Perhaps Lorania had an occult inkling of the future. For this is what
happened: That evening Winslow rode on to the track in his new English
bicycle suit, which had just come. He hoped that he didn't look like a
fool in those queer clothes. But the instant he entered the pasture he
saw something that drove everything else out of his head, and made him
bend over the steering-bar and race madly across the green; Miss
Hopkins' bicycle was running away down hill! Cardigan, on foot, was
pelting obliquely, in the hopeless thought to intercept her, while Mrs.
Ellis, who was reeling over the ground with her own bicycle, wheeled as
rapidly as she could to the brow of the hill, where she tumbled off,
and, abandoning the wheel, rushed on foot to her friend's rescue.
She was only in time to see a flash of silver and ebony and a streak of
brown dart before her vision and swim down the hill like a bird. Lorania
was still in the saddle, pedalling from sheer force of habit, and
clinging to the handle-bars. Below the hill was a stone wall, and
farther was the creek. There was a narrow opening in the wall where the
cattle went down to drink; if she could steer through that she would
have nothing worse than soft water and mud; but there was not one
chance in a thousand that she could pass that narrow space. Mrs.
Winslow, horror-stricken, watched the rescuer, who evidently was cutting
across to catch the bicycle.
"He's riding out of sight!" thought Shuey, in the rear. He himself did
not slacken his speed, although he could not be in time for the
catastrophe. Suddenly he stiffened; Winslow was close to the runaway
wheel.
"Grab her!" yelled Shuey. "Grab her by the belt! _Oh, Lord!_"
The exclamation exploded like the groan of a shell. For while Winslow's
bicycling was all that could be wished, and he flung himself in the path
of the on-coming wheel with marvelous celerity and precision, he had not
the power to withstand the never yet revealed number of pounds carried
by Miss Lorania, impelled by the rapid descent and gathering momentum at
every whirl. They met; he caught her; but instantly he was rolling down
the steep incline and she was doubled up on the grass. He crashed
sickeningly against the stone wall; she lay stunned and still on the
sod; and their friends, with beating hearts, slid down to them. Mrs.
Winslow was on the brow of the hill. She blesses Shuey to this day for
the shout he sent up, "Nobody killed, and I guess no bones broken."
* * * * *
When Margaret went home that evening, having seen her friend safely in
bed, not much the worse for her fall, she was told that Cardigan wished
to see her. Shuey produced something from his pocket, saying: "I picked
this up on the hill, ma'am, after the accident. It maybe belongs to him,
or it maybe belongs to her; I'm thinking the safest way is to just give
it to you." He handed Mrs. Ellis a tiny gold-framed miniature of Lorania
in a red leather case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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