Ruth Fielding in Alaska

Despite the fact that she went to bed in a mood of exhilaration and full of eager anticipation for the start of the trip, Ruth had an exceedingly bad night.

She dreamed of Sol Bloomberg all during those hours when she should have been gathering strength for the struggle to come.

She woke at last, heavy-eyed and headachy and with a sense of depression that even the bright sunlight of a glorious morning did little to dispel.

Uncle Jabez was in an unusually crabbed mood and inclined to complain about everything, from the golden eggs, each surrounded by a tempting little island of white, to the aromatic cup of strong coffee.

It was perhaps her efforts to soothe the cranky old man and so make things easier for Aunt Alvirah that dissipated Ruth’s own blue feelings.

At any rate, by the end of breakfast she was all on fire with enthusiasm again and impatiently eager for the sound of Tom’s motor horn.

The sound of the motor horn came just as she was hugging Aunt Alvirah for perhaps the hundredth time and promising her all over again that she would take care of herself and not get killed in a train wreck or fall overboard from a steamer.

With a little cry of excitement Ruth reached for her hat and bag. She was just cramming the former over her dark hair and had reached for the latter when Tom flung in at the door.

“Come on, Ruthie!” he cried. “Just time to make the train. Hullo, Uncle Jabez and good-bye. Aunt Alvirah, give me a kiss. Yes, I’ll take good care of Ruth. I will, on my sacred word of honor! And in addition I’ll see to it that she writes to you at least once a day, if not oftener. For that do I get an extra piece of pie when I come back?”

With such a flood of nonsense did Tom beguile the little old lady and eventually managed to turn the tears of parting into smiles. Then he and Ruth hurried to the car where Helen awaited them.

“Where’s Chess?” asked Ruth, noticing the absence of “Lasses.”

“We have to stop and pick him up,” Helen explained. “He wasn’t ready when we passed by before. Had to get his bag packed.”

“‘His bag packed,’” Ruth repeated, puzzled. “Why in the world would he have to pack his bag just to see you off?”

“Oh, I forgot you hadn’t heard the latest,” said Helen, with an innocent air. “Chess is going with us.”

“Going with us!” repeated Ruth helplessly. “Isn’t this sudden?”

“Well—er—yes,” agreed Helen, her eyes dancing. “But then you know Chess is like that—sort of sudden and unexpected. I think that’s why he manages to keep me interested most of the time.”

“Tom, won’t you please explain?” Ruth turned in desperation to the latter. “Helen is the most exasperating girl at times. When did Chess decide to go along with us? You didn’t say a word about it last night.”

“And for a very good reason,” said Tom, slowing to a stop before the Cheslow hotel. “When I got home from your house last night, Ruthie, I found Lasses still parked on the paternal doorstep. By the time I had succeeded in running him off the premises by the nape of his neck——”

“Oh, you did not!” Helen interrupted indignantly. “I’d like to see you!”

“By the time I had succeeded in kicking him out,” Tom went on imperturbably, “he and my kid sister——”

“Kid sister!” interjected Helen, still indignant. “When we are twins!”

“Had decided that Chess was to go along. Ah,” with a welcoming tooting of the horn, “if I am not very much mistaken, here comes our good old friend Lasses in the flesh.”

The fact of it was that there was a man in Seattle who Chess thought it would be good business to see personally. If he could win over this man, who was really quite a personage in the world of finance, to a favorable consideration of the business proposition Chess had to lay before him, the young fellow felt, and with justice, that the expenses of this trip and of many others like it would be more than offset by the making of this valuable new connection. Of course, there was no reason at all why Chess should go on to Alaska with his friends, except a natural desire to have one last holiday with Helen before they married and “settled down.”

Chess carried two suitcases which he declared would serve him bountifully on the trip.

“All I need is a change or two,” he declared optimistically, as he flung the grips into the tonneau, narrowly escaping Helen’s feet. “Plenty for an unpretentious young fellow like me!”

“You talk as if you were only crossing over the state line,” Helen retorted. “This is no overnight journey, I’ll have you know, Chess Copley. Seattle is many, many miles away from here.”

“To say nothing of the Yukon,” added Tom, as he swung the car about in the direction of the station.

“Fourteen days from Seattle to St. Michael,” chanted Helen, as though reciting a lesson. “And from there overland and by dog sled to the Yukon. Oh, Adventure, let me hasten to embrace thee before thou slippest from my grasp!”

“You’ve got your information mixed, Helen,” said her twin. “There won’t be any dog sled in this trip. We just keep right on steaming up the Yukon from St. Michael until we come to Knockout Point, which is the particular little jumping off place that’s been selected.”

“I hope there is a doctor on board,” said Chess, with a mock anxious glance at his fiancé. “Something tells me we may need his services!”

“Mighty glad you decided to go with us, Chess,” said Ruth, seeing a revengeful gleam in Helen’s eye and deciding to change the subject in a hurry. “I must admit the change in your plan is something of a shock—though of course a very joyful one.”

“Well for you that you added that postscript, woman,” laughed Chess. “You see, Ruthie, it’s this way. There is some important business to be attended to——”

“Up the Yukon?” asked Ruth, with a laugh.

“Up the Yukon, young lady, as well as in Seattle, though your very inflection is an insult,” returned the grinning Chess. “I was going to send some one else, and then I decided that this little matter called for really expert attention——”

“Ahem!” loudly from Helen.

“Had an awful time inventing this business in Alaska, didn’t you, Chess?” and Ruth’s eyes twinkled.

“And of course, under the circumstances, there was only one thing to do and that was to send myself to take care of the job. Simple, what?”

“Very!” said Ruth, with a smile. “And awfully pleasant. It will make our party quite complete!”

At that moment the auto turned into the street that led to the station and they saw the train bowling toward them.

“Just in time!” roared Chess. “Put on steam, old boy! We don’t want to be left waiting at the church!”

Tom brought the car to a standstill close to the platform and jumped out, leaving Chess to look after the girls and the luggage.

He rushed into the station and found the telegraph operator, who was an acquaintance of long standing.

“Say, do me a favor, Banks, old man, will you?” he cried. “Take the old bus back home when you go and leave it in the garage?”

“Sure,” answered Banks. “Gives me a ride free for nothing. Hurry up, my lad. There goes the whistle.”

Tom had just time to swing himself up the steps as the train began to move.

“Pretty close call,” he laughed, as he joined the others. “Got all your baggage and everything? All set?”

“All set for the Yukon!” cried Chess jubilantly. “Already I hear the call of the wild!”