sed, practised. He had a lively intelligence, if
his heart was a trifle flabby. And he was very skilful, besides, when he
condescended to take the trouble. He was a quick worker: in less than
twenty days everything was ready, and "Arching the Gulf" sprawled over the
hoardings of Berlin, side by side with "Bridging the Abyss." One saw
nothing else; and the Kaiserin opened its doors forty-eight hours before
Jimmy. It was a huge success. Trampy received an ovation when, after the
release of the terrible springs which flung the bike from one pedestal to
another, in five seconds he fell on the mattresses outspread to receive
him, behind a cloth.

It goes without saying that Jimmy was present at the show. He was smashed
before he had even begun! There, before his eyes, was his own invention
worked by another! He had expected competition, of course; it was
impossible, he knew, to discover anything that wasn't copied at once;
snatchers of ideas, who prowl around artistes, plagiarists, pirates,
swarmed as thick as any other sort of thieves. And, as ill luck would have
it, though his turn was difficult to perform, the apparatus, at least, was
simple to construct: four powerful springs, screwed down with a jack,
which the weight of the leaping cyclist, as he fell upon each pedestal,
released one after the other, causing him to take enormous jumps forward.
It was an ideal breakneck machine, easy to carry about; only the
calculations had been difficult. They had cost him a lot of trouble to
establish; and now another was profiting by them! Perhaps some one had
patented the invention before him! For he, too, before showing it in
public, had patented it in England and Germany; and his anger knew no
bounds, his energy was increased fourfold when he learned the name of the
plagiarist: Trampy again! Trampy, who had stolen his love, who had stolen
his Lily ... and who was now stealing his idea ... robbing him of the
fruit of his labor! Jimmy, in spite of his fury, resolved to keep calm:
the law first. He was protected by the law, unless--and that was
impossible--unless Trampy had had the same idea as himself before him and
taken out his patents before the publication in _Engineering_. Jimmy
showed a prompt decision, a feverish activity. First of all, he must put
the law in motion, bring an action against Trampy, telegraph to the patent
office at Washington to ascertain the date. Meanwhile, he made his first
appearance on the day fixed for