ink its rival; it was a
master-stroke. But they knew everything at the Kaiserin. The Kaiserin also
wanted a "Bridging the Abyss." It would have one, a better one, with a
finer title: "Arching the Gulf!" And they would get it for three hundred
marks! And they must be ready, quick, quick, before the Kolossal, and it
was just possible: they had twenty days yet; the apparatus would be made;
they knew the plans, the dimensions; the house would be fixed up
accordingly; they must succeed at all costs and not let themselves be
strangled without defense! It was a struggle to the death! They would
fight with corpses, if need be! Other people had broken their backs for
them before now; there would be no difficulty in finding one more to risk
his life six times in six seconds for three hundred marks a night.

And it was at that moment that Trampy offered himself. They had heard his
name:

"Trampy Wheel-Pad, the tramp cyclist with the red-hot stove?"

"That's me," said Trampy.

And, full of self-assurance, he explained the object of his visit:

"I was the first to construct it; I patented it myself at Washington; I
will produce the documents!"

It will be understood why Trampy wore his air of conquest when he returned
home that day. He had his engagement in his pocket! He displayed it
victoriously to Lily, passed it over her face, reveled in his revenge. At
last he was going to show Lily whether he was able to keep a wife or not;
and champagne suppers every evening, by Jove, with girls--no damned
lalerperloosers--just to show her!

That same evening, he left for London, with an advance from the
management, and came back to Berlin with the apparatus, the whole set up
and repaired in a week, a gang of men working night and day. Followed
practice with the rope, on a movable pulley, from early dawn, like a man
determined to accomplish his breakneck feat, alive or dead; for Trampy
would have done, no matter what, for Lily to cease being "Miss" Lily, to
admit herself married and married for love and not to escape whippings, to
cease being ashamed of him, to show herself proud of him, on the contrary,
especially before Jimmy!

Trampy, in his less enthusiastic moments, felt a certain uneasiness:
Jimmy's proximity, his own patents far away, in America. But he assumed a
bold face, declared himself the inventor, practised unrelentingly, with
hatred of his rival in his heart. This hatred seemed to increase his
powers of work. He practi