ng by a public road talking to a
young man. She smiled very sweetly and held out her hand over the
wall. "Good-bye again," she said. As I took her hand I felt very much
inclined to press it warmly, but I refrained. Her grasp was firm and
friendly, and I would have liked very much to know whether or not it
was more so than was her custom.

I was mounting my wheel when she called to me again. "Now, I suppose,"
she said, "you are going straight on?"

"Oh yes," I replied, with emphasis, "straight on."

"And the name of the hotel where you will stay to-night," said she,
"it is the Cheltenham. I forgot it when I spoke to you before. I do
not believe, really, it is more than three miles beyond the other
little place where you thought of stopping."

Then she walked away from the wall and I mounted. I moved very slowly
onward, and as I turned my head I saw that a row of straggling bushes
which grew close to the wall were now between her and me. But I also
saw, or thought I saw, between the leaves and boughs, that her face
was towards me, and that she was waving her handkerchief. If I had
been sure of that, I think I should have jumped over the wall, pushed
through the bushes, and should have asked her to give me that
handkerchief, that I might fasten it on the front of my cap as, in
olden days, a knight going forth to his adventures bound upon his
helmet the glove of his lady-love.

But I was not sure of it, and, seized by a sudden energetic
excitement, I started off at a tremendous rate of speed. The ground
flew backward beneath me as if I had been standing on the platform of
a railroad car. Not far ahead of me there came from a side road into
the main avenue on which I was travelling a Scorcher, scorching. As he
spun away in front of me, his body bent forward until his back was
nearly horizontal, and his green-stockinged legs striking out behind
him with the furious rapidity of a great frog trying to push his head
into the mud, he turned back his little face with a leer of triumphant
derision at every moving thing which might happen to be behind him.

[Illustration: "I THOUGHT FOR A FEW MOMENTS"]

At the sight of this green-legged Scorcher my blood rose, and it was
with me as if I had heard the clang of trumpets and the clash of arms.
I leaned slightly forward; I struck out powerfully, swiftly, and
steadily; I gained upon the Scorcher; I sent into his emerald legs a
thrill of startled fear, as if he had been a terrifie