Death Devil's Bridge

by Robin Paige

  The coroner chuckled dryly. “Poor Dickson, indeed! Appropriate punishment, I should say. A civil penalty, where a criminal could not be got.”

  Kate found herself agreeing. “Still,” she said thoughtfully, “it is Dunstable who must bear most of the responsibility for what happened this weekend, don’t you think? He was the one who brought those men here, and set them at one another’s throats—all with the hope of making money. Not to mention that he is a particularly odious man.”

  Charles looked up from the pipe he was lighting. “I think, Kate, you will have nothing to fear concerning Dunstable. I, too, heard from Marsden. If rumor be trusted, the British Motor Car Syndicate is not long for this world. We will shortly learn of a falling out between Ponsonby and Dunstable, and Dunstable will be the next victim of Threadneedle Street. Not a moment too soon, either. We can only hope that some British inventor will emerge with a truly distinguished British vehicle, to give us parity, at least, with the German and French. Whether gas or electric or steam—”

  “Do you think electric and steam have a chance?” Laken asked curiously. “After the beating those two cars took this weekend, I should say not.”

  “You’re probably right,” Charles said. “Electricity holds great promise, but must wait for the invention of a primary battery. And steam has been around long enough to have worked out the engineering problems, but people are still afraid of it.”

  “What about Henry Royce?” Kate asked. “He seemed to show some interest toward the end of his visit. Do you think he will take up the challenge?”

  “It would be a good thing if he did,” Charles said. “I daresay he would construct a motorcar that would be as reliable as a watch and as durable as the Tower of London.”

  “You have a great deal of faith in that gentleman, Sheridan,” the doctor said. “But at least we have something to be glad for. The motorcars are gone and our village is left in silence.”

  “For the moment,” Harry Hodson said glumly. “But they’ll be back. In a few years, every man Jack will have one. It’ll be worse than bicycles.”

  Charles laughed. “And you shall have one, too, Harry. Once the thing is perfected, keeping a motorcar will be much less work than keeping and driving a horse.”

  “I doubt it,” Hodson said, frowning. He turned to Kate. “I trust, though, Kate, that you enjoyed your balloon flight.”

  Kate brightened, remembering the several times she had flown on Monday, after Rolls finished the repair and before the balloon was finally packed for return. “Oh, very much indeed!” she exclaimed. “Of course, the balloon was tethered, but that did not detract from the experience, for me or, I am sure, for Bess Gurton, or Miss Marsden.”

  The flight Kate made with Bess had been memorable. Seeing Bess’s ecstatic face as she rose into the heavens, watching her enjoy the colorful autumn landscape spread out below and pick out her neighbors’ houses and her own with Charles’s field glasses—it had been a pure delight. “I think the vicar was equally pleased with his flights,” Kate added. “I have no doubt that his sermons over the next few months will be decorated with aeronautical metaphors, and all the villagers will be eager to go up.” She paused, thinking about the experience. “Do you suppose one day everyone will have flown in a balloon?”

  “Not in balloons, I shouldn’t think,” Charles said. “They are essentially uncontrollable, which makes them fit for little other than sport. Motorized, heavier-than-air flight will soon be possible, however.”

  The doctor chuckled. “I’ll wager a fiver that chap Rolls will be one of the first to try it. What a daredevil that fellow is! But he could not win Lady Henrietta’s heart. I understand that she put an end to his friendship with Miss Marsden.”

  “I think Miss Marsden put an end to it herself,” Kate said. “She is planning an around-the-world photographic tour, you know. A grand adventure of her own.”

  Harry Hodson shook his head. “I’ve never thought much of gallivanting young ladies, especially when they are un-chaperoned. What Lady Henrietta can be thinking—” He scowled. “And of course, there is Roger Thornton. He must be beside himself at the thought of that headstrong young girl, going off God knows where—”

  “I think,” Kate said quietly, “that Roger Thornton has nothing to say about where Miss Marsden goes. In my opinion, her refusal to consider the match has saved them both much unhappiness.”

  “I quite agree,” Dr. Bassett said with wry humor. “No man would want a wife who photographs his misdeeds and then shows them about.”

  “Speaking of photographs,” Charles said, getting to his feet, “I wonder if you would like to see the X-ray photographs I made yesterday of the bones of my hand. They are really quite remarkable. Would you care to come down to the laboratory?”

  The men all rose. “Ah, science,” Hodson said with a half-bitter mockery. “What subtle secrets it reveals! The latent pattern of the tip of the finger, the shadow of the bone beneath the flesh.”

  Dr. Bassett, however, was more impressed. “The bones of the hand,” he marveled. “Think of the applications in medical science. And who knows? Soon we may be able to watch the very heart as it beats.”

  “And soon,” Kate said, rather more somberly, “we will have no secrets at all.”

  HISTORICAL NOTE

  “Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it were so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be: but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”

  —LEWIS CARROLL

  Through the Looking Glass

  You will find three historical personages in Death at Devil’s Bridge: Charles Rolls, Henry Royce, and Harry Lawson (to whom we have given the name Harry Dunstable). Since you have met them early in their automotive careers, you might be interested in knowing more about them.

  Charles Rolls (1877-1910) was one of the first men in England to challenge the government’s restrictions on the speed and operation of motorcars. He was only nineteen when he imported a three and one-half horsepower Peugeot from France, at the time, the most powerful car in England. (Compare this to the 12-horsepower riding lawn mower you can see on sale at your local discount store.) The next year, Rolls became a member of the Automobile Club in London, and began to take part in auto races and reliability trials. In 1900, he and his 12-horsepower Panhard took first prize in the London-Edinburgh race, and over the next few years, he competed in most major European races, making a name for himself as an amateur racing-car driver. He also began selling imported cars (the New Panhard et Lavassor and Minerva were his specialties), and in 1903, went into the new- and used-car business in Brook Street, Mayfair.

  Henry Royce, meanwhile, was making a different kind of history. Royce was born in 1863 and established himself, after early years of hardship, as an electrical engineer with a special genius for refining the work of others. His first such effort was an electric doorbell, but he was soon turning out an improved electric motor that earned a reputation for reliability and durability. Sometime after 1896, he became interested in automobiles and acquired a two-cylinder 10-horsepower Decauville which he rebuilt several times, finally creating the first Royce automobile.

  It was at this point that Royce (the engineer and manufacturer) and Rolls (the dealer and promoter) came together. At an historic meeting in Manchester in 1904, they agreed that Rolls would have the exclusive right to sell Royce’s new automobile, and that he would exhibit the forthcoming models at the Paris Salon in December, under the name Rolls-Royce. To promote the car, Rolls drove it in competition in Europe, America, and England, demonstrating its speed and dependability. In only a few years, the Rolls-Royce was England’s premier automobile.

  Rolls’s daredevil streak showed itself not only on the ground but in the air, and as his interest in flight grew, his fascination with automobiles diminished. He was an eager participant in ballooning, making over 170 ascents. His first documented balloon-auto chase took place in 1902, some years after the event at Bishop’s Keep, from which he no doubt to
ok the idea. But with the coming of heavier-than-air flight he abandoned balloons for the aeroplane. In 1908, he went to France to study Wilbur Wright’s new biplane, and bought one. He was soon an expert aviator. In June 1910, he made a record crossing of the Channel by flying nonstop from Dover to Calais and back in ninety minutes. The next month, he was flying in a restricted-landing contest in Bournemouth when the overstressed tail of his plane collapsed. He was killed almost instantly, the first English-man to die while piloting a plane. Five years later, the Rolls-Royce company was faced with financial ruin when the luxury car market collapsed at the onset of the Great War. To save itself, it turned to the production of aircraft engines, for which it gained world renown.

  Harry John Lawson’s story is less laudable, but opens an interesting window onto early automotive history in England. From all reports, Lawson seems to have possessed the promoter’s brassy business expertise and extroverted self-confidence. He started in the bicycle business in 1876. From bicycles, he moved into company promotions, buying up valuable patents, launching high-sounding companies, and getting out before the bubble burst. In 1895, he began to take over the infant motorcar industry. For over two years, his market manipulations and refusals to manufacture (why make cars when one could make more money by merely selling stock?) virtually blocked the development of the industry. But in 1897, his elaborate edifice began to crack, and by the end of that year, it was gone, and with it the stockholders’ money. In 1904, Lawson was prosecuted for fraud and went to jail for twelve months at hard labor.

  REFERENCES

  We use both primary and secondary documents in our research for this mystery series. Here are a few books that we found most helpful in creating Death at Devil’s Bridge.

  Beasley, David. The Suppression of the Automobile: Skulduggery at the Crossroads. London: Greenwood Press, 1988.

  Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. S. O. Bee-ton, 1861.

  Bird, Anthony and Ian Hallows. The Rolls-Royce MotorCar. New York: Crown Publishers, 1972.

  The British Journal Photographic Almanac & Photographer’s Daily Companion. London: Henry Greenwood, 1895, 1896, 1897, and 1898.

  Cottrell, Leonard. Up in a Balloon. London: World Wide Ltd, 1970.

  Cummins, C. Lyle, et al. A History of the Automotive Internal Combustion Engine. Warrendale, Pa.: The Society of Automotive Engineers, 1976.

  Davies, Jennifer. The Victorian Kitchen. London: BBC Books, 1989.

  Eves, Edward. Rolls-Royce: 75 Years of Motoring Excellence. London: Eldorado Books, 1979.

  Morgan, Jerome J., Ph.D. A Textbook of American Gas Practice. Lancaster, Pa.: Lancaster Press, Inc., 1925.

  Nicholson, T. R. The Last Battle: The Birth of the British Motor Car, Vol. 3. London: MacMillan, 1982.

  Rolt, L. T. C. The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning, 1783-1903. New York: Walker & Company, 1966.

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