A MYSTERY TRIP.
A PUZZLE WITH FORTY DOLLARS OFFERED IN PRIZES FOR BEST ANSWERS.
A mystery trip it was indeed, that of our Half Dozen Club. The route of the journey was decided by a game of hare and hounds. The points of interest to be visited were snatched by the hounds while following the track of the hare from innumerable papers which designedly marked the latter's course. Could any route be made more uncertain?
After the game, when the papers, previously marked with the names of notable persons, places, and things, were put together in order, it was found that we should have a remarkable company, and an even more remarkable route. Let me describe both as we take the journey in fancy together.
Our conveyance was the magic carpet(1) of Prince Houssain. Safe? Well, it might not have been had we not carried the Dart of Abaris(2). Then the god(3) who was thrown from Olympus for getting mixed up in a family row acted as guide and kept us from danger by wearing Tidbottom's spectacles(4). For a rudder he used Van Tromp's broom(5).
We arrived in no time at Kit's Coty House(6), and began at once to pick up souvenirs. The Knight of the Rueful Countenance(7) got the bones of his famous horse(3). The witty English clergyman(9) who, to make his nag speedier, hung his food before the nag's nose, but just out of his reach, got the bones of a dog that won literary fame for his master(10).
Snatching the magic tent of Prince Ahmed(11) and a supply of smoke farthings(12), onion pennies(13), and screw dollars(14) to pay expenses, we passed through the ivory gate(15) to the shore of the sea of darkness(16), where we embarked in the ship Skid Bladnir(17). We visited the islands of Laputa(18), were ship-wrecked while passing the magnetic mountain of Prince Agib(19), and barely escaped with our lives and curios to the shore of the Land of Cakes(20).
Here we were joined by Dr. Mirabilis(21), the mutton-eating king(22), the hero of the red shirt(23), Abel Shufflebottom(24), and a company of bridge bachelors(25). So many were we that the supply of Galli-Maufry(26) ran low, and when we reached the Land of Cocaigne(27) we were wellnigh starved.
Our party now separated, some going to the Grid-iron palace(28) and others to King Cunobelin's Gold Mines(29). Of course we were disappointed at not being able to visit the heart of Midlothian(30), Montezuma's Watch(31), or the Land of the Morning Calm(32). But we got home on Running Thursday(33), just in time for New Year next day. We had a little money left, for we had consulted the wise men of Gotham(34). Had we not done so, we should certainly have donned the badge of poverty(35) forthwith, or we might have put on a badge bearing what follows, and charge a certain sum per guess at the answer. Did you ever hear of a person increasing his income in that way? But here is what we might have donned, for people whom we met to answer.