“Oh! A surprise! I love surprises,” said Jennie Stone.
“I don’t. Not when my chum and my brother have a secret from me and won’t let me in on it,” and Helen turned her back upon them in apparent indignation.
After that Ruth and Tom discussed the matter with more secrecy. Ruth said in conclusion:
“If he was there at the mill the day my story was stolen, and now submits this scenario to Mr. Hammond—and it is merely a re-hash of mine, Tom, I assure you——”
“Of course I believe you, Ruth,” rejoined the young fellow.
“Mr. Hammond should be convinced, too,” said the girl.
But there was a point that Tom saw very clearly and which Ruth Fielding did not seem to appreciate. She still had no evidence to corroborate her claim that the hermit’s story of “Plain Mary” was plagiarized from her manuscript.
For, after all, nobody but Ruth herself knew what her scenario had been like!