hey could see the dark outlines of the drag looming up in
the moonlight. The great coach lamps cast a flickering light upon the
roadway and the horses champed impatiently at the bits. Sedger mounted
to the box and this time Mrs. Smith had the seat beside him. A couple of
Sedger's friends had been picked up at the club, so Marion said she
would take the back seat. Duncan joined her there, and she was
astonished to find her husband next her also.

The drag rolled away from the Club House, and swayed and rocked as
Sedger let the horses gallop through the gates and along the little
stretch of road leading to the park. The evening breeze blew softly
against the faces of the party, and the coach rumbled along past the
park lake, with the moonlight glistening on its surface, and the slender
trees standing out grim and shadowy like huge phantoms guarding its
banks. Then the team settled down to a steady pace, and through the dim
light the leaders could just be seen huddling together, with their ears
pricked up for every sound. Horses seem to travel best at night, and the
steady creaking of the harness, harmonizing with the rattle of the bars
and the lively clatter of hoofs on the hard ground, came like sweet
music through the night air. A leader shied at a shadow; the coach
swayed for a moment, and the party crowded closer together. Some one
started a college song; the refrain was caught up by the rest, and the
chorus swelled forth a familiar glee. Along the tree-lined avenues or
through winding roadways the great coach rolled. Now the leaders plunged
into the dark shadows of the woods, or trotted merrily past some open
meadow, while from the long coach-horn the notes of "Who'll buy a
broom," sounded sharp and clear on the night air:

"For though the sound of the horn is dead,
And the guards are turned to clay,
There are those who remember the 'yard of tin,'
And the mail of the olden day."

Then, for a while, they sped along the shores of the great lake, and
mingling with the rumbling of wheels came the splash of the waves upon
the sandy shore.

The songs grew less frequent, the laughter ceased, and the party
gradually lapsed into silence. A reckless daring, such as she had never
known before, possessed Marion. In her imagination she seemed to be
rolling on toward some dazzling goal, and she laughed at the thought of
danger. The moon passed under a cloud and she felt the strong grasp of
Duncan's han