Dangerous Ground; or, The Rival Detectives

OR,
(OF THE SECRET SERVICE.)
Author of “Madeline Payne, the Detective’s Daughter;” “Out of a Labyrinth;” “Shadowed by Three;” “The Diamond Coterie,” etc., etc.
Copyright, 1885, By Alex. T. Loyd & Co., Chicago. All Rights Reserved.
Dangerous Ground.

Time: The month of May. The year, 1859; when the West was new, and the life of the Pioneer difficult and dangerous.
Scene: A tiny belt of timber, not far from the spot where not long before, the Marais des Cygnes massacre awoke the people of south-eastern Kansas, and kindled among them the flames of civil war.
It is a night of storm and darkness. Huge trees are bending their might, and branches, strong or slender, are swaying and snapping under a fierce blast from the northward.
Night has closed in, but the ghostly light of a reluctant camp fire reveals a small group of men gathered about its blaze; and back of them, more in the shelter of the timber, a few wagons,—prairie schooners of the staunchest type—from which, now and then, the anxious countenance of a woman, or the eager, curious face of a child, peers out.
There has been rain, and fierce lightning, and loud-rolling thunder; but the clouds are breaking away, the rain has ceased: only the strong gusts of wind remain to make more restless the wakeful travellers, and rob the weary, nervous ones of their much needed sleep.
“Where’s Pearson?” queries a tall, strong man, who speaks as one having authority. “I have not seen him since the storm began.”