Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island

Fielding on Cliff Island, by Alice Emerson

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Title: Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island The Old Hunter's Treasure Box
Author: Alice Emerson
Release Date: January 7, 2005 [EBook #14630] [Date last updated: January 15, 2005]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Ruth Fielding
On Cliff Island
OR
THE OLD HUNTER'S TREASURE BOX
BY
ALICE B. EMERSON
AUTHOR OF "RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL," "RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
=Books for Girls=
BY ALICE B. EMERSON
RUTH FIELDING SERIES
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.
RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.
RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL 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.
CUPPLES & LEON CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
[Illustration: SHE SHOT OVER THE YAWNING EDGE OF THE CHASM AND DISAPPEARED]
CONTENTS
I. THE WRECK AT APPLEGATE CROSSING 1
II. THE PANTHER AT LARGE 9
III. UNCLE JABEZ HAS TWO OPINIONS 17
IV. ON THE WAY TO BRIARWOOD 26
V. A LONG LOOK AHEAD 35
VI. PICKING UP THE THREADS 42
VII. "A HARD ROW TO HOE" 49
VIII. JERRY SHEMING AGAIN 57
IX. RUTH'S LITTLE PLOT 66
X. AN EXCITING FINISH 73
XI. A NUMBER OF THINGS 82
XII. RUFUS BLENT'S LITTLE WAYS 90
XIII. FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE 98
XIV. THE HUE AND CRY 106
XV. OVER THE PRECIPICE 115
XVI. HIDE AND SEEK 124
XVII. CHRISTMAS MORNING 133
XVIII. FUN ON THE ICE 143
XIX. BLENT IS MASTER 150
XX. THE FISHING PARTY 157
XXI. JERRY'S CAVE 166
XXII. SNOWED IN 173
XXIII. "A BLOW FOR LIBERTY" 181
XXIV. A MIDNIGHT MARAUDER 189
XXV. THE TREASURE BOX 197

RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
CHAPTER I
THE WRECK AT APPLEGATE CROSSING
A September morning has dawned, with only a vague tang of autumn in the air. In the green old dooryard at the Red Mill, under the spreading shade trees, two girls are shelling a great basket of dried lima beans for the winter's store.
The smaller, black-haired girl begins the conversation.
"Suppose Jane Ann doesn't come, Ruth?"
"You mean on this morning train?" responded the plumper and more mature-looking girl, whose frank face was particularly attractive.
"Yes."
"Then Tom said he would go back to meet the evening train--and we'll go with him," said Ruth Fielding, with a smile. "But I could not go this morning and leave poor Aunt Alvirah all these beans to shell."
"Of course not," agreed her friend, promptly. "And Jane Ann won't feel offended by our not meeting her at Cheslow, I know."
"No, indeed, Helen," laughed Ruth. "Jane Ann Hicks is altogether too sensible a girl."
"Sensible about everything but her name," commented Helen Cameron, making a little face.
"And one can scarcely blame her. It is ugly," Ruth responded, with a sigh. "Jane Ann Hicks! Dear, dear! how could her Uncle Bill be so thoughtless as to name her that, when she was left, helpless, to his care?"
"He didn't realize that fashions in names change--like everything else," observed Helen, briskly.
"I wonder what the girls at Briarwood will say to that name," Ruth pondered.
"Why The Fox and Heavy will help us make the other girls toe the mark. And Madge Steele! She's a regiment in herself," declared Helen. "We all had such a fine time at Silver Ranch that the least we can do is to see that Jane Ann is not hazed like the other infants."
"I expect we all have to stand our share of hazing when we go into fresh company," said Ruth, reflectively. "But there will not be the same crowd to meet her that met us, dear."
"And the Sweetbriars will be on hand to preserve order," laughed her chum. "Thanks to you, Ruthie. Why--oh! see Tom!"
She jumped up, dropping a lapful of pods, and pointed up the Cheslow road, which here branched from the river road almost opposite the Red Mill.
"What is the matter?" demanded Ruth, also scrambling to her feet.
A big touring car was approaching at top speed. They could see that the only person in it was a black-haired boy, who sat at the steering wheel.
He brought the machine to an abrupt stop before the gate, and leaped out. Tearing off his goggles as he ran, he approached the two girls in such a state of excitement that he could scarce speak