. I only happen to be here by chance--"
+
+"A bad chance for you, then," said Chess Copley. "Don't listen to him,
+Captain Cameron."
+
+"No, don't listen to him," said Ruth severely. "I know he is worse than
+the others. Why, Tom! he is the man who has made us all that trouble
+about Wonota and my picture."
+
+"Sure," agreed Tom. "I know the snake. Go ahead, girls. Chess and I will
+follow you. And one of us will be right in this passage all the time," he
+added, addressing the two white men. "Don't make any mistake. We'll shoot
+if you try to come out until you are told to."
+
+The girls were already feeling their way through the darkness of the
+tunnel. At the turn Ruth kicked something, and, stooping, secured Chess'
+electric torch. She pressed the switch and the illumination allowed the
+two young men to overtake them with more certainty, Chess backing out
+with his pistol trained on the opening into the cavern.
+
+When once the four friends were around the turn and out of hearing of the
+prisoners, Tom Cameron began to chuckle.
+
+"This is no laughing matter!" exclaimed his sister. "I am so excited I
+don't know what to do."
+
+"Keep right on," said Ruth. "I want to get home just as soon as I can. I
+don't believe I shall care hereafter to leave the island until we are
+through with the picture and can go back to the Red Mill. What are you
+laughing about, Tom Cameron?"
+
+"I don't know how 'Lasses is fixed," said the amused Tom. "But my pistol
+isn't loaded. It is my old service automatic and needs repairing,
+anyway."
+
+"Don't fret, Cameron. Mine is loaded all right," said Chess grimly.
+
+"Then you stay and guard the cave," said Tom.
+
+"You bet you! You couldn't get me away from here until you have sent for
+the sheriff and he comes for the gang. I believe we have done a good
+night's work."
+
+"Oh, you were wonderful!" Helen burst out. "And Ruth says they knocked
+you down and hurt you."
+
+"I shall get over that all right," returned Chess quietly.
+
+But when they were out of the passage and on the open shore Helen
+insisted upon fussing around Chessleigh, bathing the lump on his head,
+and otherwise "mothering" him in a way that secretly delighted Ruth. Tom
+looked at his sister in some amazement.
+
+"What do you know about that?" he whispered to Ruth. "She was as sore at
+him as she could be an hour ago."
+
+"You don't know your own sister very well, Tom," retorted Ruth.
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Tom Cameron. "Perhaps we fellows don't understand any
+girl very well."
+
+But Ruth was not to be led into any discussion of that topic then. It was
+agreed that she and Helen and Tom should hurry back to the motion picture
+camp at once.
+
+"The King of the Pipes won't bite you," Tom said to Chess. "Only don't
+let him go back into the cave. Those fellows might do him some harm. And
+the sheriff will want him for a witness against the gang. He is not so
+crazy as he makes out to be."
+
+The night's adventures were by no means completed, for Ruth and Helen
+could not go to bed after they reached the bungalow until they knew how
+it all turned out. Mr. Hammond had returned before them, and Willie and
+Tom started at once for Chippewa Bay in the _Gem_.
+
+The capture of Bilby in connection with the smugglers and Chinese runners
+delighted the motion picture producer.
+
+"That will settle the controversy, I believe," Mr. Hammond said to the
+two girls. "Bilby's attempt to annoy us must fall through now. We will
+get Totantora and Wonota back from Canada and finish the picture
+properly. But, believe me! I have had all the experience I want with
+freak stars. The expense and trouble I have been put to regarding Wonota
+has taught me a lesson. I'd sell my contract with Wonota to-morrow--or
+after the picture is done--for a song."
+
+Ruth looked at him steadily for a moment.
+
+"Do you mean that, Mr. Hammond?" she asked quietly.
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+Helen laughed. "I guess Ruth is thinking of singing that song. Ruth
+believes in Wonota."
+
+"If I could carry the tune," her chum said, more lightly. "We'll talk of
+that later, Mr. Hammond."
+
+"Oh, I would give you first chance, Miss Ruth," said the producer. "By
+the way," and he turned to his desk. "I brought mail from the town. Here
+are several letters for you, Miss Ruth, and one for Miss Cameron."
+
+The girls began to open their letters as soon as they reached their room.
+But it was Helen's single epistle that created the most excitement.
+
+"It's from Carrie Perrin," she said to Ruth. Then, in a moment, she
+uttered a cry that drew Ruth's full attention. "Listen to this! What do
+you know about this, Ruth?"
+
+"What is it, my dear?" asked her chum, in her usual composed manner.
+
+"Just think of that!" cried Helen, in tears. "And I have treated him so
+hatefully. He'll never forgive me in this world, I suppose. It is about
+Chess," she sobbed, and handed her chum the letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE HEART'S DESIRE
+
+
+"And what do you think of this, Nell? I've wormed out of Bill Kenmore the
+truth about that mean joke the boys played on us last spring when we were
+all at Jennie Stone's. Excuse! I suppose I should say Madame Marchand's.
+To think of Heavy Stone being an old married woman now!
+
+"Well, Bill Kenmore always did have a crazy streak--and he wasn't
+shell-shocked in France, either. You remember the time you went away down
+town in answer to a telegram, thinking it was somebody who needed you
+very much, and you walked into that place and found the boys all dressed
+up and ready to give you the 'ha, ha!'?
+
+"I know it got you awfully mad--and I don't blame you. Chess was there, I
+know. But he didn't even know what the row was all about. Bill engineered
+the whole thing, and he thinks still that it was an awfully good joke.
+His ideas of humor must have originated in the Stone Age.
+
+"I made him tell me all about it, he thinking I would be amused. Then I
+turned him right out of our parlor and told him not to call again. I hear
+that he thinks I am a regular cat!
+
+"But who wouldn't be cattish with a fellow who has no more sense? Anyhow,
+we know the truth now. Perhaps Chess Copley is not very sharp, but I
+couldn't think of his doing anything really mean. So now you know. If
+Chess is up there at the Thousand Islands you can tell him from me, at
+least, that 'all is forgiven.' Sounds like a newspaper personal, doesn't
+it?"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ruth stopped reading there, and looked brightly at her chum.
+
+"What do you think of that?" asked the latter, wiping her eyes.
+
+"Well, my dear, I shouldn't cry about it," said Ruth. "I think it is an
+occasion to be joyful."
+
+"But, Chess--"
+
+"Is of a forgiving nature, I think," Ruth said. "At any rate, I would not
+let the matter stand between me and a nice boy friend any longer. I could
+never suspect Chess of doing an unkind thing."
+
+"But I have wronged him!" cried Helen, who was, after all, tender-hearted.
+
+"Do you know," said her friend, "I believe you can make it up to him very
+nicely, if you want to, Helen?"
+
+The _Gem_ returned to the island just at daybreak. The girls ran down to
+the dock to meet the returned young men and Willie. Chess Copley had come
+to get his own motor-boat, and the report they made of the end of the
+smuggling affair was very satisfactory.
+
+The sheriff and his posse in a big motor-boat had gone to the Kingdom of
+Pipes and relieved Chess of his duty as guardian of the cave. The
+Chinamen, who were hiding there until they could be shipped into the
+States dressed in feminine garments, were all handcuffed, together with
+the owner of the launch and Horatio Bilby, and loaded into the sheriff's
+launch.
+
+"And you should have heard Bilby squeal," said Tom. "There is one bad egg
+who is likely to pay a considerable penalty for his crimes. He'll not get
+out of the mess very easy."
+
+"What of the King of the Pipes?" asked Ruth.
+
+"Poor old Charley-Horse Pond," Willie, the boatman, said, "will be
+detained as a witness. Already he has got a new name for himself. He
+isn't 'King of the Pipes' any longer."
+
+"What do you mean?" Ruth inquired, for she was interested in the queer
+old man and his fate.
+
+"He told me that he was Major Andre," chuckled Willie. "He is a Number
+One spy. The sheriff knows him well and knows there isn't a mite of harm
+in him."
+
+Later it came out that the old man had been living on the island for some
+time, having found the cave there. The smugglers of opium and the Chinese
+found him there and made use of him. But when the court proceedings came
+on, Pond was merely used by the prosecution as a witness. His
+harmlessness was too apparent for the court to doubt him.
+
+That particular day had to be a day of rest for Ruth and her friends, for
+they had had no sleep the night before. But while they slept Mr.
+Hammond's representative went in search of Totantora and Wonota and the
+two Osage Indians were brought back to the moving picture camp before
+night.
+
+The work of making the last scenes of "The Long Lane's Turning" was taken
+up at once, and until the last scene was taken Ruth and her associates
+were very busy indeed. The Cameron twins spent most of the ensuing time
+with the Copleys and the other summer visitors. And it was noticeable
+that Helen was attended by Chess Copley almost everywhere she went.
+
+Tom saw this with some wonder; but he found very little opportunity to
+talk to Ruth about it. And when he tried to question Helen regarding her
+change toward Chess, she quite ignored the subject.
+
+"Looks to me," Tom said to himself, "as though I was shut out in the
+cold. I wish I hadn't come up here. I might as well be slaving in that
+old office. Gee, I'm an unlucky dog!"
+
+For Tom, no more than Helen, could not see that Ruth's attitude toward
+the matter of strenuous occupation for a wealthy young man was a fair
+one. Tom certainly had none of Uncle Jabez Potter's blood in his veins.
+
+The big scene at the end of the picture--the throne room of the French
+king--was as carefully made as the other parts of the picture had been.
+And because of Ruth's coaching Wonota did her part so well that Mr.
+Hooley was enthusiastic--and to raise enthusiasm in the bosom of a
+case-hardened director is no small matter.
+
+"The Boss is rather sore on the whole business," Hooley said to Ruth. "It
+has been an expensive picture, I admit. We have gone away over the studio
+estimate.
+
+"But that is not my fault, nor your fault, nor the Indian girl's fault.
+Mr. Hammond is not to be blamed either, I suppose, for feeling worried.
+The motion picture business is getting to that stage now where lavish
+expenditure must be curtailed. I fancy Mr. Hammond will make only
+five-reel program pictures for some time. And where will your big feature
+pictures come in, Miss Fielding?"
+
+"The program pictures are sure-fire, I suppose," the girl admitted. "But
+it doesn't take much of a story to make those. Nor does it give the stars
+as good a chance."
+
+"Well, lean years may be coming. We shall all have to draw in our horns.
+Remember me, Miss Fielding, if you decide to produce with some other
+firm. I like to work with you, and I have a more or less elastic contract
+with the Alectrion Corporation."
+
+Ruth actually did have an idea for the future. It was in embryo as yet.
+But, as will be seen in the next volume of this series, entitled, "Ruth
+Fielding Treasure Hunting; Or, A Moving Picture that Became Real," it led
+the girl of the Red Mill into new fields and drew her and her friends
+into new adventures.
+
+The last scene being completed, Ruth and Helen packed their trunks. But
+Helen was to ship hers to the Copley's island up the river, where she
+would stay for a week or so before returning to Cheslow. Ruth was going
+back to the Red Mill, and after that she was not sure of her movements.
+
+Tom would accompany her home. She was glad of this, for she knew that,
+once at home, he must of necessity take up his work again with his
+father. Tom Cameron, however, confessed that he "hated" the dry goods
+business.
+
+Chess Copley showed his appreciation of Ruth's kindness and friendship in
+a very pretty way indeed. He came to her secretly with a jeweler's box in
+his hand.
+
+"You know, Ruth, you have been just like a sister to me since you have
+been up here. I think as much of you as I do of Sara and Jean--I declare
+I do! And I know Helen--or--or anybody, won't mind if you wear this
+little trinket. When you wear it remember you've got a good friend whose
+initials are engraved on the inside."
+
+Ruth accepted the present frankly, for she liked Chess. But she did not
+know how beautiful the bracelet was until after Copley had disappeared in
+his _Lauriette_. It was more costly than Ruth thought a present from that
+source should be.
+
+So, rather doubtful, she said nothing to Tom Cameron about the bracelet,
+although she wore it. She knew that she would have refused such a present
+from Tom himself. But, then--there was a difference!
+
+She did not intend to be rushed into any agreement with Tom Cameron that
+would at all interfere with her freedom. She still had her career in
+mind.
+
+They got back to Cheslow early in July. And how glad Aunt Alvirah was to
+see her pretty. As for Uncle Jabez, his interest was in the commercial
+end of the picture Ruth had made.
+
+Was it going to make money when it was distributed? How much money had
+Ruth already drawn in advance royalties? And a multitude of other
+questions of that character came from the old miller's lips.
+
+"And when do you begin on another of them pictures, Niece Ruth?" he
+added. "You ain't going to stop now, when there is so much to be made in
+'em?"
+
+"I do not know exactly what I shall do next," she told him, shaking her
+head. "But I think I shall try to make my next picture under different
+circumstances. But as I don't really know, how can I tell you?"
+
+"Never mind, my pretty," put in Aunt Alvirah, "you are here with us now,
+and that means a lot. You certainly deserve a rest," and the old woman
+placed an affectionate hand on Ruth's shoulder.
+
+At this the girl of the Red Mill smiled.
+
+"Maybe I do," she replied, "after all those strenuous happenings on the
+St. Lawrence."
+
+THE END
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
+    or Jasper Parole's Secret
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOODHALL
+    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 Days 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
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
+    or Doing Her Bit for Uncle Sam
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
+    or The Hunt for a Lost Soldier
+
+RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
+    or A Red Cross Worker's Ocean Perils
+
+RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
+    or The Hermit of Beach Plum Point
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
+    or The Indian Girl Star of the Movies
+
+RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
+    or The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands
+
+RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING
+    or A Moving Picture that Became Real
+
+RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH
+    or The Lost Motion Picture Company
+
+RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS
+    or The Perils of an Artificial Avalanche
+
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers        New York
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE BETTY GORDON SERIES
+By ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+Author of the Famous "Ruth Fielding" Series
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors
+Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid
+
+A series of stories by Alice B. Emerson which are bound to make this
+writer more popular than ever with her host of girl readers.
+
+1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM
+    or The Mystery of a Nobody
+
+At the age of twelve Betty is left an orphan.
+
+2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON
+    or Strange Adventures in a Great City
+
+In this volume 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 to-day.
+
+4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL
+    or The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+Seeking the treasure of Indian Chasm makes an exceedingly interesting
+incident.
+
+5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP
+    or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne
+
+At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery involving
+a girl whom she had previously met in Washington.
+
+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 make a
+fascinating story.
+
+8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH
+    or Cowboy Joe's Secret
+
+Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers        New York
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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.
+
+2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL
+    or Leading a Needed Rebellion
+
+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! The girls wired for the head
+to come back--and all ended happily.
+
+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. They could tell nothing of themselves, and Billie and her chums
+set to work to solve the mystery of their identity.
+
+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
+have 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.
+Billie befriended Hulda and the mystery surrounding the girl was finally
+cleared up.
+
+Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue
+CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, Publishers        New York
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence, by
+Alice B. Emerson
+
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