RANCH***


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THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH

Or

Great Days Among the Cowboys

by

LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "The Moving Picture Girls," "The Moving Picture
Girls Under the Palms," "The Outdoor Girls
Series," "The Bobbsey Twins Series," Etc.

Illustrated







The Goldsmith Publishing Co.
Cleveland
Made in U. S. A.

Copyright, 1914, by
Grosset & Dunlap

Press of
The Commercial Bookbinding Co.
Cleveland



[Illustration: "WE ARE HEMMED IN BY THE PRAIRIE FIRE!" _Moving Picture
Girls at Rocky Ranch._--_Page 192._]




CONTENTS


          CHAPTER                     PAGE

              I THE SPY                 1

             II WESTERN PLANS          13

            III A DARING FEAT          23

             IV A CLOUD OF SMOKE       32

              V A MIX-UP               42

             VI THE AUTO SMASH         49

            VII OFF FOR THE WEST       56

           VIII THE OIL WELL           66

             IX THE RIVALS             72

              X THE CYCLONE            78

             XI AT ROCKY RANCH         90

            XII SUSPICIONS             96

           XIII AT THE BRANDING       109

            XIV A WARNING             117

             XV THE INDIAN RITES      125

            XVI PRISONERS             134

           XVII THE RESCUE            143

          XVIII A RUSH OF STEERS      156

            XIX TOO MUCH REALISM      163

             XX IN THE OPEN           168

            XXI THE BURNING GRASS     178

           XXII HEMMED IN             186

          XXIII THE ESCAPE            193

           XXIV A DISCLOSURE          201

            XXV THE ROUND-UP          208




THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS
AT ROCKY RANCH




CHAPTER I

THE SPY


"Well, Ruth, aren't you almost ready?"

"Just a moment, Alice. I can't seem to get my collar fastened in the
back. I wish I'd used the old-fashioned hooks and eyes instead of those
new snaps."

"Oh, I think those snaps are just adorable!"

"Oh, Alice DeVere! Using such an extreme expression!"

"What expression, Ruth?"

"'Adorable!' You sometimes accuse me of using slang, and there you
go----"

"'Adorable' isn't slang," retorted Alice.

"Oh, isn't it though? Since when?"

"There you go yourself! You're as bad as I am."

"Well, it must be associating with you, then," sighed Ruth.

"No, Ruth, it's this moving picture business. It just makes you use
words that _mean_ something, and not those that are merely sign-posts.
I'm glad to see that you are getting--sensible. But never mind about
that. Are you ready to go to the studio? I'm sure we'll be late."

"Oh, please help me with this collar. I wish I'd made this waist with
the new low-cut effect. Not too low, of course," Ruth added hastily, as
she caught a surprised glance from her sister.

Two girls were in a room about which were strewn many articles of
feminine adornment. Yet it was not an untidy apartment. True, dresser
drawers did yawn and disclose their contents, and closet doors gaped at
one, showing a collection of shoes and skirts. But then the occupants of
the room might have been forgiven, for they were in haste to keep an
appointment.

"There, Ruth," finally exclaimed the younger of the two girls--yet she
was not so much younger--not more than two years. "I think your collar
is perfectly sweet."

"It's good of you to say so. You know I got it at that little French
shop around the corner, but sewed some of that Mexican drawn lace on to
make it a bit higher. Now I'm sorry I did, for I had to put in those
snap fasteners instead of hooks. And if you don't get them to fit
exactly they come loose. It's like when the film doesn't come right on
the screen, and the piano player sounds a discord to call the
operator's attention to it."

"You've hit it, sister mine."

"Oh, Alice! There you go again. 'Hit it!'"

"You'd say 'hit it' at a baseball game," Alice retorted.

"Oh, yes, I suppose so. But we're not at one," objected the older girl,
as she finished buttoning her gloves, and took up her parasol, which she
shook out, to make sure that it would open easily when needed.

"There, I think I'm ready," announced Alice, as she slipped on a light
jacket, for, though it was spring, the two rivers of New York sent
rather chilling breezes across the city, and a light waist was rather
conducive to colds.

"Have you the key?" asked the older girl, as she paused for a moment on
the threshold of the private hall of the apartment house. She had tied
her veil rather tightly at the back, knotting it and fastening it with a
little gold pin, and now she pulled it away from her cheeks, to relieve
the tension.

"Yes, I have it, Ruth. Oh, don't make such funny faces! Anyone would
think you were posing."

"Well, I'm not--but this veil--tickles."

"Serves you right for trying to be so stylish."

"It's proper to have a certain amount of style, Alice, dear. I wish I
could induce you to have more of it."

"I have enough, thank you. Let's don't talk dress any more, or we'll
have a tiff before we get to the moving picture studio, and there are
some long and trying scenes ahead of us to-day."

"So there are. I wonder if daddy took his key?"

"Wait, and I'll look on his dresser."

The younger girl went back into the apartment for a moment, while her
sister stepped across the corridor and tapped lightly at an opposite
door.

"Has Russ gone?" she asked the pleasant-faced woman who answered.

"Yes, Ruth. A little while ago. He was going to call for you girls, but
I knew you were dressing, for Alice came in to borrow some pins, so I
told him not to wait."

"That's right. We'll see him at the studio."

"You're coming in to supper to-night, you know."

"Oh, yes, Mrs. Dalwood. Daddy wouldn't miss that for anything!" laughed
Ruth, as she turned to wait for her sister. "Of course he _says_ our
cooking is the best he ever had since poor mamma left us," Ruth went
on, "but I just _know_ he relishes yours a great deal more."

"Oh, you're just saying that, Ruth!" objected the neighbor.

"Indeed I'm not. You should hear him talk, for days afterward, about
your clam chowder." She laughed genially.

"Well, he does seem to relish that," admitted Mrs. Dalwood.

"What's that?" asked Alice, as she came out.

"We're speaking of clam chowder, and how fond daddy is of Mrs. Dalwood's
recipe," said Ruth.

"Oh, yes, indeed! I should think he'd be ashamed to look a clam in the
face--that is, if a clam _has_ a face," laughed Alice. "It's awfully
good of you, Mrs. Dalwood, to make it for him so often."

"Well, I'm always glad when a man enjoys his meals," declared Mrs.
Dalwood, who, being a widow, knew what the lack of proper home life
meant.

"I'm afraid we're imposing on you," suggested Alice, as she started down
the stairs. "You have us over to tea so often, and we seldom invite
you."

"Now don't be thinking that, my dear!" exclaimed the neighbor. "I know
what it is when you have to pose so much for moving pictures.

"My boy Russ tells me what long hours you put in, and how hard you work.
And it's trouble enough to get up a meal these days, and have anything
left to pay the rent. So I'm only too glad when you can come in and
enjoy the victuals with us. I cook too much anyhow, and of late Russ
seems to have lost his appetite."

"I fancy I know why," laughed Alice, with a roguish glance at her
sister.

"Alice!" protested Ruth, in shocked tones. "Don't you dare----"

"I was only going to say that he has not seemed well since coming back
from Florida--what was the harm in that?" Alice wanted to know.

"Oh!" murmured Ruth. "Do come on," she added, as if she feared her
fun-loving sister might say something embarrassing.

"Russ will be better soon, Mrs. Dalwood," Alice called as she and her
sister went down the stairway of the apartment house.

"What makes you think so?" asked his mother. "Not but what I'm glad to
hear you say that, for really he hasn't eaten at all well lately."

"We're going on the road again, I hear," went on Alice. "The whole
moving picture company is to be taken off somewhere, and a lot of films
made. Russ always likes that, and I'm sure his appetite will come back
as soon as we start traveling. It always does."

"You are getting to be a close observer," remarked Ruth, with just the
hint of sarcasm in her voice. "Oh, Alice, do finish buttoning your
gloves in the house!" she exclaimed. "It looks so careless to go out
fussing with them."

"All right, sister mine. Anything to keep peace in the family!" laughed
the younger girl.

Together they went down the street, a charming picture of youth and
happiness.

A little later they entered the studio of the Comet Film Company, a
concern engaged in the business of making moving pictures, from posing
them with actors and actresses, and the suitable "properties," to the
leasing of the completed films to the various theaters throughout the
country.

Alice and Ruth DeVere, of whom you will hear more later, with their
father, were engaged in this work, and very interesting and profitable
they found it.

As the girls entered the studio they were greeted by a number of other
players, and an elderly gentleman, with a bearing and carriage that
revealed the schooling of many years behind the footlights, came
forward.

"I was just wondering where you were," he said with a smile. His voice
was husky and hoarse, and indicated that he had some throat affection.
In fact, that same throat trouble was the cause of Hosmer DeVere being
in moving picture work instead of in the legitimate drama, in which he
had formerly been a leading player.

"We stopped a moment to speak to Mrs. Dalwood," explained Ruth.

"Clam chowder," added Alice, with a laugh. "She's going to have it this
evening, Daddy."

"Good!" he exclaimed, rubbing his hands together in a manner that
indicated gratification. "I was just hungry for some."

"You always seem able to eat that," laughed Alice. "I must learn how to
make it."

"I wish you would!" exclaimed her father, earnestly. "Then when we are
on the road I can have some, now and then."

"Oh, you are hopeless!" laughed Alice. "Here is your latch-key, Daddy