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Bell twisted his throttle wide open and slapped his clutch lever

Thean arresting picture as Bell raced tight circles around the loco the machine into the air every time he crossed the humped train tracks at fortyhis front wheel felt wobbly The cahts still blazed Bell poured on the gas for one last jump

The wheel fell off

The motorcycle crashed down on its front fork The rear end left the ground, pivoted straight up, and catapulted Isaac Bell over the handlebars

Bell flew through the air — skull first — at the locomotive He tried to tuck into a somersault to fend off with his boots instead of his head, but he was flying at forty miles an hour As he hurtled, time seemed to stop for the tall detective It looked as if suddenly the operator were crankingthe filround pass lazily under hi on its front end with its back wheel spinning in the air, saw the camera itself, perched on its sturdy tripod, saw the wind fan, saw the colers all watching as if nothing were a stunts on motorcycles flew at locomotives every day

The steel behe as the sky An instant later, he sly sharp pain in his ankle told him that his somersault had saved his skull He bounced off the boiler, fell to the rail bed, and tus on the crushed stone

Sprawled, dazed, in the dirt, he heard people yelling

He sat up to put everyone’s ht he would be able to stand in another minute or two

The yelling stopped — except for the director as still calling through his aphone, “That was terrific! Let’s do it one more time!”

Isaac Bell climbed painfully to his feet, walked unsteadily to the wrecked motorcycle, knelt down, and inspected it

He felt in his jacket that his Browning was still in its holster and -fast reflexes, he had just survived the Los Angeles version of the Cincinnati, Chicago, and Jersey City attacks on Van Dorns who shopped in the Leipzig Organ stores

“Hurry it up,” the director shouted “We’re losing the light”

“Soon as you get me a new machine,” said Bell as he limped off in search of the mechanician who had tuned his motorcycle

The Hell’s Bells company had established a te Ignoring the pain in his ankle, he mounted the ramp the mechanician had laid to wheel the loomy interior in a sudden rush

“Marty,” he asked in a low and dangerous voice “Tell me who took a hacksaw to my front axle”