



Produced by Cindy Horton, Suzanne Shell and the Online
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                                THE

                            FILM OF FEAR



                                BY

                         ARNOLD FREDERICKS



                            AUTHOR OF

                     THE IVORY SNUFF BOX, ETC.




                        WITH FRONTISPIECE BY

                            WILL FOSTER




                              NEW YORK

                          GROSSET & DUNLAP

                             PUBLISHERS

                        COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY

                        W. J. WATT & COMPANY




THE FILM OF FEAR




PART I




CHAPTER I


Ruth Morton finished her cup of coffee, brushed a microscopic crumb from
her embroidered silk kimono, pushed back her loosely arranged brown
hair, and resumed the task of opening her mail.

It was in truth a task, and one that consumed an inordinate amount of
her valuable time. And her time was extremely valuable. Computed upon
the basis of her weekly salary of one thousand dollars, it figured out
just $142.85 per day, or very nearly $6 per hour, or 10 cents per
minute, for each minute and hour of the twenty-four. As a motion picture
star, she had the satisfaction of knowing that she was paid a slightly
larger salary than had been, until recently, received by the President
of the United States.

The opening of the huge batch of letters that greeted her daily across
her dainty breakfast table was very much of a duty. It was not that she
felt any keen interest in the numberless notes from admirers, both male
and female, from Portland, Me., to Los Angeles, Cal., to say nothing of
South Bend, Opeloosa and Kicking Horse between. These might