. I had covered the forty-six miles in quick time for a mountain
climb. As I crossed the bridge over the Lahn, to my immense surprise,
Mr. Hitchcock waved his arms, all excitement, to greet me. He had taken
the train on from Eppstein, it seemed, and got there before me. As I
dismounted at the Cathedral, which was our appointed end, and gave my
badge to the soldier, he rushed up and shook my hand. 'Fifty pounds!' he
cried. 'Fifty pounds! How's that for the great Anglo-Saxon race! And
hooray for the Manitou!'

The second man, the civilian, rode in, wet and draggled, forty seconds
later. As for the Herr Lieutenant, a disappointed man, he fell out by
the way, alleging a puncture. I believe he was ashamed to admit the fact
that he had been beaten in open fight by the objurgated Englaenderin.

So the end of it was, I was now a woman of means, with fifty pounds of
my own to my credit.

I lunched with my backer royally at the best inn in Limburg.

IV

THE ADVENTURE OF THE AMATEUR COMMISSION AGENT

My eccentric American had assured me that if I won the great race for
him I need not be 'skeert' lest he should fail to treat me well; and to
do him justice, I must admit that he kept his word magnanimously. While
we sat at lunch in the cosy hotel at Limburg he counted out and paid me
in hand the fifty good gold pieces he had promised me. 'Whether these
Deutschers fork out my twenty thousand marks or not,' he said, in his
brisk way, 'it don't much matter. I shall get the contract, and I shall
hev gotten the adver_tize_ment!'

'Why do you start your bicycles in Germany, though?' I asked,
innocently. 'I should have thought myself there was so much a better
chance of selling them in England.'

[Illustration: LET THEM BOOM OR BUST ON IT.]

He closed one eye, and looked abstractedly at the light through his
glass of pale yellow Brauneberger with the other. 'England? Yes,
England! Well, see, miss, you hev not been raised in business. Business
is business. The way to do it in Germany is--to manufacture for
yourself: and I've got my works started right here in Frankfort. The way
to do it in England--where capital's dirt cheap--is, to sell your patent
for every cent it's worth to an English company, and let them boom or
bust on it.'

'I see,' I said, catching at it. 'The principle's as clear as mud, the
moment you point it out to one. An English company will pay you well for
the concession, and work for a smaller return on