Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures | Page 4

directly along the verge of the river bank. The
picture-play actors scattered as he bore down upon them. It gave Tom,
as well as the girls, considerable satisfaction to see the director, Grimes,
jump out of the way of the rapidly moving car.
The friends in the car saw the actress, whom Grimes had called both
"Hazel" and "Miss Gray," swirled far out from the shore; but they knew
the current or an eddy would bring her back. She sank once; but she
came up again and fought the current like the plucky girl she was.
"Oh, Helen! she's wonderful!" gasped Ruth, with clasped hands, as she
watched this fight for life which was more thrilling than anything she
had ever seen reproduced on the screen.
Helen was too frightened to reply; but Ruth Fielding often before had

shown remarkable courage and self-possession in times of emergency.
No more than the excited Tom did she lose her head on this occasion.
As has been previously told, Ruth had come to the banks of the
Lumano River and to her Uncle Jabez Potter's Red Mill some years
before, when she was a small girl. She was an orphan, and the crabbed
and miserly miller was her single living relative.
The first volume of the series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill,"
tells of the incidents which follow Ruth's coming to reside with her
uncle, and with Aunt Alvirah Boggs, who was "everybody's aunt" but
nobody's relative.
The first and closest friends of her own age that Ruth made in her new
home were Helen and Tom Cameron, twin children of a wealthy
merchant whose all-year home was not far from the Red Mill. With
Helen and Mercy Curtis, a lame girl, Ruth is sent to Briarwood Hall, a
delightfully situated boarding school at some distance from the girls'
homes, and there, in the second volume of the series, Ruth is
introduced to new scenes, some new friends and a few enemies; but
altogether has a delightful time.
Ensuing volumes tell of Ruth and her chums' adventures at Snow Camp;
at Lighthouse Point; on Silver Ranch, in Montana; on Cliff Island,
where occur a number of remarkable winter incidents; at Sunset Farm
during the previous summer; and finally, in the eighth volume, the one
immediately preceding this present story, Ruth achieves something that
she has long, long desired.
This last volume, called "Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies; Or, The
Missing Pearl Necklace," tells of an automobile trip which Ruth and
her present companions, Helen and Tom Cameron, took through the
hills some distance beyond the Red Mill and Cheslow, their home
town.
They fall into the hands of Gypsies and the two girls are actually held
captive by the old and vindictive Gypsy Queen. Through Ruth's
bravery Helen escapes and takes the news of the capture back to Tom.

Later the grandson of the old Gypsy Queen releases Ruth.
While at the camp Ruth sees a wonderful pearl necklace in the hands of
the covetous old Queen Zelaya. Later, when the girls return to
Briarwood, they learn that an aunt of one of their friends, Nettie
Parsons, has been robbed of just such a necklace.
Ruth, through Mr. Cameron, puts the police on the trail of the Gypsies.
The Gypsy boy, Roberto, is rescued and in time becomes a protégé of
Mr. Cameron, while the stolen necklace is recovered from the Gypsy
Queen, who is deported by the Washington authorities.
In the end, the five thousand dollars reward offered by Nettie's aunt
comes to Ruth. She is enriched beyond her wildest dreams, and above
all, is made independent of the niggardly charity of her Uncle Jabez
who seems to love his money more than he does his niece.
Unselfishness was Ruth's chief virtue, though she had many. She could
never refuse a helping hand to the needy; nor did she fear to risk her
own convenience, sometimes even her own safety, to relieve or rescue
another.
In the present case, none knew better than Ruth the treacherous currents
of the Lumano. It had not been so many months since she and her uncle,
Jabez Potter, out upon the Lumano in a boat, had nearly lost their lives.
This present accident, that to the young moving-picture actress, was at
a point some distance above the Red Mill.
"If she is carried down two hundred yards farther, Tom, she will be
swept out into mid-stream," declared Ruth, still master of herself,
though her voice was shaking.
"And then--good-night!" answered Tom. "I know what you mean,
Ruth."
"She will sink for the last time before the current sweeps her in near the
shore again," Ruth added.

"Oh, don't!" groaned Helen. "The poor girl."
Tom had driven the automobile until it was ahead of the struggling
Hazel Gray.