“What!”
“Quit your kidding.”
“Say it again.”
“You’re dreaming.”
These and a chorus of similar exclamations greeted Andy’s quiet statement. He said it in such a matter-of-fact way that most of the men in the room thought he was joking and he had to repeat his statement two more times before they took him seriously.
“Wait a minute,” he added. “I’ll read you the telegram that came this afternoon.”
He pulled the message from his pocket and read his father’s words. When he had finished they were all grave. There was no question now. They were going to the North pole on their first great test of the new airship. Every man in the room knew something of the dangers of a polar flight and they admired Andy’s father for his courage in sending the Goliath on such a voyage.
“We’ll make a lot of flights to various cities in this country,” explained Andy, “before we start on the long trip north so the ship will have a thorough test and we’ll know just exactly what she’ll do.”
“She’ll do everything the specifications call for and more too,” exclaimed one of the rigging foremen and his words represented the sentiment of every expert in the room for they all had explicit confidence that the Goliath would live up to expectations of her designers and builders.
“When do you think we’ll be ready for the test flights?” one of the helium experts asked Andy.