“there goes the red arrow!” said ned, standing beside tom in the control cabin as the air monarch mounted the air and they could look down on the earth. “he made good time!”
“i’ll say he did,” agreed tom, who was turning on a little more power, now that his craft was in the air. “some bus he’s got there, too!”
the red arrow hydroplane was, in truth, a craft not to be despised. kilborn had left the starting field in a swift automobile. he had given orders that the motors of his hydroplane were to be kept turning over so that he could get aboard and start at once. this he had done, and, as she was moored not far from the aero field, had taken the air only a little behind tom swift.
“there goes the dirigible—i mean modby’s,” went on ned, who was viewing the start of the other contestants while tom attended to the running of his machine.
“he must have had some trouble with his motors,” the inventor stated.
“he did,” agreed ned. “he’s a bit late in starting. well, i wish modby all sorts of luck, but i’m afraid he hasn’t much of a chance.”
professor modby was considered a friendly rival, for he and tom had been associated in aeroplane research on several occasions. the cloud, as the big dirigible had been named, was now soaring into the air, but her speed was as nothing compared to that of the air monarch. ned noticed, however, that the red arrow was a very fast machine, and she might prove a dangerous rival, for she was not as heavy as tom’s craft.
“but this is only the beginning,” murmured the young inventor, as he noticed how the red arrow was picking up speed. “we’ve got to go twenty days yet—more or less,” he added, with a grim smile.
bob denman, the millionaire sport, had started from the flying field in a rush in one of his high-powered cars. he was off to catch a special train that would hurry him across the united states. he said he would take a special steamer in san francisco, cross the pacific, and then, by means of other special trains and boats, endeavor to come in ahead of everybody else.
jed kimball, in an aeroplane somewhat like the red arrow, also got off to a good start, but some of the other contestants, especially one in a free balloon, did not have such good luck. one of the big hydrogen gas balloons, of which there were several, was caught by an adverse wind soon after rising and entangled in a clump of trees. tom and ned had only time to observe this before they were out of sight, speeding on their way over the atlantic ocean.
there was no rule as to what direction the contestants must take in this world race. they could start east or west. those who started west would cross the united states and then go over the pacific, as bob denman planned to do. they would come to the japanese islands in due time, cross china, persia, the top of africa, perhaps go across the mediterranean sea and so reach the atlantic. crossing this they would again reach the eastern shore of america and so complete the circuit.
tom’s plan, and that of the red arrow and several hydroplanes, dirigibles and other aircraft, was to cross the atlantic first, then go over europe and asia, reach the pacific, and eventually get to the western coast of the united states, crossing that as the last leg of their journey.
when he had seen to it that the motors were working well under the care of peltok, brinkley and hartman, tom let the linguistic foreigner take the controls while he and ned went to their stateroom, which they shared in common, to go over the route in detail.
“this is going to be our route, ned,” said tom, as he laid a large map on the table and pointed to a red line approximately running along the fortieth degree of north latitude. “we’ll cruise due east from where we started, bearing a bit south, and head for the azores.”
“going to land there?”
“not unless we have to,” said tom. “we’re going to keep moving all the while.”
“at the rate of two hundred and fifty miles an hour,” said ned, “we can——”
“we can’t keep up a speed of two fifty per hour for more than a little stretch at a time,” interrupted tom. “in fact, i don’t expect to reach that rate for another day. it would rack my engines to pieces to maintain it for any length of time. i can do it, but i’m going to save that burst of speed for emergencies. no, if we can average a hundred miles an hour in the air we’ll be doing well. and when we have to land and taxi along, or when we have to go as a boat, we won’t do that, of course.”
“where do you go from the azores?” asked ned.
“we don’t exactly go to the azores islands,” corrected tom. “we’ll fly above them if i hit the right route. from there we head for spain, move along across the mediterranean and over the northern part of turkey and then across china. we may land in the philippines before we complete the trip across the pacific.”
“and then from there you’ll head for san francisco i take it?” asked ned.
“that’s the idea. you know, don’t you, that i had the airline express sent on to ’frisco to be held in readiness there?”
“yes, you told me you did,” admitted ned. “but i didn’t quite grasp the idea.”
“simply providing for emergencies,” went on tom. “the air monarch may have a breakdown when we get over the united states again, and if an express machine is waiting for me i can just hop aboard her and complete the trip—on time i hope.”
ned turned again to the route map, and then glanced out of the cabin windows.
“we seem to be having it all our own way for the present. nothing else is in sight,” he stated.
“it’s getting a bit hazy,” remarked tom as he glanced at several gages and distance indicators on the wall. “we’re over the ocean now.”
“over the atlantic so soon?” cried ned. “that’s right, quite a way out too, i hope,” he added. “let’s see what peltok says.”
they went to the steering compartment where the man who spoke so many languages was guiding the craft.
“we are a hundred miles out from the end of long island,” peltoc stated, after making some computations.
“whew!” whistled ned. “a hundred miles and we haven’t been going an hour.”
“oh, yes, it’s a little longer than that,” said peltok, with a smile. “but we are making fairly good time. i have increased the speed a little,” he said to tom.
“that’s right. we want to make all the distance we can while the weather is good and while we have daylight. night flying is going to slow us up a bit. if you don’t believe you’re pretty well out, ned, look down!” invited tom.
he pulled a lever and ned gave a cry as the bottom of the craft seemed to open, disclosing below him heaving ocean waves!
