Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill

or

Jasper Parloe's Secret

by Alice B. Emerson, 1913


CHAPTER I

THE RED FLAME IN THE NIGHT

The sound of the drumming wheels! It had roared in the ears of Ruth
Fielding for hours as she sat on the comfortably upholstered seat in
the last car of the afternoon Limited, the train whirling her from the
West to the East, through the fertile valleys of Upper New York State.

This had been a very long journey for the girl, but Ruth knew that it
would soon come to an end. Cheslow was not many miles ahead now; she
had searched it out upon the railroad timetable, and upon the map
printed on the back of the sheet; and as the stations flew by, she had
spelled their names out with her quick eyes, until dusk had fallen and
she could no longer see more than the signal lamps and switch targets
as the train whirled her on.

But she still stared through the window. This last car of the train
was fairly well filled, but she had been fortunate in having a seat
all to herself; she was glad this was so, for a person in the seat
with her might have discovered how hard it was for her to keep back