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
.la begin
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