TALES OF THE ROAD.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1624, 16 December 1912, Page 8

TALES OF THE ROAD.

. THE.ROUGH EIDER. (By Will Lawson.—All Rights Reserved.) From one : end of the district to the other, he was cordially hated by the other lawful users of the King's highways; on his motor-cycle he traversed every highway and .byway in his capacity as stock agent, and when it is said that he wore out a set of lyres in six weeks, the speed and recklessness of his riding may be .gauged. -As one 'driver,' whose liorso had been nearly scared off the road, said: "He's a darn fool, riding a loud noise through the ,country,'. and there ought le a law to stop it." But the Kough Rider went on with his hare-brained racing. To meet him suddenly round a sharp curve -was disquieting, and how he got round some of the corners at the pace was a problem to many. 'Uphill or'down were the same; his machine was "tuned up" to concert pitch and there is no doubt he rode it well—his boast always was that ho never left the saddle on a journey, that is, he was never stopped or compelled to dismount or push the machine through any fault in the engine or in his riding. "If she goes, over the bank," he said to an anxious friend, "I'll go too." Which showed he had pluck, or, it may be, an inability-'to realise what going over the bank meant—mostly it would mean death. In the townships he rode warily, for the police -were there; but in the open roads he -was.a terror. The Rough Rider had a hundred-mile ride •to do, and he was going to do it fast. Veryearly in the morning he was out getting his machine in perfect tune, and when he rode her out into the road and opened her throttle, there is no doubt I she was running well. When a- motor 1 runs well there is always a great temptation to give, her the "gas," and let her go. The Rough Rider was not the one to resist it—in. fact'if could not be said tliat he had any ideas or resistances at all. •■ He could do only one thing well, and that.was what he was..doing, and the only idea he had was to stick to the saddle and ride wherever he wanted to go. As he scorched along the white road .he was a. trim-looking. yoiith—red-cheeked and bright-eyed, with a cheeky up-turned hose and a rather heavy chin—too heavy to denote strength and so showing stolidity and an unconscious-singleness of purpose. •Reeling round a corner on an upgrade he met a nervous horse attached to a cart. So sudden was the cyclist's appearance and so alarming the roar of his engine, the horse propped and plunged towards the edge of the hill-road. When the driver had. steadied him,, tho Rough Rider was half-a-raile away up the hill. A dozen such similar cases occurred yet' never a pause he made, for he was out to cover. 100 miles in three hours. In the course of his. ride he had to cross the railway some half-dozen-times, and as he rode he. heard the whistle of the express which was running in the same direction as himself. The Rough Rider looked acros the level paddocks and saw the smoke of the train rising above a cutting.' She was running almost level with him, and he would have to travel to get'to the crossing first. Gladly he-let his engine out more and raced for the crossing. . ',''■■* The engine-driver blew onei warning whistle and opened his engine out, too; thus from two. points they raced for -the place where' their paths would converge, with every prospect of getting there together. But the Rough Rider was' first by about three yards, nm\ he turned a grinning face to the engineman . as ho swung the turn', in the road and raced level with them.- The train had a straight, run to■ the next crossing, three miles further on. But the road (lipped andtwisted a lot, so the Rough Rider had to go fast to get there first. He managed, it. and kept • ahead all the way. Ho called this "playing tag with the express/' and could not see anything but fun in it.) But he wasn't born to be killed on the railway. -.. Forty miles out he came to a long,, winding, descending hill; 'this he took at the' same wild pace,' and quite suddenly round a curve rushed a motor-car. If the Rough Rider, had been running more slowly,, he couldi have made the turn in the small space, allowed—the motor-car could not-go any slower without stopping. He hit the near ; splash-board, and that is all the Rough Rider remembered for several days. - The-driver of the car,,-who was a personal friend "of the Rough Rider, hardly left him until on the fourth day he opened his eyes and smiled quite sensibly. "Bad smash," the Rough Rider said, weakly, "wasn't, it, old man?" .The other nodded and'said, "Yes, but don't talk, boy." For, a time he was silent.- Presently he went on, "I-saw your splash-boaTd, and I knew I would hit it, and I wondered whether I would dip again and hit the other splash-board or just fly over them both." "You flew over them both," the; friend said. "I saw yon in the. air." ' ; "Did you ? Tel Hue, did I stick to her ?" "Ye*, boy, you did, but you were upside down." : The invalid's bandaged face was twisted in a grin; a look of contentment wasin .his eyes. "Upside down and still sticking to her," he muttered. Those were the last words he ever spoke.