"come right in," said the landlord, stepping into the hospital. "we'll fix bikey up in a jiffy, and as for young mr. jimmieboy, we'll see what can be done to improve his appetite for our gutta percha pies."
jimmieboy glanced apprehensively at the old gentleman. he did not like the tone in which the remark was made.
"thank you, mr. landlord," he said, after thinking for a moment, "but you needn't bother about me. i can get along very well without liking them. the kind of pies that we have at home are plenty good[pg 62] enough for me, and i don't really care to like yours, thank you." jimmieboy had tried to be at least polite. the landlord laughed unpleasantly.
"humph!" he sneered, "that doesn't make any difference to us. article number seven, paragraph sixty-three, of the hotel laws of saturn requires that you shall like the food we serve at this hotel, whether you want to or not. therefore, what you want or don't want to like cuts no figure here. you will have to be operated upon, and that portion of your anatomy which does not welcome the best pneumatic pie that ever was made will be removed."
jimmieboy immediately perceived that he was in trouble, for the landlord spoke with great determination and, what was more, had locked the door behind him, so that the boy was practically a prisoner. escape seemed impossible, and yet escape he must,[pg 63] for no one could relish the idea of becoming a patient at the bicycle hospital. to gain time to think, he observed as civilly as he could:—
"it seems to me, mr. landlord, that that is a curious law. just because a traveller doesn't like the food at your hotel he's got to go to a hospital and stay there until he does like it. isn't that a trifle queer?"
"nothing queer about it at all," retorted the landlord savagely. "nothing queer about it at all. naturalest law in all the world. i'm not in business for fun, as i've already told you, and if i left any stone unturned to compel people to like my house i should be ruined. my guests have got to like everything, including me—i, myself, see? when i pay a big tax to the government for the privilege of doing business the government has got to do something to help me on in that business, and, fortunately for[pg 64] us, in saturn we've got a government that is just chock full of justice and common sense.
"when i first started up here nobody liked the food i served, and after coming here once most of them never came again. ruin was staring me in the face, so i went to the capital and i told the government that they had to do something for me, and they did. they passed an act compelling people to like my food under penalty of $500 a dislike, or six months in my hospital, where i am authorized to regard them as patients. now you can take your choice. you don't like the pie, you don't like the sausage, you don't like the rubber chops and the bicycle saddle stew you look upon with disfavor. there are four things you don't like.
"now you can do any one of three things. eat all four of these dishes, pay a fine of $2,000 or stay here in the hospital and undergo[pg 65] a course of treatment. i don't care which. there's one thing certain. i'm not going to let you out of this place until you like everything about it."
jimmieboy glanced uneasily at bikey, who was leaning carelessly against the wall as if he were not at all bothered by the situation.
"but i've got to go to school to-morrow, mr. landlord," he put in. "can't you let me off long enough to finish my term at school, and then when vacation comes maybe i'll come back?"
"no siree!" ejaculated the landlord. "i know what you are up to. you're nothing but a boy, and boys don't like schools any better than you like my pneumatic pies. you stay right here."
"oh, tell him you like 'em, jimmieboy," put in bikey. "tell him they beat mince all holler and pumpkin isn't in it with 'em.[pg 66] tell him life would be a barren waste and every heart full of winter if it wasn't for 'em. pile it on and let's get out. i'm getting nervous."
"well, so they are in a way," said jimmieboy. "the fact is, they're the finest pies ever made."
the landlord's face brightened up.
"to eat?" he asked eagerly.
"n-n-o," stammered jimmieboy. "not to eat—but to play football with or to use for punching bags."
the landlord froze up immediately.
"that settles your case," he snapped. "i'll put you in the violent ward and to-morrow morning we'll begin a course of treatment that will make you wish you'd liked 'em from the beginning. and now for you, sir," the landlord added severely, turning to bikey. "how about you and my pneumatic pies?"
[pg 67]
"oh," said bikey, with a joyful fling of his right pedal. "i simply adore those pies. indeed, if there's anything i love in the world it is gutta percha food. have you any rubber neck clams?"
the landlord beamed approval. "you are a bikleman of sense," said he. "i will order up a pneumatic rhubarb at once."
bikey's saddle turned pale.
"oh, please don't trouble yourself, mr. landlord," he said, pulling himself together. "i—ah—i should love to have it, for if there is one thing in the world i love more than rheumatic pneubarb—i mean rheubarbic pneumat pie—i don't know what it is, but my doctor has ordered me not to touch it for a year at least. 'mr. bike,' said he the last time i saw him, 'you are killing yourself by eating piebarb roobs—i mean roobarb pies—they are too rich for your tubes, mr. bike,' were his precise[pg 68] words. and he added that if i didn't quit eating them my pedals would be full of gout and that even my cyclometer would squeak."
"under the circumstances," said the landlord, with an approving nod at bikey, "i shall not take it amiss if you refuse to eat them. but your young friend here must remain and be treated. meanwhile, i shall have your wounds repaired and let you go. mr. jimmieboy will be sent forthwith to the violent ward."
"serves him good and right," jimmieboy was appalled to hear bikey reply. here he was off in a strange, wild place, in the hands of an enemy, who threatened him with all sorts of dreadful things, and his only friend had gone back on him.
"bikey!" said he, reproachfully.
"served you right," roared bikey. "not to like the good gentleman's pies. your father has told you again and again to always[pg 69] like what is put before you. you impolite child, you!"
jimmieboy's pride alone kept him from bursting into tears, and he sorrowfully permitted himself without further resistance to be led away into the violent ward of the inn hospital.
"to think that he should go back on me!" the boy sighed as he entered the prison. "on me who never did him any harm but break his handlebars and bust his tires unintentionally."
but jimmieboy, in his surprise and chagrin had failed to note the wink in bikey's cyclometer, which all the time that he had been speaking was violently agitating itself in an effort to attract his attention and to let him know that his treachery was not real, but only seeming.
"now," said the landlord kindly to bikey, as jimmieboy was led away, "let us attend[pg 70] to you. i'll call the doctor. doctor pump!" he added, calling the name loudly in a shrill voice.
"here, sir," replied the head physician, running in from an adjoining room.
"here's a chap who likes air pies so much that his doctor forbids him to eat them. i wish you'd fix him up at once," said the landlord.
"he must be insane," said dr. pump, "i'll send him to the asylum."
"not i!" cried bikey. "i'm merely punctured."
"his wheels have gone to his head," said dr. pump, feeling the pulse in bikey's pedals.
"nonsense," said bikey. "impossible. i haven't any head."
"h'm!" returned dr. pump, scratching his chin. "very true. in making my diagnosis i had failed to observe the fact that[pg 71] you are an ordinary brainless wheel. let me look at your tires."
bikey held them out.
"do you prefer homeopathic or allopathic treatment?" asked dr. pump. "we are broadminded here and give our patients their choice."
"what difference does it make in the bill?" asked bikey.
"none," said dr. pump, grandly. "it is merely a difference in treatment. if you wish homeopathic treatment we will cure your tires, which seem to be punctured, with a porous plaster, since like cures like under that system. if, on the other hand, you are an allopath, we will pump you full of rubber."
"i think i prefer what they call absent treatment," said bikey, meekly. "can't you cure me over the telephone? i'm a christian scientist."
[pg 72]
they had never heard of this at saturn, so bikey was compelled to submit to one of the two other courses of treatment, and he wisely chose the porous plaster to cure his puncture, since that required merely an external application, and did not involve his swallowing anything which might later have affected his general health.
meanwhile poor jimmieboy was locked up in the violent ward. it was a long low-ceiled room filled with little cots, and the lad found no comfort in the discovery that there were plenty more patients in the room.
"why, the room's full, isn't it?" he said, as he entered.
"yes," replied the bicycle attendant, who had shown him in. "in fact, everybody who comes to this house ends up here. somehow or other, nobody likes the landlord's food, and nobody ever has money enough along to pay the fine. it is curious how[pg 73] little money bicyclists take along with them when they are out for a ride. in all my experience i haven't encountered one with more than a thousand dollars in his pocket."
"how long does one have to stay here?" asked jimmieboy.
"until one likes the food," said the attendant. "so far nobody has ever got out, so i can't say how long they stay in years."
again the boy's heart sank, and he crawled into his cot, wretched in spirit and wholly unhappy.
"i've given you a bed by the window," said the attendant, "because the air is fresher there. the landlord says you are the freshest boy he ever met, and we have arranged the air accordingly. i wouldn't try to escape if i were you, because the window looks out on the very edge of the ring of saturn, and it's a jump of about 90,000,000 miles to anything solid. the jump is easy,[pg 74] but the solid at the other end is very, very hard."
jimmieboy looked out of the window, and immediately drew back, appalled, for there was nothing but unfathomable space above, below, or beyond him, and he gave himself up to despair.
but the boy had really reckoned without his friend bikey, who was as stanch and true as ever, as jimmieboy was soon to find out.
he had lain in his little bed barely more than an hour, when from outside the window there came a whisper:—"hi, there, jimmieboy!"
jimmieboy got up on his elbow to listen, but just then the door opened and dr. pump, accompanied by the landlord, walked in. so he lay back and the words at the window were not repeated.
dr. pump walked to the side of jimmieboy's cot.
[pg 75]
"well, young man," said he, "what do you think of air pies up here, now?"
"they're bully," said jimmieboy, weakly, and resolved to give in.
"h'm," said dr. pump. "bad case, this. i can't say whether of insanity or compulsion. there's only one course. we'll order a pie. if he's insane he'll eat it. if he is acting under compulsion"——
"i won't eat it," roared jimmieboy, springing up from his pillow. "i won't; i won't; i won't. i'll take cod liver oil on my strawberries first!"
his was evidently an awful case, for immediately dr. pump, the nurse and the landlord and every patient in the place fled from the room, shrieking with terror.
"good for you! you've scared them silly," whispered the voice at the window. "now, jimmieboy, hurry. jump out. i'll catch you and we'll be off. be quick, for they'll be back in a moment. jump!"
[pg 76]
"who are you?" cried jimmieboy, for he was still the same cautious little traveller.
"bikey! i only went back on you to help you!" he said. "jump!"
and then the door opened again, and the landlord and dr. pump and the nurses and all the patients and a platoon of policemen crashed into the room.
"catch him, quick!" cried the landlord. but jimmieboy had already jumped, landing upon the friendly saddle of bikey. in an instant he found himself speeding away through space.
"are we still on saturn?" he gasped.
"not we!" cried bikey. "that place is too hot for us. we're not on anything. i'm simply tumbling through the clouds and whirring my wheels for fun. i like to see the wheels go round. don't bother. we'll land somewhere."
[pg 77]
"but," cried jimmieboy, "where?"
and then there was a crash. bikey made no reply, but——
"here," said a well known and affectionate voice.
"where's here?" asked jimmieboy, faintly, opening his eyes and gazing up into a very familiar face.
"you interrupted me, my son," remarked the owner of the familiar face. "i was about to say, 'here now, jimmieboy, this business of falling out of bed has got to stop.' this is the fifth time in two weeks that i have had to restore you to your comfortable couch. where have you been this time?"
"off with bikey," murmured jimmieboy, rubbing his eyes and gazing about his nursery.
[pg 78]
"nonsense," said his daddy, the owner of the familiar voice. "with bikey? why bikey has been in the laundry all night." which fact bikey never denied, but nowadays when the incident is mentioned he agitates[pg 79] his cyclometer violently, and shakes all over as if he thought it was a good joke on somebody.
in all of which i am inclined to agree with him.
