At that instant, to give point to his
words, the carriage came round to the door."
"Could you not follow it?"
"Excellent, Watson! You are scintillating this evening.
The idea did cross my mind. There is, as you may have observed,
a bicycle shop next to our inn. Into this I rushed, engaged a
bicycle, and was able to get started before the carriage was
quite out of sight. I rapidly overtook it, and then, keeping at
a discreet distance of a hundred yards or so, I followed its
lights until we were clear of the town. We had got well out on
the country road when a somewhat mortifying incident occurred.
The carriage stopped, the doctor alighted, walked swiftly back to
where I had also halted, and told me in an excellent sardonic
fashion that he feared the road was narrow, and that he hoped his
carriage did not impede the passage of my bicycle. Nothing could
have been more admirable than his way of putting it. I at once
rode past the carriage, and, keeping to the main road, I went on
for a few miles, and then halted in a convenient place to see if
the carriage passed. There was no sign of it, however, and so it
became evident that it had turned down one of several side roads
which I had observed.
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