1896. 



Tllh: A MKIHC 1 .V liEK- KEEPKR. 



(i!) 



outcry until I had passed beyond hl8 

 sight at the first turuiug of the road. 



I pedaleil sereuely ou, little realizing 

 what a couiuioiiou I had left behind 

 me, and the one funuy thing about this 

 most regrettable episode is that I spent 

 an exceedingly c^uiet, peaceful and en- 

 joyable day, not knowing I was pursued, 

 making no attempt to elude anybody 

 and yet eluding them in what appeared 

 afterward to be by subtle and crafty 

 dodges. The ujagistrate could not be 

 persuaded that my sitting on the ve- 

 randa of a restaurant in the main street 

 of Interlaken, with the bicycle in plain 

 view of everybody, was not the brazen 

 act of a hardened criminal, who knew 

 the police would be searching for him 

 in the back streets. 



When the man standing against the 

 doorway had recovered partly from his 

 amazement at my sudden flight on his 

 machine, he rushed to the police station 

 and told the authorities there a plausi- 

 ble foreigner had engaged him in polite 

 Ollendorfiaj conversation, and, while 

 Ilis mind was distracted in trying to f ol 

 low his remarks, had seized the oppor- 

 tunity and also the machine and was at 

 that moment making his way to the 

 Dorth road toward Interlaken. 



Now, capture under these circum- 

 stances seemed to be deliciously easy. 

 There were no branching off roads. The 

 mountains were on one side and the lake 

 on the other, ou neither side of which 

 was bicycling practicable. Therefore all 

 the two policemen had to do, when they 

 mounted their machines, was to ride 

 faster than I did, and so overtake me. 

 As I had no idea that a race was ov\ I 

 plunged along in a leisurely manner 

 and would undoubtedly have been taken 

 near Interlaken if it had not been for 

 the fact that some years ago a company 

 built a funicular lailway from the mar- 

 gin of the lake a mile or so up to St, 

 Beatenburg. I had lived in St. Beaten- 

 burg once, and I remembered that the 

 road from there to lulerlaken was a 

 good one, so I Ihouciht' that perhaps it 

 would not I e a bad plan to go up on the 

 railway and coast down to Interlaken. 

 I knew a nnm who had done it once. I 

 can well bt^lievo now that no one ever 

 tries it the second time. The car goea 

 up to St. Beatenburg threip or four times 

 a day only, but wht u a couple of miles 

 away from the ];uuling I saw a steamer 



coming in, and I knew if I reached the 

 lauding about the time she did I would 

 get a car. 



I am not a racer, but I thereupon put 

 in my best licks to make connection 

 with the mountain railway. The road 

 at this point is as level as th^ lake itself 

 and only a few feet above it. My 

 thoughts turned to the railway because 

 I knew that beyond the lower end of it 

 the carriage road rose high above the 

 lake, pa.ssed through several tunnels and 

 then went down to the Interlaken plain. 

 By taking the up car I would avoid all 

 this and have it down hill all the way. 

 The policemen, it seems, caught sight 

 of me as I was making my spurt, and 

 they at once put on extra steam, but 

 there is a deep bay just before one 

 reaches the funicular, and they lost 

 sight of me as I turned the point. I had 

 reached the top of the railway funicu- 

 lar, and I bicycled the mile or more 

 along the street, high up above the lake, 

 on one side of which is scattered the 

 village of St. Beatenburg, with its won- 

 derful view of the snow mountains — the 

 Jungfrau, the Eiger, the Moncb and a 

 host of others. 



I found the ride down the zigzag road 

 not such fun as I had expected. I saw 

 the brake was not going to last if I 

 kept on, so I had to walk most of the 

 way down. Coming to a more level 

 ground, I cycled gently into Interlaken, 

 making for the place where they sell 

 Munich beer, and there, over a mug 

 and a sandwich on the main street, I 

 made my frugal lunch, with the bicycle 

 standing against a pillar of the veranda. 



After a smoke I proceeded out of In 

 terlaken and took the south road that 

 borders the lake. This road is not so 

 good for cycling as the other, being 

 much more hilly, while the roadbed is 

 more stony. I therefore walked a good 

 deal, taking it very leisurely, and in 

 course of time I was overtaken by a po- 

 liceman, who also was walking his ma- 

 chine. He asked me if I had met a man 

 on a bicycle coming from Tbun, and I 

 told him quite truly that I had not. 



He seemed discouraged and told me 

 all about the bicycle theft and the arre.st 

 of the wrong man. He feared the thief 

 had hidden in the forest until he and 

 his comrade went past and then perhaps 

 twok the steamer across the lake, or the 

 villain might merely have pretended to 



