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The Wheels of Chance Chapters 37 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section fourteen of the Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Tom Watts, The Wheels
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  Speaker 1: of Chance by H. G. Wells, Chapter thirty seven. In
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  Speaker 1: the New Forest at Ringwood, they lunched and Jesse met
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  Speaker 1: with the disappointment there was no letter for her at
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  Speaker 1: the post office. Opposite the hotel the Checkered Career was
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  Speaker 1: a machine shop with a conspicuously second hand Marlborough Club
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  Speaker 1: tandem tricycle displayed in the window, together with the announcement
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  Speaker 1: that bicycles and tricycles were on higher within the establishment.
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  Speaker 1: Was impressed on mister Hoopdriver's mind by the proprietor's action
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  Speaker 1: in coming across the road and narrowly inspecting their machines.
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  Speaker 1: His action revived a number of disagreeable impressions, but happily
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  Speaker 1: came to nothing. While they were still lunching, a tall
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  Speaker 1: clergyman with a heated face entered the room and sat
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  Speaker 1: down at the table next to theirs. He was in
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  Speaker 1: a kind of holiday costume that is to say. He
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  Speaker 1: had a more than usually high collar fastened behind and
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  Speaker 1: rather the worse for the weather, and his long tail
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  Speaker 1: coat had been replaced by a black jacket of quite
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  Speaker 1: remarkable brevity. He had faded brown shoes on his feet,
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  Speaker 1: his trouser legs were gray with dust, and he wore
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  Speaker 1: a hat of piebald straw in the place of the
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  Speaker 1: customary soft felt. He was evidently socially inclined. A most
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  Speaker 1: charming day, sir, he said, with a ringing tenor charming,
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  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, over a portion of pie, you are
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  Speaker 1: I perceive cycling through this delightful country, said the clergyman touring,
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  Speaker 1: explained mister hoopdriver. I could imagine that with a properly
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  Speaker 1: oiled machine there could be no easier nor pleasanter way
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  Speaker 1: of seeing the country. No, said mister hoopdriver, it isn't
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  Speaker 1: half a bad way of getting about for a young
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  Speaker 1: and newly married couple. A tandem bicycle must be. I
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  Speaker 1: should imagine a delightful bond. Quite so, said mister hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: reddening a little. Do you ride a tandem? No, we're separate,
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  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver. The motion through the air is indisputably
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  Speaker 1: of a very exhilarating description. With that decision, the clergyman
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  Speaker 1: turned to give his orders to the attendant in a firm,
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  Speaker 1: authoritative voice, for a cup of tea, two gelatine lozenges,
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  Speaker 1: bread and butter, salad and pie to follow. The gelatine
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  Speaker 1: lozenges I must have. I require them to precipitate the
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  Speaker 1: tannin in my tea, he remarked to the room at large,
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  Speaker 1: and folding his hands, remained for some time with his
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  Speaker 1: chin thereon, staring fixedly at a little picture of over
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver's head. I myself am a cyclist, said the clergyman,
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  Speaker 1: descending suddenly upon mister Hoopdriver. Indeed, said mister Hoopdriver, attacking
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  Speaker 1: the mustache. What machine may I ask? I have recently
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  Speaker 1: become possessed of a tricycle? A bicycle? Is, I regret
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  Speaker 1: to say, considered too? How shall I put it flippant
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  Speaker 1: by my parishioners. So I have a tricycle. I have
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  Speaker 1: just been hauling it hither hauling, said Jesse, surprised with
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  Speaker 1: a shoe lace and partly carrying it on my back.
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  Speaker 1: The pause was unexpected. Jesse had some trouble with the crumb.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Hoopdriver's face passed through several phases of surprise. Then
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  Speaker 1: he saw the explanation had an accident. I can hardly
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  Speaker 1: call it an accident. The wheels suddenly refused to go round.
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  Speaker 1: I found myself about five miles from here with an
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  Speaker 1: absolutely immobile machine. Oh, said mister Hoopdriver, trying to seem intelligent,
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  Speaker 1: And Jesse glanced at this insane person, it appears, said
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  Speaker 1: the clergyman, satisfied with the effect he had created, that
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  Speaker 1: I'm man carefully washed out the bearings with paraffin and
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  Speaker 1: let the machine dry without oiling it again. The consequence
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  Speaker 1: was that they became heated to a considerable temperature and
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  Speaker 1: jammed even at the outset. The machine ran stiffly as
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  Speaker 1: well as noisily, and I, being inclined to ascribe this
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  Speaker 1: stiffness to my own lassitude, merely redoubled my exertions ought
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  Speaker 1: work all around, said mister hoopdriver. You could scarcely put
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  Speaker 1: it more appropriately. It is my rule of life to
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  Speaker 1: do whatever I find to do with all my might.
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  Speaker 1: I believe, indeed, that the bearings became red hot. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: one of the wheels jammed together a side wheel. It
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  Speaker 1: was so that its stoppage necessitated an inversion of the
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  Speaker 1: entire apparatus, an inversion in which I participated, Meaning that
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  Speaker 1: you went over, said mister hoopdriver. Suddenly, much amused, precisely,
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  Speaker 1: and not bricking my defeat, I suffered repeatedly. You may understand,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps a natural impatience, I expostulated, playfully. Of course, happily
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  Speaker 1: the road was not overlooked. Finally, the entire apparatus became rigid,
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  Speaker 1: and I abandoned the unequal contest. For all practical purposes,
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  Speaker 1: the tricycle was no better than a heavy chair without casters.
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  Speaker 1: It was a case of hauling or carrying. The clergyman's
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  Speaker 1: nutriment appeared at the doorway five miles, said the clergyman.
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  Speaker 1: He began at once to eat bread and butter vigorously. Happily,
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  Speaker 1: he said, I am a eupeptic, energetic sort of person.
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  Speaker 1: On principle, I would all men were Likewise, it's the
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  Speaker 1: best way, agreed mister hoopdriver, and the conversation gave precedence
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  Speaker 1: to bread and butter. Gelatine, said the clergyman, presently stirring
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  Speaker 1: his teeth thoughtfully precipitates the tannin in one's tea and
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  Speaker 1: renders it easy of digestion. That's a useful sort of
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  Speaker 1: thing to know, said mister Hoopdriver. You are altogether welcome,
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  Speaker 1: said the clergyman, biting generously at two pieces of bread
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  Speaker 1: and butter folded together. In the afternoon, our two wanderers
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  Speaker 1: rode on at an easy pace towards Stony Cross. Conversation languished,
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  Speaker 1: the topic of South Africa being in abeyance. Mister Hoopdriver
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  Speaker 1: was silenced by disagreeable thoughts. He had changed the last
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  Speaker 1: sovereign at Ringwood. The fact had come upon him suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: now too late. He was reflecting upon his resources. There
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  Speaker 1: was twenty pounds or more in the post office savings
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  Speaker 1: bank in Putney, but his book was locked up in
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  Speaker 1: his box at the Enterbus establishment. Else this infatuated man
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  Speaker 1: would certainly have surreptitiously withdrawn the entire sum in order
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  Speaker 1: to prolong these journeyings, even for a few days. As
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  Speaker 1: it was, the shadow of the end fell across his happiness.
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  Speaker 1: Strangely enough, in spite of his anxiety and the morning's collapse,
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  Speaker 1: he was still in a curious emotional state that was
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  Speaker 1: certainly not misery. He was forgetting his imaginings and posings,
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  Speaker 1: forgetting himself altogether in his growing appreciation of his companion.
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  Speaker 1: The most tangible trouble in his mind was the necessity
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  Speaker 1: of breaking the matter to her. A long stretch up
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  Speaker 1: hill tired them long before Stony Cross was reached, and
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  Speaker 1: they dismounted and sat under the shade of a little
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  Speaker 1: oak tree. Near the crest. The road looped on itself,
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  Speaker 1: so that looking back, it sloped below them up to
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  Speaker 1: the right, and then came towards them. About them grew
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  Speaker 1: a rich heather with stunted oaks on the edge of
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  Speaker 1: a deep ditch along the road side. And this road
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  Speaker 1: was sandy. Below the steepness of the hill, however, it
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  Speaker 1: was gray and barred with shadows. For there the trees clustered,
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  Speaker 1: thick and tall. Mister hoopdriver fumbled clumsily with his cigarettes.
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  Speaker 1: There's a thing I got to tell you, he said,
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  Speaker 1: trying to be perfectly calm. Yes, she said, I'd like
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  Speaker 1: to just discuss your plans a bit. You know, I'm
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  Speaker 1: very unsettled, said Jesse. You are thinking of writing books,
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  Speaker 1: or doing journalism, or teaching or something like that, and
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  Speaker 1: keeping yourself independent of your stepmother. Yes, how long did
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  Speaker 1: it take now to get anything of that sort to do?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know at all. I believe there are a
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  Speaker 1: great many women journalists and sanitary inspectors and black and
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  Speaker 1: white artists. But I suppose it takes time. Women, you know,
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  Speaker 1: edit most papers nowadays. George Edgerton says, I ought. I
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  Speaker 1: suppose to communicate with a literary agent. Of course, said Hoopdriver.
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  Speaker 1: It's very suitable work, not being heavy like the drapery.
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  Speaker 1: There's heavy brain labor. You must remember that wouldn't hurt you,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Hoopdriver, turning a compliment. It's like this, he said,
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  Speaker 1: ending a pause. It's a deuced nuisance, alluding to these matters.
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  Speaker 1: But we got very little more money. He perceived that,
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  Speaker 1: Jesse started, though he did not look at her. I
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  Speaker 1: was counting, of course, on your friend's writing and your
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  Speaker 1: being able to take some action to day. Take some
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  Speaker 1: action was a phrase he had learnt at his last
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  Speaker 1: swap money, said Jesse. I didn't think of money. Hullo,
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  Speaker 1: there's a tandem bicycle, said mister Hoopdriver, abruptly and pointing
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  Speaker 1: with his cigarette. She looked and saw two little figures
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  Speaker 1: emerging from among the trees at the foot of the slope.
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  Speaker 1: The drivers were bowed sternly over their work and made
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  Speaker 1: a gallant but unsuccessful attempt to take the rise. The
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  Speaker 1: machine was evidently too highly geared for hill climbing, and
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  Speaker 1: presently the rearmost rider rose on his saddle and hopped off,
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  Speaker 1: leaving his companion to any fate he found proper. The
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  Speaker 1: foremost rider was a man unused to such machines and
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  Speaker 1: apparently undecided how to dismount. He wobbled a few yards
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  Speaker 1: up the hill with a long tail of machine wobbling
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  Speaker 1: behind him. Finally, he made an attempt to jump off,
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  Speaker 1: as one does off a single bicycle, hit his boot
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  Speaker 1: against the backbone and collapsed heavily, falling on his shoulder.
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  Speaker 1: She stood up. Dear me, she said, I hope he
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  Speaker 1: isn't hurt. The second rider went to the assistance of
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  Speaker 1: the fallen man. Hoopdriver stood up too. The lank, shaky
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  Speaker 1: machine was lifted up and wheeled out of the way,
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  Speaker 1: and then the fallen rider, being assisted, got up slowly
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  Speaker 1: and stood rubbing his arm. No serious injury seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be done to the man, and the couple presently turned
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  Speaker 1: their attention to the machine by the road side. They
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  Speaker 1: were not in cycling clothes. Hoopdriver observed one wore the
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  Speaker 1: grotesque raiment for which the Cockney discovery of the game
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  Speaker 1: of golf seems indirectly blameable. Even at this distance, the
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  Speaker 1: flopping flatness of his cap, the bright brown leather at
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  Speaker 1: the top of his calves, and the checkering of his
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  Speaker 1: stockings were perceptible. The other, the rear rider, was a
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  Speaker 1: slender little man in gray amateurs, said mister Hoopdriver. Jesse
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  Speaker 1: stood staring, and a veil of thought dropped over her eyes.
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  Speaker 1: She no longer regarded the two men who were now
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  Speaker 1: tinkering at the machine down below there. How much have you,
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  Speaker 1: she said. He thrust his right hand into his pocket
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  Speaker 1: and produced six coins, counted them with his left index finger,
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  Speaker 1: and held them out to her. Thirteen four half, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Hoopdriver. Every penny I have half a sovereign, She said.
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  Speaker 1: Our bill wherever we stop the hiatus was more eloquent
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  Speaker 1: than many words. I never thought of money coming in
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  Speaker 1: to stop us like this, said Jesse. It's a juice, nuisance.
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  Speaker 1: Money said Jesse. Is it possible, surely conventionality may only
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  Speaker 1: people of means live their own lives. I never thought. Pause.
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  Speaker 1: Here's some more cyclists coming, said mister Hoopdriver. The two
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  Speaker 1: men were both busy with their bicycles still, but now
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  Speaker 1: from among the trees emerged the massive bulk of a
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  Speaker 1: Marlborough club tandem ridden by a slender woman in gray
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  Speaker 1: and a burly man in a Norfolk jacket. Following. Close
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  Speaker 1: upon this came lank black figure in a piebald straw hat,
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  Speaker 1: riding a tricycle of antiquated pattern with two large wheels
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  Speaker 1: in front. The man in gray remained bowed over the bicycle,
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  Speaker 1: with his stomach resting on the saddle, but his companion
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  Speaker 1: stood up and addressed some remark to the tricycle riders.
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  Speaker 1: Then it seemed as if he pointed up hill to
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  Speaker 1: where mister Hoopdriver and his companion stood side by side.
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  Speaker 1: A still odd thing followed. The lady in gray took
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  Speaker 1: out her handkerchief, appeared to wave it for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: and then, at a hasty motion from her companion, the
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  Speaker 1: white signal vanished. Surely, said Jesse, peering over her head.
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  Speaker 1: It's never the tan tricycle began to ascend the hill,
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  Speaker 1: quartering elaborately from side to side to ease the ascent.
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  Speaker 1: It was evident, from his heavy shoulders and depressed head
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  Speaker 1: that the burly gentleman was exerting himself. The clerical person
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  Speaker 1: on the tricycle assumed the shape of a note of interrogation.
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  Speaker 1: Then on the heels of this procession came a dog cart,
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  Speaker 1: being driven by a man in a billycock hat and
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  Speaker 1: containing a lady in dark green. Looks like some sort
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  Speaker 1: of excursion, said a hoopdriver. Jesse did not answer. She
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  Speaker 1: was still peering under her hand. Surely, she said, The
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  Speaker 1: clergyman's efforts were becoming convulsive. With a curious jerking motion,
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  Speaker 1: the tricycle he rode twisted round upon itself, and he
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  Speaker 1: partly dismounted and partly fell off. He turned his machine
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  Speaker 1: uphill again immediately and began to wheel it. Then the
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  Speaker 1: burly gentleman dismounted, and with a curtly attentiveness, assisted the
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  Speaker 1: lady in gray to alight. There were some little differences
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  Speaker 1: of opinion as to assistance she so cleverly wished to
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  Speaker 1: help push. Finally she gave in and the burly gentleman
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  Speaker 1: began impelling the machine uphill by his own unaided strength.
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  Speaker 1: His face made a dot of brilliant color among the
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  Speaker 1: grays and greens. At the foot of the hill. The
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  Speaker 1: tandem bicycles now, it seems repaired, and this joined the
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  Speaker 1: tail of the procession, its riders walking behind the dog cart,
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  Speaker 1: from which the lady in green and the driver had
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  Speaker 1: now descended. Mister hoopdriver said, Jesse, those people. I'm almost sure, lord,
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  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, reading the rest in her face, and
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  Speaker 1: he turned to pick up his machine at once. Then
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  Speaker 1: he dropped it and assisted her to mount. At the
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  Speaker 1: sight of Jesse mounting against the skyline, the people coming
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  Speaker 1: up the hill suddenly became excited, and then did Jesse's doubts.
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  Speaker 1: At once, two handkerchiefs waved, and someone shouted. The riders
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  Speaker 1: of the tandem bicycle began to run it up hill
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  Speaker 1: past the other vehicles. But our young people did not
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  Speaker 1: wait for your further developments of the pursuit. In another moment,
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  Speaker 1: they were out of sight, riding hard down a steady
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  Speaker 1: incline towards Stony Cross. Before they had dropped among the
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  Speaker 1: trees out of sight of the hill brow. Jesse looked
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  Speaker 1: back and saw the tandem rising over the crest, with
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  Speaker 1: his rear rider just tumbling into the saddle. They're coming,
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  Speaker 1: she said, and bent her head over her handles in
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  Speaker 1: true profession style. They whirled down into the valley over
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  Speaker 1: a white bridge and saw ahead of them a number
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  Speaker 1: of shaggy little ponies frisking in the roadway. Involuntarily, they slackened, shoot,
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  Speaker 1: said mister hoopdriver, and the ponies kicked up their heels derisively.
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  Speaker 1: At that, mister Hoopdriver lost his temper and charged at them,
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  Speaker 1: narrowly missed one and sent them jumping the ditch into
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  Speaker 1: the bracken under the trees, leaving the way clear for Jesse.
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  Speaker 1: Then the road rose quietly but persistently, The treadles grew heavy,
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  Speaker 1: and mister Hoopdriver's breath sounded like a saw. The tandem
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  Speaker 1: appeared making frightful exertions at the foot while the chase
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  Speaker 1: was still climbing. Then, thank Heaven, a crest and a
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  Speaker 1: stretch of up and down road whose only disadvantage was
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: its pitiless exposure to the afternoon sun. The tandem apparently
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  Speaker 1: dismounted at the hill, and did not appear against the
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  Speaker 1: hot blue sky until they were already near some trees
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  Speaker 1: and a good mile away. We're gaining, said mister Hoopdriver,
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  Speaker 1: with a little niagara of perspiration dropping from brow to
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  Speaker 1: cheek that hill. But that was their only gleam of success.
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  Speaker 1: They were both nearly spent. Hoopdriver indeed was quite spent,
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  Speaker 1: and only a feeling of shame prolonged the liquidation of
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  Speaker 1: his bankrupt physique. From that point, the tandem grained upon
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  Speaker 1: them steadily. At the roofous stone, it was scarcely a
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  Speaker 1: hundred yards behind. Then one desperate spurt and they found
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  Speaker 1: themselves upon a steady downhill stretch among thick pine woods. Downhill,
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  Speaker 1: nothing could beat a highly geared tandem bicycle automatically. Mister
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver put up his feet and Jesse slackened her pace.
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  Speaker 1: In another moment, they heard the swish of the fat
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  Speaker 1: pneumatics and the tandem past Hoopdriver and drew alongside Jesse.
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  Speaker 1: Hoopdriver felt a mad impulse to collide with this abominable
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  Speaker 1: machine as it passed him. His only consolation was to
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  Speaker 1: notice that its riders, riding violently were quite as disheveled
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  Speaker 1: as himself and smothered in sandy white dust. Abruptly, Jesse
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  Speaker 1: stopped and dismounted, and the tandem riders shot panting past
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  Speaker 1: them down hill. Break, said Dangle, who was riding behind,
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  Speaker 1: and stood up on the pedals for a moment. The
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  Speaker 1: velocity of the thing increased, and then they saw the
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  Speaker 1: dust fly from the brake as it came down on
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  Speaker 1: the front tire. Dangle's right leg floundered in the air
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  Speaker 1: as he came off in the road. The tandem wobbled.
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  Speaker 1: Hold it, cried Phipps over his shoulder, going on downhill.
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  Speaker 1: I can't get off if you don't hold it. He
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  Speaker 1: put on the brake until the machine stopped almost dead,
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  Speaker 1: and then, feeling unstable, began to peddle again. Dangle shouted
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  Speaker 1: after him. Put out your foot, man, said Dangle. In
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  Speaker 1: this way the tandem riders were carried a good hundred
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: yards or more beyond their quarry. Then Phipps realized his possibilities,
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  Speaker 1: slacked up with the brake and let the thing go
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  Speaker 1: over sideways. Dropping on to his right foot with his
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: left legs still over the saddle and still holding the handles,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: he looked over his shoulder and began addressing the uncomplimentary
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  Speaker 1: remarks to Dangle. You only think of yourself, said Phipps
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  Speaker 1: with a florid face. They have forgotten us, said Jesse,
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  Speaker 1: turning her machine. There was a road at the top
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  Speaker 1: of the hill to Lyndhurst, said hoopdriver, following her example.
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  Speaker 1: It's no good. There's the money. We must give it up.
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  Speaker 1: But let us go back to that hotel at rufus Stone.
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  Speaker 1: I don't see why we should be led captive. So,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to the consternation of the tandem riders, Jesse and her
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  Speaker 1: companion mounted and rode quietly back up the hill again.
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  Speaker 1: As they dismounted at the hotel entrance, the tandem overtook them,
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  Speaker 1: and immediately afterwards the dog cart came into view. In pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: Dangle jumped off Miss Milton, I believe, said Dangle, panting
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  Speaker 1: and raising a damp cap from his wet and matted hair.
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  Speaker 1: I say, said Phipps, receding involuntarily. Don't go doing it again, Dangle,
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  Speaker 1: help a chap one minute, said Dangle, and ran off
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  Speaker 1: after his colleague. Jesse leaned her machine against the wall
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  Speaker 1: and went into the hotel entrance. Hoopdriver remained in the
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  Speaker 1: hotel entrance limp but defiant end of section recording by
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  Speaker 1: Tom Watts, Peachtree City, Georgia, U s A.