Please see Transcriber's Notes at the end of this document.
“Not just yet; I ain’t quite ready!”—page 410.
THE GREAT DETECTIVE SERIES.
DANGEROUS GROUND;
OR,
THE RIVAL DETECTIVES.
BY
LAWRENCE L. LYNCH,
(OF THE SECRET SERVICE.)
Author of “Madeline Payne, the Detective’s Daughter;” “Out
of a Labyrinth;” “Shadowed by Three;” “The
Diamond Coterie,” etc., etc.
CHICAGO:
ALEX. T. LOYD & CO., Publishers.
1886.
Copyright, 1885,
By Alex. T. Loyd & Co., Chicago.
All Rights Reserved.
Dangerous Ground.
“Mamma brings the candle very near to the closed eyes, waving it toand fro, rapidly.”—page 309.
DANGEROUS GROUND.
PROLOGUE.
Time: The month of May. The year, 1859; when theWest was new, and the life of the Pioneer difficult and dangerous.
Scene: A tiny belt of timber, not far from the spot wherenot long before, the Marais des Cygnes massacre awoke thepeople of south-eastern Kansas, and kindled among themthe flames of civil war.
I.
It is a night of storm and darkness. Huge trees arebending their might, and branches, strong or slender, areswaying and snapping under a fierce blast from the northward.
Night has closed in, but the ghostly light of a reluctantcamp fire reveals a small group of men gathered about itsblaze; and back of them, more in the shelter of the timber, afew wagons,—prairie schooners of the staunchest type—fromwhich, now and then, the anxious countenance of awoman, or the eager, curious face of a child, peers out.
[10]There has been rain, and fierce lightning, and loud-rollingthunder; but the clouds are breaking away, the rainhas ceased: only the strong gusts of wind remain to makemore restless the wakeful travellers, and rob the weary,nervous ones of their much needed sleep.
“Where’s Pearson?” queries a tall, strong man, whospeaks as one having authority. “I have not seen himsince the storm began.”
“Pearson?” says another, who is crouching over theflickering fire in the effort to light a stubby pipe. “Byginger! I haven’t thought of the fellow; why, he took hisblanket and went up yonder,” indicating the direction bya jerk of the short pipe over a brawny shoulder—“beforethe storm, you know; said he was going to take a doze upthere; he took a fancy to the place when we crossed herebefore.”
“But he has been down sinc