LONG night-watches on the trackless Salt Desert of Asia Minor, the whirring bullets of Arab bandits, and a desperate fight for life were some of the concomitants of the strenuous honeymoon of James and Frau Gretchen Hetzel. They are two sturdy American cyclists, now in Philadelphia after an unsuccessful attempt to make a record for girdling the world awheel.

      Frau Hetzel, a comely girl, spent some time in the German Hospital recovering from the after effects of wounds received in an attack by marauding Bedouins during their perilous effort to cross the sandy wastes of Asia Minor. In the midst of that sterile, inhospitable plain the girl was shot down. For thirty-two hours she lay helpless, guarded faithfully by her husband, until aid came in the form of a friendly Berber chief. Inefficient medical treatment and the effects of rough desert journeying left her wounds still unhealed, and on her return to America some time ago she had to be carried from the steamer.

      On April 1st last year Mr. and Mrs. Hetzel were married in St. Mary's Church, St. Louis, Mo., and to the accompaniment of wedding bells and the cheers of the cyclists of the American League, who had assembled in their hundreds to bid them God-speed, the adventurous pair set out on a tandem bicycle to put a girdle round the earth. They were going to attempt to break all previous records, and hoped to win the standing prize of 5,000dols. offered by the International League of Cyclists to the tandem pair who should make the circle of the globe in two years.

      The cycle frame was of Hetzel's own make, and especially strong, for one of the conditions attached to the prize was that the frame should return in as sound a condition as when it began the trip. The tandem was therefore built throughout for heavy work. When fully equipped it was a veritable "armoured train." On either handle-bar were two big revolvers, really formidable weapons of awe-inspiring appearance.

      The run across Europe was a triumphal progress, but after that the troubles of the plucky pair began. They crossed into the province of Great Wallachia with the intention of proceeding to Cairo, and thence through Port Said to Bombay. From this point onward Mrs. Hetzel tells the story of her exciting honeymoon.

      "Our clothes and the machine," she said, "alarmed the superstitious peasants of Wallachia terribly, and whenever we passed any of them on the road they would run away, crossing themselves in abject terror. Some, bolder than their fellows, shouted after us, and some even threw stones; but we reached a place called Karakal, in Little Wallachia, in safety. The day after passing Karakal, however, we were attacked on a mountainous road by two ferocious peasants. They cursed us volubly and then commenced to throw down boulders. Owing to the badness of the road we could not ride away from them.

      "One of the stones hit me on the side and I fell off the machine in a heap. Then my husband got angry and began to use his revolver, and presently one of the fellows dropped. Thereupon they set up a great howling and ran away, but we were arrested at the next village and sent on to Bucharest."

MRS. HETZEL, THE PLUCKY LADY WHO SPENT HER HONEYMOON IN SUCH A UNIQUE MANNER. From a Photo.

      After spending three days in gaol in Bucharest the American Consul secured their release. Warned by their experiences they proceeded to cross as quickly as possible into Turkish territory, but nearly every day they were impeded, being arrested either by the Roumanians or Bulgarians on the charge that they were spies. The fear of espionage is the curse of these countries.

      "We finally got to Constantinople," continued Mrs. Hetzel, "and there we had a dispute with a Turkish police official. When we went in to report ourselves my husband had a tiny silk American flag stuck in the lapel of his coat. The police official seemed very angry when he saw us, and without any warning he darted at my husband, took the flag from his coat, and threw it on the floor!

      "That made us angry, naturally. My husband was so cross that, without thinking of what he was doing, he let the Turk have his fist straight between the eyes, sending him down like a nine-pin! Well, for this unheard-of assault we were promptly thrown into a dirty, ill-smelling cell, and kept there all night.

      "The American Consul, Mr. Dickinson, came to our aid next day, and we were set free. We could get no redress, however, Mr. Dickinson saying that we must call the flag incident square because my husband had hit the police official. Our revolvers, cartridges, papers, and pictures were taken from us, and we were both searched. Then they ordered us to get out of the country, and sent us across with an armed guard to Ismid.

      "At Ismid our belongings were returned to us, and we were left free to pursue our journey once more. We hoped to make a straight ride from there to Baghdad, but we were warned that, were we to attempt to cross the district of Kastamuni, we should certainly be waylaid and murdered by the marauding Kurds, so we made a long détour to Konia, by way of Brusa, Balikesri, Smyrna, and Denizli.

MR. JAMES HETZEL, IN THE COSTUME HE WORE ON THE JOURNEY. From a Photo.

      "Near Konia begins the great Salt Desert. Two hundred miles of that awful tract lay between us and Angora, and if we had but known of the days and nights of horror that that terrible dead land held for us we should never have set foot upon it. "It was on November 9th that we left Konia. The weather was warm and we were glad to leave the suffocating, dirty Arab town behind for the open. Two days later we left Insouyon, the last camel station, behind us, and pushed on into the depths of the desert. We had over 8olb. of luggage with us, and to ride in the fine, shifting sands was impossible; the weight of the bicycle alone sank it several inches in the sand. We could not ride a yard, but pushed and strove with the bicycle until we were ready to sink from fatigue.

      "The night after leaving the camel station we camped on the open desert. We ploughed the bicycle into the sand until it stood upright, and then stretched a cloth from front to rear and fastened it to the ground so as to make a tent. Underneath this we slept on a single piece of oilcloth — that is, we tried to sleep, but neither of us could close our eyes. My husband kept guard for four hours while I rested under the tent-cloth, and then I took a turn while he tried to sleep. We watched with a big revolver in one hand and a mosquito-brush in the other.

      "All this time we were between two dangers. One was the wild beasts that prowl through the desert, the other from the roving Berbers and Bedouins, murderous fanatics, who are far more dangerous than any wild animal. A fire would amply have protected us from wild beasts, but then it would have attracted the Arabs, who are always scouring the desert in search of plunder. Of the two we preferred to run the risk of the wild animals.

      "Early next morning, with only a few pieces of sugar-cane for breakfast, we started to push along through the shifting sands. It was terrible work — something like walking uphill on ice. We slipped back continually on the sand, and it seemed as if we could never make progress. On all sides of us stretched the monotonous red-grey plain. It became maddening, too, to be always in the centre of the picture. No matter how we struggled on, the sand still stretched the same distance in front, the same behind, and the same on both sides.

      "Suddenly, like specks, we saw four mounted men rising against the sky in front of us. They saw us about the same time, and opened out as they drew near. We soon saw that they were Arabs on camels. We did not fear them exactly, but their movements made us suspicious, and so we waited for them to come on.

      "Suddenly, when within a hundred yards of us, one of them slipped off his camel on the far side and almost simultaneously a bullet threw up a cloud of sand right at my feet. The fellow had fired from under the camel's body. It was to be a fight, then!

      "After this they all began firing. We crouched behind the bicycle, and many shots struck the frame and iron shield. Presently we were firing back. Our long-barrelled revolvers carried well up to sixty yards, and by this time the Arabs were drawing closer and closer. Soon one of the fellows fell, and at the same moment I was shot in the leg. Jim (my husband) stood. straight up and fired twice again, and another Arab dropped.

      "This fellow was in the rear, and the minute he was hit he threw up his arms and cried out: 'Allah il Allah,' and something more in Arabic. Jim told me that what he said was his death. cry: There is no God but Allah, and Mahomet is his Prophet — Allah receive me!'

"MY HUSBAND SHOT THE FOUR CAMELS."

      "The other two men ran back to their wounded comrades. They were all on foot by this time, and the camels, frightened by the shots, gradually wandered off. As my husband kept on firing the two fellows abandoned their comrades and went running off in the direction from which they had come, and we were left alone with the two wounded Arabs, one of whom died within a few minutes. The two Bedouins who had fled kept hovering round us about a quarter of a mile away. They were evidently afraid to come back for their camels. Knowing that without them they could not ride away and bring more of their tribe, my husband shot the four camels. After this final blow the discomfited marauders ran away, and we saw no more of them.

      "My husband dressed my wound as well as he could, but the pain grew awful. He dragged me for nearly half a mile in the hope of finding shelter, but finally had to lay me down on the hot sand. We were without water and without help.

      "All day long I lay on my back on the burning sand, sometimes fainting with pain, while poor Jim kept wandering round anxiously scanning the horizon for help.

      "Night came on. Jim covered me with the cloths and raised a bank of sand for my head, and then sat down to watch the night through. I shall never forget the way the stars came out that night. I lay staring straight up at them, watching them take their places one by one. I never knew before what silence was. Nothing was to be heard but Jim's breathing and my own. I must have been delirious, for I found myself listening to hear the stars twinkle! It seemed so natural they should do so.

"THE FIRST THING WE SAW IN THE MORNING WAS A SINGLE CAMEL-RIDER COMING STRAIGHT TOWARDS US."

      "Hour after hour passed, and at last dawn came. The first thing we saw in the morning was a single camel-rider coming straight towards us. Jim put the tandem in front of where I lay and leaned over me with his revolver, so as to be ready for the new-comer should he prove a foe. The stranger appeared astonished when he saw the four dead camels and the body of one of the Arabs in the distance — the other had disappeared in the night — and he cried out in good English: 'Halloa! What's the matter there?'

      "How good those English words sounded! He was an Arab chief, a caravan leader, and was going from Angora to Konia. He turned back at once when he knew what had happened, and promised to send a driver and camels from Angora for us. We waited all that day, and at night were relieved by the arrival of the transport.

      "A native doctor attended to my wounds in Angora, and the European residents sent us over the desert to the Gulf of Alexandretta, where we took steamer for Alexandria. I was a month in an hospital in Alexandria; but on leaving for Cairo my wound broke out afresh, and I had to lie up there for nearly six months."

      Subsequently the plucky pair abandoned their attempt to circle the globe, and returned home, where Mrs. Hetzel underwent treatment at the German Hospital, Philadelphia, for the effects of the wound she received at the hands of the Arabs in the desert. It is safe to say that she will never forget her curious honeymoon and the adventures it brought her.