Three Men on the Bummel Read online

  He came in looking very cheerful.

  "Well," he said, "is it all right? Have you managed it?"

  There was that about his tone I did not altogether like; I noticed Harris resented it also.

  "Managed what?" I said.

  "Why, to get off," said George.

  I felt the time was come to explain things to George.

  "In married life," I said, "the man proposes, the woman submits. It is her duty; all religion teaches it."

  George folded his hands and fixed his eyes on the ceiling.

  "We may chaff and joke a little about these things," I continued; "but when it comes to practice, that is what always happens. We have mentioned to our wives that we are going. Naturally, they are grieved; they would prefer to come with us; failing that, they would have us remain with them. But we have explained to them our wishes on the subject, and-there's an end of the matter."

  George said, "Forgive me; I did not understand. I am only a bachelor. People tell me this, that, and the other, and I listen."

  I said, "That is where you do wrong. When you want information come to Harris or myself; we will tell you the truth about these questions."

  George thanked us, and we proceeded with the business in hand.

  "When shall we start?" said George.

  "So far as I am concerned," replied Harris, "the sooner the better."

  His idea, I fancy, was to get away before Mrs. H. thought of other things. We fixed the following Wednesday.

  "What about route?" said Harris.

  "I have an idea," said George. "I take it you fellows are naturally anxious to improve your minds?"

  I said, "We don't want to become monstrosities. To a reasonable degree, yes, if it can be done without much expense and with little personal trouble."

  "It can," said George. "We know Holland and the Rhine. Very well, my suggestion is that we take the boat to Hamburg, see Berlin and Dresden, and work our way to the Schwarzwald, through Nuremberg and Stuttgart."

  "There are some pretty bits in Mesopotamia, so I've been told," murmured Harris.

  George said Mesopotamia was too much out of our way, but that the Berlin-Dresden route was quite practicable. For good or evil, he persuaded us into it.

  "The machines, I suppose," said George, "as before. Harris and I on the tandem, J.-"

  "I think not," interrupted Harris, firmly. "You and J. on the tandem, I on the single."

  "All the same to me," agreed George. "J. and I on the tandem, Harris-"

  "I do not mind taking my turn," I interrupted, "but I am not going to carry George ALL the way; the burden should be divided."

  "Very well," agreed Harris, "we'll divide it. But it must be on the distinct understanding that he works."

  "That he what?" said George.

  "That he works," repeated Harris, firmly; "at all events, uphill."

  "Great Scott!" said George; "don't you want ANY exercise?"

  There is always unpleasantness about this tandem. It is the theory of the man in front that the man behind does nothing; it is equally the theory of the man behind that he alone is the motive power, the man in front merely doing the puffing. The mystery will never be solved. It is annoying when Prudence is whispering to you on the one side not to overdo your strength and bring on heart disease; while Justice into the other ear is remarking, "Why should you do it all? This isn't a cab. He's not your passenger:" to hear him grunt out:

  "What's the matter-lost your pedals?"

  Harris, in his early married days, made much trouble for himself on one occasion, owing to this impossibility of knowing what the person behind is doing. He was riding with his wife through Holland. The roads were stony, and the machine jumped a good deal.

  "Sit tight," said Harris, without turning his head.

  What Mrs. Harris thought he said was, "Jump off." Why she should have thought he said "Jump off," when he said "Sit tight," neither of them can explain.

  Mrs. Harris puts it in this way, "If you had said, 'Sit tight,' why should I have jumped off?"

  Harris puts it, "If I had wanted you to jump off, why should I have said 'Sit tight!'?"

  The bitterness is past, but they argue about the matter to this day.

  Be the explanation what it may, however, nothing alters the fact that Mrs. Harris did jump off, while Harris pedalled away hard, under the impression she was still behind him. It appears that at first she thought he was riding up the hill merely to show off. They were both young in those days, and he used to do that sort of thing. She expected him to spring to earth on reaching the summit, and lean in a careless and graceful attitude against the machine, waiting for her. When, on the contrary, she saw him pass the summit and proceed rapidly down a long and steep incline, she was seized, first with surprise, secondly with indignation, and lastly with alarm. She ran to the top of the hill and shouted, but he never turned his head. She watched him disappear into a wood a mile and a half distant, and then sat down and cried. They had had a slight difference that morning, and she wondered if he had taken it seriously and intended desertion. She had no money; she knew no Dutch. People passed, and seemed sorry for her; she tried to make them understand what had happened. They gathered that she had lost something, but could not grasp what. They took her to the nearest village, and found a policeman for her. He concluded from her pantomime that some man had stolen her bicycle. They put the telegraph into operation, and discovered in a village four miles off an unfortunate boy riding a lady's machine of an obsolete pattern. They brought him to her in a cart, but as she did not appear to want either him or his bicycle they let him go again, and resigned themselves to bewilderment.

  Meanwhile, Harris continued his ride with much enjoyment. It seemed to him that he had suddenly become a stronger, and in every way a more capable cyclist. Said he to what he thought was Mrs. Harris:

  "I haven't felt this machine so light for months. It's this air, I think; it's doing me good."

  Then he told her not to be afraid, and he would show her how fast he COULD go. He bent down over the handles, and put his heart into his work. The bicycle bounded over the road like a thing of life; farmhouses and churches, dogs and chickens came to him and passed. Old folks stood and gazed at him, the children cheered him.

  In this way he sped merrily onward for about five miles. Then, as he explains it, the feeling began to grow upon him that something was wrong. He was not surprised at the silence; the wind was blowing strongly, and the machine was rattling a good deal. It was a sense of void that came upon him. He stretched out his hand behind him, and felt; there was nothing there but space. He jumped, or rather fell off, and looked back up the road; it stretched white and straight through the dark wood, and not a living soul could be seen upon it. He remounted, and rode back up the hill. In ten minutes he came to where the road broke into four; there he dismounted and tried to remember which fork he had come down.

  While he was deliberating a man passed, sitting sideways on a horse. Harris stopped him, and explained to him that he had lost his wife. The man appeared to be neither surprised nor sorry for him. While they were talking another farmer came along, to whom the first man explained the matter, not as an accident, but as a good story. What appeared to surprise the second man most was that Harris should be making a fuss about the thing. He could get no sense out of either of them, and cursing them he mounted his machine again, and took the middle road on chance. Half-way up, he came upon a party of two young women with one young man between them. They appeared to be making the most of him. He asked them if they had seen his wife. They asked him what she was like. He did not know enough Dutch to describe her properly; all he could tell them was she was a very beautiful woman, of medium size. Evidently this did not satisfy them, the description was too general; any man could say that, and by this means perhaps get possession of a wife that did not belong to him. They asked him how she was dressed; for the life of him he could not recollect.

  I doubt if any man could tell how any woman
was dressed ten minutes after he had left her. He recollected a blue skirt, and then there was something that carried the dress on, as it were, up to the neck. Possibly, this may have been a blouse; he retained a dim vision of a belt; but what sort of a blouse? Was it green, or yellow, or blue? Had it a collar, or was it fastened with a bow? Were there feathers in her hat, or flowers? Or was it a hat at all? He dared not say, for fear of making a mistake and being sent miles after the wrong party. The two young women giggled, which in his then state of mind irritated Harris. The young man, who appeared anxious to get rid of him, suggested the police station at the next town. Harris made his way there. The police gave him a piece of paper, and told him to write down a full description of his wife, together with details of when and where he had lost her. He did not know where he had lost her; all he could tell them was the name of the village where he had lunched. He knew he had her with him then, and that they had started from there together.

  The police looked suspicious; they were doubtful about three matters: Firstly, was she really his wife? Secondly, had he really lost her? Thirdly, why had he lost her? With the aid of a hotel-keeper, however, who spoke a little English, he overcame their scruples. They promised to act, and in the evening they brought her to him in a covered wagon, together with a bill for expenses. The meeting was not a tender one. Mrs. Harris is not a good actress, and always has great difficulty in disguising her feelings. On this occasion, she frankly admits, she made no attempt to disguise them.

  The wheel business settled, there arose the ever-lasting luggage question.

  "The usual list, I suppose," said George, preparing to write.

  That was wisdom I had taught them; I had learned it myself years ago from my Uncle Podger.

  "Always before beginning to pack," my Uncle would say, "make a list."

  He was a methodical man.

  "Take a piece of paper"-he always began at the beginning-"put down on it everything you can possibly require, then go over it and see that it contains nothing you can possibly do without. Imagine yourself in bed; what have you got on? Very well, put it down— together with a change. You get up; what do you do? Wash yourself. What do you wash yourself with? Soap; put down soap. Go on till you have finished. Then take your clothes. Begin at your feet; what do you wear on your feet? Boots, shoes, socks; put them down. Work up till you get to your head. What else do you want besides clothes? A little brandy; put it down. A corkscrew, put it down. Put down everything, then you don't forget anything."

  That is the plan he always pursued himself. The list made, he would go over it carefully, as he always advised, to see that he had forgotten nothing. Then he would go over it again, and strike out everything it was possible to dispense with.

  Then he would lose the list.

  Said George: "Just sufficient for a day or two we will take with us on our bikes. The bulk of our luggage we must send on from town to town."

  "We must be careful," I said; "I knew a man once-"

  Harris looked at his watch.

  "We'll hear about him on the boat," said Harris; "I have got to meet Clara at Waterloo Station in half an hour."

  "It won't take half an hour," I said; "it's a true story, and-"

  "Don't waste it," said George: "I am told there are rainy evenings in the Black Forest; we may he glad of it. What we have to do now is to finish this list."

  Now I come to think of it, I never did get off that story; something always interrupted it. And it really was true.

  Chapter III

  Harris's one fault-Harris and the Angel-A patent bicycle lamp— The ideal saddle-The "Overhauler"-His eagle eye-His method-His cheery confidence-His simple and inexpensive tastes-His appearance-How to get rid of him-George as prophet-The gentle art of making oneself disagreeable in a foreign tongue-George as a student of human nature-He proposes an experiment-His Prudence— Harris's support secured, upon conditions.

  On Monday afternoon Harris came round; he had a cycling paper in his hand.

  I said: "If you take my advice, you will leave it alone."

  Harris said: "Leave what alone?"

  I said: "That brand-new, patent, revolution in cycling, record— breaking, Tomfoolishness, whatever it may be, the advertisement of which you have there in your hand."

  He said: "Well, I don't know; there will be some steep hills for us to negotiate; I guess we shall want a good brake."

  I said: "We shall want a brake, I agree; what we shall not want is a mechanical surprise that we don't understand, and that never acts when it is wanted."

  "This thing," he said, "acts automatically."

  "You needn't tell me," I said. "I know exactly what it will do, by instinct. Going uphill it will jamb the wheel so effectively that we shall have to carry the machine bodily. The air at the top of the hill will do it good, and it will suddenly come right again. Going downhill it will start reflecting what a nuisance it has been. This will lead to remorse, and finally to despair. It will say to itself: 'I'm not fit to be a brake. I don't help these fellows; I only hinder them. I'm a curse, that's what I am;' and, without a word of warning, it will 'chuck' the whole business. That is what that brake will do. Leave it alone. You are a good fellow," I continued, "but you have one fault."

  "What?" he asked, indignantly.

  "You have too much faith," I answered. "If you read an advertisement, you go away and believe it. Every experiment that every fool has thought of in connection with cycling you have tried. Your guardian angel appears to be a capable and conscientious spirit, and hitherto she has seen you through; take my advice and don't try her too far. She must have had a busy time since you started cycling. Don't go on till you make her mad."

  He said: "If every man talked like that there would be no advancement made in any department of life. If nobody ever tried a new thing the world would come to a standstill. It is by-"

  "I know all that can be said on that side of the argument," I interrupted. "I agree in trying new experiments up to thirty-five; AFTER thirty-five I consider a man is entitled to think of himself. You and I have done our duty in this direction, you especially. You have been blown up by a patent gas lamp-"

  He said: "I really think, you know, that was my fault; I think I must have screwed it up too tight."

  I said: "I am quite willing to believe that if there was a wrong way of handling the thing that is the way you handle it. You should take that tendency of yours into consideration; it bears upon the argument. Myself, I did not notice what you did; I only know we were riding peacefully and pleasantly along the Whitby Road, discussing the Thirty Years' War, when your lamp went off like a pistol-shot. The start sent me into the ditch; and your wife's face, when I told her there was nothing the matter and that she was not to worry, because the two men would carry you upstairs, and the doctor would be round in a minute bringing the nurse with him, still lingers in my memory."

  He said: "I wish you had thought to pick up the lamp. I should like to have found out what was the cause of its going off like that."

  I said: "There was not time to pick up the lamp. I calculate it would have taken two hours to have collected it. As to its 'going off,' the mere fact of its being advertised as the safest lamp ever invented would of itself, to anyone but you, have suggested accident. Then there was that electric lamp," I continued.

  "Well, that really did give a fine light," he replied; "you said so yourself."

  I said: "It gave a brilliant light in the King's Road, Brighton, and frightened a horse. The moment we got into the dark beyond Kemp Town it went out, and you were summoned for riding without a light. You may remember that on sunny afternoons you used to ride about with that lamp shining for all it was worth. When lighting— up time came it was naturally tired, and wanted a rest."

  "It was a bit irritating, that lamp," he murmured; "I remember it."

  I said: "It irritated me; it must have been worse for you. Then there are saddles," I went on-I wished to get this lesson home to him. "Can you think of any
saddle ever advertised that you have NOT tried?"

  He said: "It has been an idea of mine that the right saddle is to be found."

  I said: "You give up that idea; this is an imperfect world of joy and sorrow mingled. There may be a better land where bicycle saddles are made out of rainbow, stuffed with cloud; in this world the simplest thing is to get used to something hard. There was that saddle you bought in Birmingham; it was divided in the middle, and looked like a pair of kidneys."

  He said: "You mean that one constructed on anatomical principles."

  "Very likely," I replied. "The box you bought it in had a picture on the cover, representing a sitting skeleton-or rather that part of a skeleton which does sit."

  He said: "It was quite correct; it showed you the true position of the-"

  I said: "We will not go into details; the picture always seemed to me indelicate."

  He said: "Medically speaking, it was right."

  "Possibly," I said, "for a man who rode in nothing but his bones. I only know that I tried it myself, and that to a man who wore flesh it was agony. Every time you went over a stone or a rut it nipped you; it was like riding on an irritable lobster. You rode that for a month."

  "I thought it only right to give it a fair trial," he answered.

  I said: "You gave your family a fair trial also; if you will allow me the use of slang. Your wife told me that never in the whole course of your married life had she known you so bad tempered, so un-Christian like, as you were that month. Then you remember that other saddle, the one with the spring under it."

  He said: "You mean 'the Spiral.'"

  I said: "I mean the one that jerked you up and down like a Jack— in-the-box; sometimes you came down again in the right place, and sometimes you didn't. I am not referring to these matters merely to recall painful memories, but I want to impress you with the folly of trying experiments at your time of life."

  He said. "I wish you wouldn't harp so much on my age. A man at thirty-four-"

  "A man at what?"