Read Ebook: Ruth Fielding in Alaska by Emerson Alice B

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Ebook has 1346 lines and 45325 words, and 27 pages

RUTH FIELDING IN ALASKA

THE THREAT

"The contents of the missive appear to worry you, Ruth, my love. If that scowl should freeze on your face, your beauty would be marred forever."

Stretched full length on the grass beneath a tree whose branches spread a grateful shade, Helen Cameron regarded her friend with an amused and interested smile. As the latter appeared not to notice her sally, she tried again.

"Can't you tell me what dreadful news the letter contains?"

Ruth Fielding thus questioned, looked up slowly and sighed. She gestured with the hand that held her letter.

"It's from that horrid Bloomberg, Helen," she said.

"Sol Bloomberg!" Immediately interested, Helen sat up with a jerk and hugged her knees, gazing expectantly at her chum. "Don't tell me he, too, has fallen a victim to your charms, Ruthie Fielding!"

"Don't be silly." Ruth spoke in a vague, preoccupied voice. "As a matter of fact," she added ruefully, "I imagine whatever feeling Sol Bloomberg has for me is far from a tender one."

"Then, what on earth is he writing to you about?" Helen was genuinely curious. "You aren't thinking of entering into a business deal with him, are you?"

Ruth chuckled.

"That hard-boiled cheat?" suggested Helen amiably.

"And then some!" murmured Helen irrepressibly.

"Do you know what he says in this letter?"

"I've been trying for some time to find out."

"He threatens me!" Ruth, sitting cross-legged on the ground, waved the offending letter for further emphasis. "He actually has the nerve to threaten me!"

"So you said before."

"I'm not, Ruthie darling. Honest, I'm not. I'm only furiously interested. What is our old friend Sol threatening you for?"

"Spite mostly, I suppose," returned Ruth, relapsing once more into her thoughtful mood. "He wants to frighten me and spoil my pleasure in the new picture that we filmed at Golden Pass."

"I hear he has been practically run out of the pictures," observed Helen, absently chewing on a bit of grass.

Ruth nodded.

"And of course he blames that all on me."

"But how can he?" Helen swept back her pretty hair in a puzzled gesture. "Surely all his troubles have been caused by his own cheating and double-dealing."

"And you fooled him by taking the lead yourself and making a better leading lady than Viola Callahan ever could," chuckled Helen.

Ruth tried to bow, which in her cross-legged position was rather a hard thing to do. Then she frowned and fell silent while she reviewed the details of her quarrel with Bloomberg.

It all began when she engaged Layton Boardman, an ex-star of Bloomberg's, to play the lead in her new Western picture. Though Bloomberg and Boardman had quarreled, Bloomberg really wanted to renew the actor's contract, though at a salary that no actor of Boardman's reputation would care to accept.

When the Fielding Film Company signed up Bloomberg's ex-star at a good salary, the producer was furious. In retaliation he later tempted Viola Callahan, Ruth's leading lady, to come over to him at a time when Miss Callahan's desertion would almost certainly ruin Ruth's picture.

The fact that Ruth's picture was not ruined and to avert the catastrophe she had taken the lead herself--and successfully--had only served to increase Bloomberg's dislike of her.

Bloomberg's own picture, featuring Viola Callahan, was a failure. This, coupled with the unsavory story of his treachery to the Fielding Film Company, Ruth's producing company, served to ruin what shreds of fortune and reputation he had and practically forced him out of the producing end of the business.

Ruth supposed, ruefully, that Bloomberg blamed all his misfortunes upon her because she had dared to sign up Layton Boardman when the latter was not under contract to Bloomberg or any one else and was absolutely free to accept any offer that was made him.

"I observed," drawled Helen, after a considerable silence, "that you made a love of a leading lady, Ruthie."

"Broke his professional neck," finished Helen. "I wish it had been his real one!" she added, with a fierce look that brought a laugh from Ruth.

"You are getting quite bloodthirsty, Helen Cameron," she said. "But at the risk of appearing bloodthirsty myself, I don't mind saying that I wish that something not too dreadful would befall our rascally friend; enough, at any rate, to remove him gently from my life at present. I have quite enough problems to face without worrying about Sol Bloomberg!"

"Don't let it bother you, honey," said Helen, stretching out lazily again upon the soft grass. "Just how does he threaten you?" she added, with a gesture toward the crumpled letter in Ruth's hand.

"He says he may bring suit against me," Ruth replied.

"Humph! For what?" Helen retorted. "If anybody ought to bring suit, it's you, Ruthie. The man must be crazy."

"I believe he is--with fury," said Ruth thoughtfully. "It's natural for a man down and out, as Bloomberg is, to rail at the successful, and in this case he chooses me to vent his spite on."

"Well, I certainly wouldn't lie awake nights worrying about him," counseled Helen. "What could a failure like Bloomberg do to you whose reputation is so well established?"

"I don't know," said Ruth, playing absently with the letter. "But this much I can see. I have made a bitter, vindictive enemy of this man, and I feel that he will leave no stone unturned to do me an injury. Anyway," she added, in a lighter tone, "I don't intend to worry until I have something more substantial to go on than this letter. It would be a shame to spoil a day like this--and our ride."

"Looks as if we weren't going to get a ride," grumbled Helen. She propped herself up on one elbow and scanned the dusty road that wound along near the Red Mill. "We appear to be forgotten, Ruth Fielding. Jilted!"

"Not as bad as that, I guess," laughed Ruth. "It really is barely time for the boys, you know."

Tom Cameron, Helen's twin brother, and Chess Copley, Helen's fianc?, had suggested an auto ride to the two girls. Since the day was sultry and hot, the girls had readily accepted the invitation.

Helen had lunched with Ruth, and now the chums had repaired to the shaded grounds about the old house to await the arrival of the boys.

Ruth had decided to peruse her morning mail, and among the letters had found the annoying one from Sol Bloomberg.

The letter reminded the girls forcibly of Ruth's last venture in motion picture-making in which the latter had forced her way to success despite the machinations of this same Bloomberg, and in so doing had made of the unsuccessful producer a bitter and revengeful enemy.

Now she tore the paper into tiny bits and with a challenging little flirt of her fingers scattered the pieces to the four winds. This accomplished, Ruth felt better, as though, in the act of tearing up the letter, she had destroyed the potency of Bloomberg's threat as well.

But Sol Bloomberg was not a scrap of paper to be so easily disposed of. His enmity was something to be reckoned with, as Ruth was to learn full well and to her cost in the days to follow.

But now, as Helen called out that the boys were coming, Ruth put all premonition of trouble from her mind. For that afternoon at least, she was determined to leave "shop" behind her.

Tom Cameron had no sooner stepped from the car than she saw there was some news of an important nature for her. He came to her directly and held out a yellow envelope.

"Telegram," he said laconically. "They were just sending it out from the office when I came along and thought I'd save them the trouble."

"Thanks, Tom," and then with a whimsical glance at Helen: "I wonder if this is another message from Bloomberg!"

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