Remonstrances to him to leave the getting up of the machine to the many willing volunteers who had arrived on the scene were of no avail; he hated any sort of fuss, and only left for the paddock when the car was on the track again. It appeared the cause of the accident was the side of the bonnet, over which there was no strap, coming loose and hitting Harry on his forehead, dazing him for the minute. Later, holding out his goggles, complete, but splintered in a thousand pieces and covered with blood, Harry said: “Hang it all, these are my favourite goggles! Just fitted me before; only fit for Triplex display window now!”
We towed the A.C. home, very little damaged considering the jar it must have received in negotiating the parapet, and the whole of that night was spent in taking the body off and looking for any possible trouble. New wheels were substituted for the two completely buckled ones, and Harry raced the car the next day at the B.A.R.C. Meeting, where, unfortunately, engine trouble prevented him winning any races.
After the sprint records he had put up, Harry’s intention was to go for sustained and still greater speeds with the object of attacking world’s records irrespective of size before the end of the year, but he was only destined to live three more weeks, leaving the car, his loved car on which he had spent so much of his interest and time during the last six months, at the height of its fame, for others to carry on to the 120 miles per hour goal.
During this time, Harry and Sopwith displayed much enthusiasm in their two-stroke motor-cycle production, and they entered and themselves rode machines in many competitions and trials, with a good amount of success.
Harry designed and made in the works a special racing two-stroke cycle, but although he had it out on the road on its maiden trip, he was never to have it out on the track, and after his death the work on this cycle was not continued.
CHAPTER XXI
THE PASSING OF A BRAVE AVIATOR
“One moment stood he ... high in the stainless eminence of air. The next he was not.”