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Roy Glashan's Library
Non sibi sed omnibus
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A GROUP of cyclists were seated around the fire in a comfortable inn in Wales. Their talk was of thrilling experiences on the wheel, and just as the interest was beginning to flag Tom Bodkin asked if anyone of the company had ever seen a ghost upon a bicycle. Nearly all of them laughed at the idea.
"Don't laugh, gentlemen," said Bodkin, quietly; "I saw one.
"The thing happened in this way. To begin at the beginning, Dick Naggs and myself were running neck and neck for a dear little girl whom I shall call Sophie Byles.
"Sophie was a tormenting little witch. She flirted with both of us in a thoroughly impartial way, and if either of us attempted any of those foolish remonstrances that fellows desperately in love will sometimes venture on in such provoking circumstances, she would only toss her dainty little head, and, elevating her slightly retroussé nose, shrug her shoulders disdainfully and say, 'Please don't speak to me any more, Tom,'—or 'Dick,' as the case might be.
"Now Dick and I, strange to say, were the best of friends, although we were the best of rivals. We had been chums for several years lodging in the same 'digs' and getting on together capitally.
"When we discovered that we were both hopelessly gone over Sophie we had a long talk over the matter, and the upshot of it was that we shook hands over a fair agreement to go in for her, each of us, fairly and squarely, and let the best man win, neither taking any mean advantage of the other.
"Things went on very nicely under this working arrangement for about six months. I often met Dick riding back after visiting Sophie at her suburban cottage near Stepaside, and he as often met me, but no oftener, for it was in the bond that such visits should be exactly equal in number.
"We always laughed good humouredly at each other when we met thus, chaffed each other about our prospects of success, and went off and had a drink; so you see we were honourable chums.
"For some months we led this sort of life, and nothing could possibly be more satisfactory to either Dick or me—unless either of us would take himself for ever to Jericho, out of the other's way. But as this was a very remote contingency indeed, we accepted the situation in a spirit of beatific cheerfulness and made the best we could of it.
"Sophie had only one relative living—but that was a quite sufficient number. It was her father—and he was a terror.
"Among the virtues Mr. Byles rejoiced in—and they were too numerous to particularise—was that of rigid honesty. He had never got into debt to the extent of a penny in his life, he used to boast, and he detested people who did.
"The old man seemed to have an impartial sort of liking for both Dick and me. He didn't object to our paying our addresses to his daughter, but seemed to be trying, like ourselves, to find out which of us she liked best—perhaps with equal unsuccess. At any rate he always met us civilly and chatted to us in his own dry way on such interesting topics as the weather and the crops, the stock and sharemarkets, and the like.
"Dick and myself were then in the enjoyment of a modest income each—quite enough for him, for he was not of an extravagant turn; but hardly enough for me, for my tastes were more luxurious.
"However, financial matters were not in Dick's case, any more than my own, ever thought of for a moment in connection with our mutually dear Sophie. We would have taken her without a penny, but we knew very well she wouldn't come so whenever she made up her mind.
"One evening I met Dick riding back from Stepaside, after one of his regulation visits, as I was going out to take his place. He jumped off his bicycle and came over to me in a state of great perturbation.
"'Tom,' said he, 'I'm in great trouble, old fellow. I have to go away for a fortnight. There's a maiden aunt of mine very ill over in Homburg, and she wants to see me.'
"'I don't see why you should be in great trouble, my boy,' I replied; 'neither do I perceive why you should be so dreadfully agitated. You're a lucky dog, so you are—coming in for a fortune.'
"'Don't see it!' he cried, opening his eyes in astonishment. 'What is Sophie to do in my absence?'
"'Don't trouble your head about that,' I answered. 'She'll get along just as usual, I'm sure.'
"'But you—you won't surely take any advantage of my absence, Tom? If I had your promise on that I'd feel quite relieved.'
"'Well, that's rather hard, Dick,' I returned. 'I don't see why my arrangements should be affected by your maiden aunt's proceedings. The old lady is not going to make me her heir.'
"'But don't you see, Tom, that my absence would be giving you an unfair advantage? You're too honourable a fellow, I know, to avail yourself of it.'
"'Look here, Dick,' I said at length, after he had gone on in this strain for awhile, I'll go this far to oblige you. I'll not come out here again for a fortnight. If you're back by that time, well and good. If you're not, the bargain is at an end.'
"'Do you give me your word on that, Tom?' he asked, brightening up.
"'I do,' I returned; 'you may haunt me when you die if I break it. Now be off.'
"We shook hands and parted, and when I saw our beloved Sophie I informed her of the arrangement agreed upon. She said she didn't mind, as she was going on a visit to a friend in Wicklow for a week.
"I was devouring breakfast one morning a week afterwards, glancing over the newspaper now and then as I feasted, when suddenly my eye caught the heading, 'Fatal Accident to a Dublin Gentleman.'
"I immediately looked at the item, and to my horror found that it related to my unhappy friend Dick. He had jumped out of a railway carriage while the train was in motion, got jammed between it and the platform, and was killed.
"The news upset me a good deal, although I could not help feeling that it cleared the ground for me in one important direction. Still, I was very much attached to poor Dick, and I couldn't bring myself to visit Sophie for a couple of days after I had heard the sad tidings, in order to break them to her.
"The year was fast getting into the sere and yellow leaf; brown October had brought its short and its (sometimes) lovely moonlight nights, and it was one of these—a glorious one it was—that I started off, with an equally balanced admixture of grief and hopeful elation at my heart, for the bower of my Sophie—my own Sophie, as I fondly hoped to call her now—to unfold my gruesome tale.
"I had got about half way towards my destination when it occurred to me that I ought to strike a match and have a quiet puff of the soothing weed, as nothing could be more in keeping with the peaceful quiet of the scene. No sooner thought of than done, and I was in the act of remounting, with pipe aglow, when my eye caught sight of another rider coming in the same direction, but at a considerable distance behind.
"This circumstance caused me no emotion in particular, and I forgot all about it as I sped on afresh. I slackened my pace to spin out the distance until I had finished my pipe, and was drawing on easily toward Stepaside, when some instinct or other made me glance backward down the road again.
"The other traveller had gained upon me with amazing celerity. He was now not more than forty or fifty yards behind.
"What a wonderful resemblance he bore at that distance to my dead friend Dick! His garments looked white to me in the ghastly moonlight. Dick, when riding all last summer, had worn a suit of white flannel, as the stranger's seemed to be. And it appeared to me, as I paused, thunderstricken and trembling, for a moment in my ride, that his form was exactly that of my dear friend!
"I was never superstitious, yet now for an instant a feeling of awe came over me; but as I wobbled to the ground off my machine, under its influence, I began to curse myself vigorously for a womanish fool, and, jumping up with the celerity of fully recovered spirits, I set my steel steed off with a lively start, and began to race away from the awesome stranger.
"I went at a spanking pace for some time, but I could not help turning my head backward again soon to note how far I had left him behind.
"Horror of horrors, he was gaining on me still!
"Again I spurted madly. Great beads of cold sweat burst out upon my temples and an icy feeling crept through my frame, even to the marrow of my bones, despite the heat into which the exercise had thrown me. My terror lent me strength. I must get away from this terrible phantom, even though my heart should snap in the effort. I tore along the road now like a maniac.
"I was just turning the corner of the rustic lane which led up to Sophie's bower when my machine came plump against a form doing the same from the lane side of the angle. The consequence was disastrous to both travellers.
"Machine and myself threw a double somersault over the body of the pedestrian. When we both regained our feet I thought I should turn into stone when I encountered the Gorgon-like eye of my intended father-in-law.
"'Hang it, man!' he shouted, as soon as he recognised me and found his voice, 'what the dickens are you staring at me for instead of apologising for nearly killing me? One would think you had seen a ghost.'
"'I have seen a ghost, sure enough, sir,' I answered, with trembling lips; 'the ghost of my poor dead friend Dick; and see, there it comes!'
"The white figure had arrived at the corner of the lane, full in the ghastly glare of the dazzling moonlight. It dismounted and advanced towards where we stood.
"I held up both my hands to shut out the fearsome sight.
"'Don't come near me,' I cried in an agony of desperation, 'until you tell me whether you are a man or the ghost of my dear friend Dick.'
"The thing laughed; it was a horrible, human laugh.
"He was only a few yards behind. I could not distinguish the face, but the figure and the way in which it sat the machine were the same as Dick's.
"'No ghost, sir,' it replied as its coarse chuckle ceased, 'but a messenger from a man who has ghosted you long enough in vain for his little bill of seven pound ten for clothes—Mr. Tippet, the tailor, of Grafton-street. Here it is for you, sir, now, and if you don't pay it by twelve o'clock to-morrow I'm instructed to invite you to an interview with the recorder at Green-street Court-house.'
"This was my romance of the wheel. It shattered my day-dream and lost me my Sophie. Old Byles turned on me with all the scorn of an enraged money-lender who never owed a man a penny, and bade me never again show my face at the cottage.
"The fickle Sophie ratified this decision, and shortly afterwards married a pawnbroker, who had, a couple of months before, laid his third spouse under the sod in Glasnevin; and I am left here alone with my faithful bicycle."
Roy Glashan's Library
Non sibi sed omnibus
Go to Home Page
This work is out of copyright in countries with a copyright
period of 70 years or less, after the year of the author's death.
If it is under copyright in your country of residence,
do not download or redistribute this file.
Original content added by RGL (e.g., introductions, notes,
RGL covers) is proprietary and protected by copyright.