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Ruth and Helen eagerly await the arrival of Jane Ann Hicks, who is to attend Briarwood Hall this year. The girls experience a great deal of worry when they learn that Jane's train has been wrecked. Jane is fine, but a boy named Jerry Sheming has been hurt. Jerry is taken to the Red Mill where Aunt Alvirah and Ruth care for him. Jerry reveals that he used to live on Cliff Island, but his uncle was cheated out of his land. His uncle lost his treasure box in a landslide, and with it, the papers needed to prove his claim to the island. Uncle Pete lost his mind and entered an insane asylum, and Jerry was forced to leave. Jerry hopes to someday find the treasure box and prove his uncle's claim. Ruth and her friends leave for Briarwood Hall, and Jerry stays behind at the Red Mill. The girls do their best to make Jane Ann fit in and try to keep her from being hazed as a new girl. Unfortunately, Jane Ann has much trouble fitting in with the other girls until she uses her lassoing technique in a rescue. Things gradually get better for Jane. She shot over the yawning edge of the chasm and disappeared. After a time, the girls are invited to Cliff Island for Christmas by Belle Tingley, whose father has purchased the island. Ruth is certain that Mr. Tingley did nothing to cheat Jerry's Uncle Pete, but the man who sold him the island must have cheated Jerry's uncle. Ruth sends word to Jerry to travel to the island and arranges for Mr. Tingley to give him a job. Later, Jerry is ordered arrested by the real estate man and is forced to hide in a cave. Ruth and her friends search the island for some sign of Uncle Pete's treasure chest. In time, the truth is discovered, Jerry is reunited with his uncle, and Ruth and her friends return home after a happy vacation.
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 coherently.
"Oh, Tom! what is it?" gasped Helen, seizing his arm with both hands.
It took but a single glance to discover the relationship between them. Twins never looked more alike-only Tom's features lacked the delicacy of outline which belonged to his sister.
"Tom!" cried Ruth, on the other side of the excited youth, "don't keep us on tenter-hooks. Surely nothing has happened to Jane Ann?"
"I don't know! They won't tell us much about it at the station," exclaimed the boy.
"There hasn't been a wreck?" demanded Ruth.
"Yes. At Applegate Crossing. And it is the train from the west that is in trouble with a freight. A rear-end collision, I understand."
"Suppose something has happened to the poor girl!" wailed Helen.
"We must go and see," declared Ruth, quick to decide in an emergency. "You must drive us, Tom."
"That's what I came back for," replied Tom Cameron, mopping his brow. "I couldn't get anything out of Mercy's father--"
"Of course not," Helen said, briskly, as Ruth ran to the house. "The railroad employes are forbidden to talk when there is an accident. Mr. Curtis might lose his job as station agent at Cheslow if he answered all queries."
Ruth came flying back from the house. She had merely called into the kitchen to Aunt Alvirah that they were off-and their destination. While Tom sprang in and manipulated the self-starter, his sister and the girl of the Red Mill took their seats in the tonneau.
By the time old Aunt Alvirah had hobbled to the porch, the automobile was being turned, and backed, and then it was off, up the river road. Uncle Jabez, in his dusty garments, appeared for a moment at the door of the mill as they flashed past in the big motor car. Evidently he was amazed to see the three-the girls hatless-starting off at such a pace in the Camerons' car.
Tom threw in the clutch at high speed and the car bounded over the road, gradually increasing its pace until the hum of the engine almost drowned out all speech. The girls asked no questions. They knew that, by following the river road along the placid Lumano for some distance, they could take a fork toward the railway and reach Applegate Crossing much quicker than by going through Cheslow.
Once Tom flung back a word or two over his shoulder. No relief train had gone from their home station to the scene of the wreck. It was understood that a wrecking gang, and doctors, and nurses, had started from the distant city before ever the Cheslow people learned of the trouble.
"Oh! if Jane Ann should be hurt!" murmured Helen for the twentieth time.
"Uncle Bill Hicks would be heartbroken," agreed Ruth.
Although the crossroad, when they struck into it at the Forks, was not so smooth and well-built as the river highway, Tom did not reduce speed. Mile after mile rolled away behind them. From a low ridge they caught a glimpse of the cut where the two trains had come together.
It was the old story of a freight being dilatory in getting out of a block that had been opened for the passage of an express. The express had run her nose into the caboose of the freight, and more harm was done to the freight than to the passenger cars. A great crowd, however, had gathered about.
Tom ran the car into an open lot beside the tracks, where part of the railroad fence had been torn away. Two passenger cars were on their sides, and one or two of the box cars had burst open.
"Look at that!" gasped the boy, whose bright eyes took in much that the girls missed, for they were looking for Jane Ann Hicks. "That's a menagerie car-and it's all smashed. See! 'Rival's Circus & Menagerie.' Crickey! suppose some of the savage animals are loose!"
"Oh! don't suggest such a thing," begged his sister.
Tom saw an excited crowd of men near the broken cage cars of the traveling menagerie. Down in the gully that was here crossed by the narrow span of the railroad trestle, there was a thick jungle of saplings and brush out of which a few taller trees rose, their spreading limbs almost touching the sides of the ravine.
It must be confessed that the boy was drawn more toward this point of interest than toward the passenger train where Jane Ann might possibly be lying injured. But Ruth and Helen ran toward this latter spot, where the crowd of passengers was thickest.
Suddenly the crowd parted and the girls saw a figure lying on the ground, with a girl about their own age bending over it. Ruth screamed, "Jinny!" and at the sound of the pet name her uncle's cow punchers had given her, the girl from Silver Ranch responded with an echoing cry.
"Oh, Ruth! And Helen! I'm not hurt-only scratched. But this poor fellow--"
"Who is he?" demanded Helen Cameron, as she and Ruth arrived beside their friend.
The figure on the ground was a very young man-a boy, in fact. He was roughly dressed, and sturdily built. His eyes were closed and he was very pale.
"He got me out of the window when the car turned over," gasped Jane Ann. "Then he fell with me and has either broken his leg, or twisted it--"
"Only strained, Miss," spoke the victim of the accident, opening his eyes suddenly. Ruth saw that they were kind, brown eyes, with a deal of patience in their glance. He was not the sort of chap to make much of a trifle.
"But you can't walk on it," exclaimed Jane Ann, who was a large-framed girl with even blacker hair than Helen's-straight as an Indian's-and with flashing eyes. She was expensively dressed, although her torn frock and coat were not in very good taste. She showed plainly a lack of that motherly oversight all girls need.
"They'll come and fix me up after a time," said the strange youth, patiently.
"That won't do," declared Ruth, quickly. "I suppose the doctors are busy up there with other passengers?"
"Oh, yes," admitted Jane Ann. "Lots of people were hurt in the cars a good deal worse than Mr.-Mr.--?"
"My name's Jerry Sheming, Miss," said the youth. "Don't you worry about me."
"Here's Tom!" cried Helen. "Can't we lift him into the car? We'll run to Cheslow and let Dr. Davison look at his leg," she added.
Tom, understanding the difficulty at a glance, agreed. Between the four young folk they managed to carry Jerry Sheming to the car. They had scarcely got him into the tonneau when a series of yells arose from the crowd down near the derailed freight train.
"Look out! Take care of that panther! I told you she was out!" shouted one voice above the general uproar.
Ruth Fielding and her friends, startled indeed, ran to the brow of the hill. One of the wide-branched trees rose from the bottom of the ravine right below them. Along one of the branches lay a long, cat-like body.
"A black panther!" gasped Tom.
* * *
Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest by Alice B. Emerson
Alice B. Emerson was a pseudonym used by a number of writers hired by the conglomerate Stratemeyer Syndicat to make popular kids books, especially for young girls. These include the Beth Gordon and Ruth Fielding series.
Alice B. Emerson was a pseudonym used by a number of writers hired by the conglomerate Stratemeyer Syndicat to make popular kids books, especially for young girls. These include the Beth Gordon and Ruth Fielding series.
Ruth, Helen, and Tom watch a moving picture company film scenes near the Red Mill. As they watch, the starring actress, Hazel Gray, falls into the river and is swept downstream. Ruth and her friends rescue Miss Gray and take her to the Red Mill to recover. The next day, Ruth meets the producer, Mr. Hammond, who promises to read Ruth's scenario when she impulsively confides that she is planning to write one. Soon after the friends return to school, the East Dormitory burns and is a complete loss. All of the girls housed in that building, including Ruth and her friends, lose all of their possessions. It is soon learned that Dr. Tellingham allowed the insurance to lapse, and there is no money to rebuild the dormitory. In the meantime, Ruth submits her scenario to Mr. Hammond and is thrilled when he accepts it. After her scenario is accepted, Ruth gets a wonderful idea about how she can help the school raise money to rebuild the dormitory. In the Italian garden scenes, the seniors and juniors were used. Ruth calls a meeting of all of the students and suggests her idea of writing a moving picture scenario that will be filmed on the campus. The proceeds from the film would go towards rebuilding the dormitory. In this way, all of the girls would contribute to the fund, since they would be the extras in the film. This idea is met with enthusiasm, and Ruth soon gains Mr. Hammond's approval.
It was supposed to be a marriage of convenience, but Carrie made the mistake of falling in love with Kristopher. When the time came that she needed him the most, her husband was in the company of another woman. Enough was enough. Carrie chose to divorce Kristopher and move on with her life. Only when she left did Kristopher realize how important she was to him. In the face of his ex-wife’s countless admirers, Kristopher offered her 20 million dollars and proposed a new deal. “Let’s get married again.”
Madison had always believed that she would marry Colten. She spent her youth admiring him from afar, dreaming of their future life together. But Colten was always indifferent to her, and when he abandoned her at a time when she needed him most, she finally realized that he never loved her. With renewed resolve and a thirst for revenge, Madison left. Endless possibilities lay ahead, but Colten was no longer part of her plans. Colten rushed to her place in a panic. "Madison, please come back to me. I’ll give you everything!" It was his powerful uncle who answered the door. "She's my woman now."
Her fiance and her best friend worked together and set her up. She lost everything and died in the street. However, she was reborn. The moment she opened her eyes, her husband was trying to strangle her. Luckily, she survived that. She signed the divorce agreement without hesitation and was ready for her miserable life. To her surprise, her mother in this life left her a great deal of money. She turned the tables and avenged herself. Everything went well in her career and love when her ex-husband came to her.
After three secretive years of marriage, Eliana never met her enigmatic husband until she was served with divorce papers and learned of his extravagant pursuit of another. She snapped back to reality and secured a divorce. Thereafter, Eliana unveiled her various personas: an esteemed doctor, legendary secret agent, master hacker, celebrated designer, adept race car driver, and distinguished scientist. As her diverse talents became known, her ex-husband was consumed by remorse. Desperately, he pleaded, "Eliana, give me another chance! All my properties, even my life, are yours."
When Corynn mustered up the courage to tell Elliot about her pregnancy, she unexpectedly found him gallantly helping another woman from his car. Her heart sank as three years of effort to secure his love crumbled before her eyes, compelling her to leave him behind. Three years later, life had taken Corynn down a new path with someone else, while Elliot was left grappling with regret. Seizing a moment of vulnerability, he pleaded, "Corynn, let's get married." Shaking her head with a faint smile, Corynn gently replied, "Sorry, I'm already engaged."
"Who is she?" I asked, feeling tears well up in my eyes. "He met her at the Alpha training camp," he said. "She is a perfect suitor for him. It snowed last night, indicating that his wolf is happy with his choice." My heart sank, and tears made their way down my cheeks. Alexander took my innocence last night, and now he is taking that thing in his office as his Luna. **** Emily never shifted on her 18th birthday and became the laughingstock of the pack. When her old crush, Alexander Black, returns from Alpha Training, she never expected him to be her mate. After a night of passionate love, Emily finds out that young Alpha Alexander has taken a chosen mate. Heartbroken and humiliated, Emily runs off and disappears from the pack. Now, five years later, Emily is a high-ranking warrior in King Alpha's army, specializing in sensitive matters. When her best friend invites her to a night of music and laughter, she never expects to run into her mate, Alexander. Will Alexander figure out it is Emily? Will he chase after her, and most of all, will Emily be able to keep her secrets safe?