I found myself laughing in spite of the fact that I was at once very embarrassed and rather excited.
“I should like to hear one or two of those details,” I said, boldly.
“Sir, what of my modesty?” Amelia said, fluttering her eye-lashes at me in an exaggerated way, then she too laughed aloud.
“With her curiosity satisfied, and with my life revealed to be on the downward path, she hastened from my room, and that was the end of that. I left the hotel as soon as I could. The delay had made me late for my appointment at the engineering works, and I wasn’t able to get to our luncheon in time. I’m very sorry.
“That’s all right,” I said, feeling well pleased with myself, even if my scandalous reputation were a fiction.
We were sitting together against the bole of a huge tree, the bicycles leaning against another tree. A few yards away, two little boys in sailor suits were trying to make a toy yacht sail out across the Pond. Near by, their nanny watched without interest.
“Let’s ride further,” I said. “I’d like to see more of the Park.”
I leaped up and extended my hands to help Amelia to her feet. We ran over to the bicycles and disentangled them. We mounted and turned into the breeze, heading in the general direction of Kingston-upon-Thames.
We pedalled at a leisurely rate for a few minutes, but then, just as we were approaching a slight rise in the ground, Amelia called out: “Let’s race!”
I pedalled harder, but with the combination of the headwind and the gradient it was heavy going. Amelia kept abreast of me.
“Come on, you’re not trying!” she shouted, and surged slightly ahead of me.
I pressed down harder on the pedals and managed to catch her up, but at once she pulled ahead again. I raised myself from the saddle, and used all my strength to try to make up the difference, but for all my efforts Amelia managed somehow to stay a few yards ahead. Suddenly, as if tired of playing with me, Amelia shot quickly forward and, bumping alarmingly over the uneven surface of the path, climbed quickly up the slope. I knew I could never keep up with her, and at once gave up the unequal struggle. I watched her ahead of me … then realized with a shock that she was still sitting upright in the saddle, and; as far as I could see, was free-wheeling!
Aghast, I watched her bicycle spin over the crest of the slope, at a speed that must have been well in excess of twenty miles an hour, and then vanish from my sight.
I pedalled on peevishly, sulking a little at the way my pride had been thwarted. As I came over the crest I saw Amelia a few yards further on. She had dismounted, and her bicycle was lying on its side, the front wheel spinning. She was sitting on the grass beside it laughing at the sight of my hot and perspiring face.
I flung my bicycle down beside hers, and sat down in a mood as near displeasure as I had ever experienced in her company.
“You cheated,” I said.
“You could have done so too,” she cried, still laughing at me.
I mopped my face with my kerchief. “That wasn’t a race, it was a deliberate humiliation.”
“Oh, Edward! Don’t take it so seriously. I only wanted to show you something.”
“What?” I said in a surly tone.
“My bicycle. Do you notice anything about it?”
“No.” I was still not mollified.
“What about the front wheel?”
“It’s still spinning,” I said.
“Then stop it.”
I reached out and gripped the pneumatic tyre with my hand, but snatched it away as the friction burned me. The wheel continued to spin.
“What is it?” I said, my distemper immediately forgotten.
“It is one of Sir William’s devices,” she said. “Your bicycle is fitted with one too.”
“But how does it work? You were free-wheeling up the hill. That is against all the laws of physics.”
“Look, I’ll show you.” She reached over to her machine and took hold of the handle-bar. She held the right-hand grip in a certain way, and the front wheels topped its uncanny spinning. She righted the bicycle.
“Under here.” She showed me where to look, and between the rubber grip and the brake-bar I saw a tiny strip of mica.
“Move this forward with your fingers, so, and—”
The bicycle started to move forward, but she raised the front wheel from the ground and it spun effortlessly in the air.
“When you wish to stop, you simply slide the strip back, and the bicycle may be ridden normally.”
“And you say my machine is fitted with this?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you not tell me? Then we need not have expended any effort on the ride!”
Amelia was laughing again as I hastened to my own machine and righted it. Sure enough, under the right-hand grip there was a similar piece of mica.
“I must try this at once!,” I shouted, and mounted my machine. As soon as I had found my balance I slid the mica strip forward, and the bicycle moved faster.
“It works!” I cried to Amelia, waving to her in delight and at that moment the front wheel hit a tuft of grass, and I was unseated. Amelia ran over to me and helped me to my feet. My bicycle lay a few yards from me, the front wheel spinning merrily.
“What a marvellous invention!” I cried, full of enthusiasm for it. “Now we shall race in style!”
“All right,” Amelia said “First back to the Ponds!”
I retrieved my machine, and she ran back to hers. In a few moments we were both mounted, and speeding spectacularly towards the crest of the slope. This time the race was more even, and as we rolled down the long gradient towards the distant Ponds we kept abreast of each other. The wind drummed against my face, and it was not long before I felt my boater snatched away. Amelia’s bonnet was blowing backwards, but stayed around her neck because of its strap.
As we came to the Ponds we speeded past the nanny and the two little boys, who stared after us in amazement. Laughing aloud, we circled around the larger of the two Ponds, then pulled back the mica strips and pedalled towards the trees at a moderate pace.
As we dismounted, I said: “What is it, Amelia? How does it work?”
I was feeling breathless, even though the actual physical energy expended had been negligible.
“It’s in here,” she said.
With a twisting motion she slid back the moulded rubber hand-grip, so exposing the tubular steel of the handle-bar. She held the bar so that I could see into its interior … and there, nestling inside, was some of the crystalline material I had seen on the flying machine.
“There is a wire which runs through the frame,” Amelia said, “and that is connected to the wheel. Inside the hub is some more of that.”
“What is this crystalline material?” I said. “What does it consist of?”
“That I don’t know. I’m aware of some of the materials it comprises, for I have to order them, but I’m not sure how they are joined to produce the effect.”
She explained that the adapted bicycle had been developed by Sir William when bicycling became popular a few years before. His idea had been to assist the weak or elderly whenever they encountered a hill.
“Do you realize that this device alone would make him a fortune?”
“Sir William does not want for money.”
“No, but think of the public good it would do. A machine like this could transform the carriage industry.”
Amelia was shaking her head. “You don’t understand Sir William. I’m sure he has considered taking out a Patent on this, but I think he judged it better unknown. Bicycling is a sport, mostly enjoyed by the young, and it is done for fresh air and exercise. As you have seen, it requires no effort to ride a bicycle like this.”
“Yes, but there would be other uses.”
“Indeed, and that is why I say you do not understand Sir William, nor could you be expected to He is a man of restless intellect, and no sooner has he developed one device than he goes on to another. The bicycles were adapted before he built his horseless carriage, and that was before his flying machine.”