The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Film of Fear, by Arnold Fredericks

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Title: The Film of Fear

Author: Arnold Fredericks

Illustrator: Will Foster

Release Date: July 23, 2009 [EBook #29498]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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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