ked, her hair undone, her
body streaming with perspiration, and to work, to work, to make up for
lost time! In the mornings, alone on the deserted stage, she practised and
practised....

"Come on!" said Jimmy. "And mind you do your work properly," he added,
with a laugh, "or else, you know ..."

And he patted the back of his hand.

"I don't care!" said Lily.

"You may break your head, you know," continued Jimmy, to try her.

"It's none of your damned business if I do! Show me your tricks. To
work!"

And Jimmy showed her a movement to execute on her bike, which she had
brought with her: balancings, as in "Bridging the Abyss," an excellent
training for the aerobike. And Lily went about it clear-eyed,
hard-cheeked, with all the little muscles contracted on her stubborn
forehead, ready to butt at the obstacle. A few falls to begin with, but
she jumped up again nimbly:

"That's all right!" she said. "It's part of the game!"

"But stop, stop," insisted Jimmy. "Be careful!"

They were sometimes on the stage for hours at a time, but to Lily, all
wrapped in her work, it seemed so many minutes. She understood the jerk
which she was to give at the moment when, after rolling along the inclined
plane, she should shoot out into space for the soaring flight of fifty
yards:

"The start, that's the great thing with the back-wheel," she observed.
"The rest goes of itself."

"Don't cry till you're out of the wood!" said Jimmy. "It'll be different
when you're riding the aerobike."

Lily was longing to begin that famous practice! And, a few days later, she
at last had that delight, took that further step toward triumph. Jimmy
removed the bird from the cage, fixed it on a stand. When Lily sat in the
saddle, she was crimson with pleasure, prouder than a princess sitting on
a throne for the first time:

"There," she said. "Here I am! And what next?"

Jimmy explained the complicated touches--"Press your left foot, there,
like that, to make it point upward"--and showed how, explained why; then
he passed to the working of the handle-bar--"There, like that, to turn it,
there"--and how and why the saddle slipped backward and forward.

"And then?"

"That's all."

"That's all?" repeated Lily. "That won't want any smackings! Let's see,
like this, eh? Then that. Suppose I'm coming down at full speed. I throw
myself backward, a back push, there, like that. A kick, gently, there,
that's it. I'll do it as soon as you like! This minu