A BAD TWIST It was about the middle of the afternoon that I found myself bowling along a smooth highway, bordered by trees and stretching itself almost upon a level far away into the distance.

Had I been a scorcher, here would have been a chance to do a little record-breaking, for I was a powerful and practised wheelman.

But I had no desire to be extravagant with my energies, and so contented myself with rolling steadily on at a speed moderate enough to allow me to observe the country I was passing through.
There were not many people on the road, but at some distance ahead of me I saw a woman on a wheel.

She was not going rapidly, and I was gaining on her.

Suddenly, with no reason whatever that I could see, her machine gave a twist, and, although she put out her foot to save herself, she fell to the ground.