This statement of Ruth’s had an electric effect upon the little group of men in the office. Marcus Brun, Mr. Hammond’s technical director, leaned toward the girl with a gleam of genuine admiration in his eyes.
“You’ll find it anything but an easy job, Miss Fielding,” he said.
“I’m not looking for an easy job,” replied Ruth, turning to him quickly. “The harder they come, the better. And this—well, if I can help an old friend——” She paused and her eyes rested for a moment upon Mr. Hammond.
“It means a trip to Alaska, to the Yukon River,” said McCarty. “The contract calls for that. No faked-up stuff.”
“I understand—and the pictures will be taken on and around the Yukon,” answered Ruth firmly.
“It’s a long, hard trip.”
“Many things are hard in this business, Mr. McCarty.”
Mr. Hammond gazed at Ruth in intense admiration. He coughed, and cleared his throat twice before he could speak, then stretched his hand across the flat-topped desk.
“Ruth Fielding,” he said, “you’re square!”
It was a great moment for Ruth with all these important men of the motion-picture world paying her homage. As Tom looked at her and realized that this was Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill, the girl he had grown up with, his pride in her knew no bounds. He had a moment of wondering how he had ever found the courage to ask a girl like this to marry him and give up a profession in which she was making good so royally. It would be too bad to waste her talent; even Tom realized that.