Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

286 D4NGER IN THE DARK.
" We will want a large vehicle - something anei
the style of an omnibus, perhaps - and four good
horses to draw it; beside, we must have two or three
saddle-horses, for change and variety; a pack of
hounds; several guns, pistols, cooking-utensils, provisions;
a movable canvas tent, blankets, traveling
apparel, etc."
So the whole plan was agreed upon in the same
hour that the novel adventure was first suggested.
Preparations were accordingly made. The persons
whose names have already been mentioned formed
the party; and in less than a fortnight from the evening
on which Anna proposed the excursion, all things
were in readiness, and the romantic expedition com- '
menced. In great glee, and overflowing with hilarity,
the party set out from the Queen City on the first of
September, an autumnal-looking day, the redness of
the sun and smokin~ss of the atmosphere indicating
the setting in of an Indian summer.
As it is intended to note only the leading incidents
and most prominent events of the excursion, we will
pass over several days' travel, till we come to where
the tourists take their first view of the Grand Prairie,
and make a descent upon an arm of it from Pine
Ridge, in the north-western part of Indiana.
'T was a lovely morning; the golden sun had risen
in a cloudless sky; the party had pitched their tent
the night previous in a pine-wood, about an hour's
ride from the edge of the prairie. Having breakfasted
at dawn of day, they were upon th« travel by