"Allen, Grant - Miss Cayley's Adventures 03 - The Adenture of the Inquisitive American" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen Grant)

have clung to their dinner at all hazards.

When I arrived at Fraunheim, I found my alert American
punctually there before me. He raised his crush hat with
awkward politeness. I could see he was little accustomed to
ladies' society. Then he pointed to a close cab in which he
had reached the village.

'I've got it inside,' he whispered, in a confidential
tone. 'I couldn't let 'em ketch sight of it. You see,
there's dollars in it.'

'What have you got inside?' I asked, suspiciously, drawing
back. I don't know why, but the word 'it' somehow suggested
a corpse. I began to grow frightened.

'Why, the wheel, of course,' he answered. 'Ain't you come
here to ride it?'

'Oh, the wheel?' I echoed, vaguely, pretending to look
wise; but unaware, as yet, that that word was the accepted
Americanism for a cycle. 'And I have come to ride it?'

'Why, certainly,' he replied, jerking his hand towards the
cab. 'But we mustn't start right here. This thing has got
to be kept dark, don't you see, till the last day.'

Till the last day! That was ominous. It sounded like
monomania. So ghostly and elusive! I began to suspect my
American ally of being a dangerous madman.

'Jest you wheel away a bit up the hill,' he went on, 'out
of sight of the folks, and I'll fetch her along to you.'

'Her?' I cried. 'Who?' For the man bewildered me.

'Why, the wheel, miss! You understand! This is business,
you bet! And you're jest the right woman!'

He motioned me on. Urged by a sort of spell, I remounted
my machine and rode out of the village. He owed, on the
box-seat of his cab. Then, when we had the world well
behind, and stood among the sun-smitten boles of the
pine-trees, he opened the door mysteriously, and produced
from the vehicle a very odd-looking bicycle.

It was clumsy to look at. It differed immensely, in many
particulars, from any machine I had yet seen or ridden.

The strenuous American fondled it for a moment with his