How you may Best Defend Yourself when Attacked by Modern Highwaymen, Showing how you should Act when Menaced by Foot-pads, when Chased by another Cyclist, and when Attacked under various other Circumstances; Showing, also, how the Cycle may be used as a Weapon.
BY MARCUS TINDAL
It is a mistake to suppose that all the romance of the night roads is past and done with — the romance of the merry old days when highwaymen lay in wait for the benighted traveller on every lonely bit of country road, in every wood, on every stretch of common. Attacks by foot-pads on cyclists recall at least some of the glamour of the old stand-and-deliver times to the minds of those who read of these highway robberies every now and again in the papers — though the cyclists assaulted may not look upon the matter in quite so romantic a light!
It might appear at first sight that a cyclist would fall an easy prey to a highway robber, especially at night time — that he could be attacked with more certainty of success than could a horseman. In the first place, a cyclist riding at night will usually comply with regulations, and carry a lamp. Thus he will herald his advance from afar off. He is astride a steed, moreover, from which he may be upset far more easily than if he were astride good, solid horseflesh — a stick in the spokes of his wheel, a sudden jerk to the handle-bars, or a wire stretched taut across his road — and he is thrown, inevitably.
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