H. L. Sayler

“ By two o’clock, each of the crew—except Ned—had gone through the final formality of farewell and mounted into the car. The big aeroplane, silent and strong, stood on the starting-ways facing the east, as if anxious for the touch that was to start its planes into vibrant life. Just within the open window of Mr. Atkinson’s office Mr. Latimer sat at the telephone, watch in hand. Just without, his shirt sleeves rolled to the elbows but with a heavy gray sweater on his arm, stood Ned. And, as in all crucial moments, the editor and Ned were speaking of the thing least related to their real thoughts. ”

“ OF THE NEW YORK HERALD.
“Three sets of follow or tandem planes project, with slight dihedral angles, for from eighty to forty feet on each side of the body of the craft, a wing width never before attained. Yet, in flight, the enormous craft is readily held aloft, with all its load, by wings that are no more than seven and one-half feet in chord—from front to trailing edge. Although it will be incomprehensible to many how such small lifting surface can elevate such a heavy structure, this becomes apparent when the airship is seen at rest. ”

“ The editor did not argue. Turning to the map, his form straightened. A smile of assurance seemed to blot out the traces of night. With a sweep of his arm he described a wide curve from New York to London. His smile deepened. Dropping his other hand on Ned’s shoulder he exclaimed:
“There is your real course. You are next to one of the greatest achievements ever accomplished by man. Do it or attempt it in good faith and the Herald stands ready to pay you $50,000.” ”

“ As Roy slid down the ladder into the store room to open the engine room trap door and drop the metal crane into place, Ned stepped onto the port gallery at the bow of the car, from which station he had an unobstructed view below. Their objective point was in sight. Just before them rose the jagged sky line of New York’s skyscrapers. Where these ended on the south, the spidery arch of the big bridge sprang seaward to drop in the less distinct Brooklyn. ”

“ So, all other things being equal, we have a theory that like a migrating bird, the higher we ascend, the faster our flight. And, one other thing. The faster you rise from the earth the less the force of gravity. At eight miles altitude, where the air pressure is one fourth that at the sea level, and where, mathematically,” he looked at the astonished editor mischievously, “the two hundred mile an hour aeroplane would be traveling at the rate of eight hundred miles an hour, it has already been calculated that the specific gravity of the airship would be two per cent less than at sea level. ”

“ They are always astonished when the tide turns. They doubt the fact until the rising water swashes their noses. But they have learned one thing—unless they beat old Fundy they’ll need no more clams. They fly before the swift tide and race for the farm. Their grunts are expressions of astonishment and anger. You’ve just heard the racing pigs of Fundy. For further details consult the skipper of any old New Brunswick lumber lugger.”
For a few moments Alan and Roy eyed Ned in silence.
“I guess you’re right again,” said Roy soberly as he turned to his desk and took up his chart. ”

“ When the Flyer shot over Woburn all knew that it was but twenty miles further to Ipswich where the real flight over the sea was to begin. Ned had not yet appeared. At exactly forty minutes and twenty seconds after three o’clock the Flyer passed over the main wharf of Ipswich at an elevation of 2,800 feet. Beautiful summer homes stretched along the bay on each side of the town. In the rear lay the bare granite hills and the derricks of great quarries. ”

“ If we started back in an hour it’d take us as long to reach New York. Even subtracting the five hours in time we gain, we’d reach New York sixteen hours and thirty minutes later. That means, leavin’ London at six P. M., we’d get to New York at half past ten the next morning. We can’t loaf along at that rate. We’ve got to do one hundred and eighty miles an hour—and better!”
He jammed his book into his pocket and started painfully toward the pilot room. On the gallery he paused a moment to look over the Flyer—hurling itself like a comet toward the distant sea—and at the panorama beneath. ”

“ Alan merely nodded his head, with a quick glance below, and then brought the airship slightly off the southeast breeze. There was a small dip to port, enough to make Ned and Roy “give” in their legs like old sailors on a pitching deck and the starboard door flew fully open. As the craft righted on a level keel again Ned explained:
“Take the lookout below, Osborne, and if we miss, pass the word to Alan at once by tube. I’ll attend to the crane.” ”

“ He knew from the gale pushing against him that their speed was increasing. Then he hobbled back into the pilot room and stood by the speed register. It had increased to two and one-third miles a minute. Never had any other man driven vehicle passed through the air at that speed. But it was not enough. Slowly, the indicator arm trembling, the needle reached a shade over two and one-half miles and then paused.
“Is that your best?” asked Ned calmly and slowly.
“She’s got it all,” responded Alan, his eyes on the compass binnacle and his hands gripping the rudder wheel. ”

“ I’d like to be something. ‘Chief Oiler’ would suit me!”
“Like as not,” answered the amused Roy. “But, you see, you’re a sort of guest. They don’t take chances with guests. And I’m a paid hand.”
The speed of the Flyer was so terrific that there seemed no long view of any one point. No sooner was a hill or town plainly sighted than the lightninglike airship seemed over it and, in a few more minutes, the place had faded into gray astern. The moment Alan announced to Roy that Woburn was in sight Bob called to Buck:
“Then Boston’s also in sight ten miles abeam.” ”

“ You boys have the airship that can do this and I think you have the daring to try it. If you do it with no other purpose than to show that a flight across the Atlantic is a possibility, you will get for it glory and fame—both empty rewards. ”

“ Even Major Honeywell started with astonishment. The newspaper man shook his head.
“Beyond sixty miles an hour,” he replied in a puzzled tone, “speed doesn’t mean much to me. I can’t realize what it means to travel one thousand miles an hour.”
“Here’s an illustration,” volunteered Alan. “At one thousand miles an hour, an aeroplane could circumnavigate the globe, in the latitude of Paris, in seventeen hours.” ”

“ We certainly can’t make a landing at the Herald office in the city. And if we can’t do that in New York we can’t do it in London. Where do we land in London within a few minutes motor run of Fleet Street?”
“And we’ve got to have a fourth man,” added Bob. “Are we going to select him or will the Herald want to send one of their own men?”
“Those things’ll work out,” exclaimed Ned. “But they’ll have to be worked out and we haven’t any time to waste. I think we ought to invite the Herald man out to see the machine. He’ll certainly want to meet some of the business men we know.” ”

“ For the last fifteen minutes a new problem had mystified him: “Why was his managing editor so interested in the new aeroplane?” The cross examination he had undergone the night before gave him many clues. The instant Bob Russell spoke of a Herald burgee for the Ocean Flyer, Buck’s mental short circuit was repaired: “They’re goin’ to represent the Herald,” he concluded instantly—not stopping to reason,—“and this car is goin’ to cross the Atlantic. Whatever these kids meant to do, the boss has now hooked up with ’em. The biggest thing they can do is to fly to Europe. ”

“ I don’t know how high we are nor what is below us, land or water.”
“In that case,” said Ned, drawing himself slowly up the ladder, “after we passed, it must have looked as if the Flyer had no one aboard. We should have dropped a message or waved a handkerchief or dipped our colors. By the way,” he added, “the baggage is all right I suppose? Where is it?”
“Buck,” called out Alan, “stow that package away safely. It’s a valuable bundle.”
As Ned drew himself stiffly into the pilot room and Alan was about to follow up the ladder Buck called to him. ”

“ Alan,” said Ned turning to his chum, “you haven’t said anything.”
But Alan made no reply. Gazing at the floor, he sat as if lost in thought.
“You could carry these men; two writers and a photographer?” asked the editor.
“Oh, there’d be no trouble about that; that many and enough persons to operate the car. I think we could even give the photographer a dark room,” answered Ned. “What do you say, Bob?”
“I’m on from the start, if you put it up to me,” exclaimed Russell who had now wholly recovered his equanimity. “We could do it without turning a hair.” ”

“ When Bob came back down the hall both Ned and Alan were busy at their desks, in which all sorts of mail had accumulated.
“Hey,” called Ned as Bob passed the door on his way upstairs. “Here’s an idea. There isn’t one of us really fit to go up there and have luncheon with the Herald man. Let’s ask him down here. This is the place to talk it over; we’ll cut out the eatin’.”
“It may happen to be just our host’s time for eatin’,” laughed Bob.
“I’ll chance it,” answered Ned, “on the theory that newspaper men can always go without food. ”

“ If we don’t know and can’t measure that, we’re as helpless as the old sea dog who navigates ‘by guess and by God.’ We may guess right on its velocity when we start a flight, but in a little while the whizzing sound dulls your sense of speed. ”

“ The car was speeding out of Jersey City on the marsh road westward toward Arlington.
“If every flight we have made over these marshes had left a mark in the air,” remarked Alan, “that sky up there would look like a waffle.”
“Are all three of you equally old in this aviation business?” asked the editor smiling and unconsciously looking skyward as if he really expected to see a maze of aerial paths.
“Bob is what we call an auxiliary,” explained Alan. “He hasn’t flown as often as he wanted to but he’s no tenderfoot. However, his chance is comin’. ”

“ The pigs must forage for themselves. From living on the sea shore the porkers have learned that clams are succulent and fattening. When the tide is in, there is no beach on which to pick up a dinner. When it is out, it is good and out. The forty feet that it rises gives a beach two or three miles wide in places when the tide is out. Seeking the freshest and fattest clams, the Blue Nose pigs follow the receding tide as far as they can. Then occurs something that proves one is right when he calls another a pig—meaning the other has a pig intellect. ”

“ In spite of the injunction of the engineer of the Universal Transportation Company (which by the way had no business connection with the American-Aeroplane Company although Mr. Atkinson was a heavy stockholder in each) that experiments should be made for several days to ascertain the wind pressure on the new airship in flight, it was at once agreed that these voyages must be made at night.
“The first appearance of such an unusual craft,” the editor argued, “would certainly attract wide attention. Publicity is bound to follow. The car ought never to appear by day until the real flight is made.” ”

“ He sprang to the pilot house ladder and then stumbled back and threw himself on the floor at the door. The panic that had seized him and Bob was lessening. His muscles still numb with sickening fear, his mind had begun to work.
“Another line,” he panted to Bob, “the starboard buoy, Stewart,” he added quickly, “don’t throw till we make you fast. Wait!”
But the reporter gave him no heed. Buck, who had not yet cast his life line, hung poised like a cat.
“Keep your nerve, Ned,” called out Alan hoarsely, “we’re goin’ down. We’ll get you in a minute. Hold on!” ”

“ Beyond a row of these, marking Bayswater Road, lay a vast oasis of shrubbery. With a long curve to the east and north Alan followed Buck’s continued directions and in a few moments all made out the landmark that each had fixed in his mind—the Marble Arch gate that stands at the Oxford Street and Park Lane entrance to the park. ”

“ With the first bark of the condenser Roy was awake. Only Ned stood to his post while Alan, Roy and Buck got out the detail maps of England, London and vicinity.
“Now,” almost shouted Alan to Buck, “get busy.” And he explained the situation. “These places all look alike to us. You know London and the country around it. We want the least settled place nearest to Fleet street that can be reached quickly by motor. Some open, smooth spot where the police are asleep. Some place that the Herald men will know without description. You’re the English pilot, as well as cook and rudder greaser. ”

“ Latimer, the night city editor of the Herald, who for four days, representing both the Herald and Telegram, had been preparing for the great event. He told Buck and Bob of the special edition which contained features of all kinds that might interest Englishmen or represent the good wishes of Americans from Canada to the West Indies.
The engineer’s final report on the direct or “as a bird flies” route between New York and London was complete in all details. To Alan, a mathematician and calculator himself, it appealed as a fine picture interests an art connoisseur. ”

“ The real reason was that the editor had entertained friends at the theatre and lingered long at the supper after. But in Buck’s mind, it could only be because the books on “How to be a Journalist” all said the real newspaper man is always at the right place in a news crisis.
Without a question to his guide, the young newspaper man deferentially followed Mr. Latimer down the long, half-lit hall, through the ground glass door into the anteroom where, in the day time, a colored Cerebus sat in state, and thence into the not over-large room of the director of the great paper. ”

“ As they arose from the table Ned volunteered to explain.
“First, we must have a pilot constantly at the wheel. But his duties are not simply to keep a lookout ahead. His chief concern is to watch the control of the machine by counteracting the influence of unexpected air currents and those atmospheric obstructions that Bob calls ‘ruts.’ It can’t be denied that there are unexpected and indistinguishable puffs of air that will bump an aeroplane just as a rock or a piece of wood will bounce an automobile in the air.”
“You are the pilot, I take it?” commented the editor. ”

“ In all their aeronautical experience, one constant annoyance had been their inability to estimate exactly the speed at which they were traveling. Advancing either with or against the wind—which is always in motion a few hundred feet above the ground—they always had to take the readings of the anemometer with allowances. With the airship speeding into the wind, the pressure set up by the aeroplane itself was increased by the force of the encountered wind. The flight of a balloon directly upward is accurately determined by the barometer. ”

“ If those congregated near the airship had the impression that Captain Napier would start with some ceremony or formality they were disappointed. Although Alan, Bob, Roy Osborne and Buck were now on the gallery above, each in some stage of excitement or concern, Ned made his way up the ladder as calmly as if preparing for one of the nightly tests.
His first words aboard were, “Buck, you seem to have less to do than any one else. We’d better make you purser as well as steward. Here’s a thousand dollars,” and he shoved the bills into the reporter’s hands. “Take care of it till we need it. ”

“ Buck was not exactly superficial but his peculiar and animated face never betrayed a lack of knowledge.
“Up the ladder,” added Alan, and Major Honeywell led the way up a step-ladder to a short flight of landing steps lowered from a side gallery along the lower deck. Reaching this little metal gallery or walk, the boys led the two visitors astern to the end of the enclosed part of the airship and up a stairway that passed around the after part of the car to the second deck and from that to the top, where a protected walk or bridge extended the length of the airship car. ”