Timms was busy with a long-distance call to the department of justice in Washington, informing his chief there of the latest development at Bellevue. When he finished, he turned to talk with Andy and Bert.
“Half a dozen army pursuit planes, fully equipped for combat, will drop down here tomorrow morning,” he said. “They’ll remain until the Goliath is ready to take the air and after that at least two of them will accompany the big ship on all of its trial flights. In addition, an anti-aircraft battery with complete night lighting equipment will arrive before sundown tomorrow.”
“That ought to insure us against the success of any attack from the air,” said Andy.
“From the air, yes,” conceded Timms, “but our danger will lie from an attack within. Everyone who comes on the reservation from now on will be doubly checked.”
By ten o’clock that night every possible precaution to safeguard the Goliath had been taken. The military guard around the grounds of the National Airways reservation had been doubled, and extra watchmen had been placed at the hangar. It didn’t seem humanly possible for anyone to get within the lines without discovery.
Descriptions of the mysterious plane had been broadcast hourly from the principal radio stations and a mass of information had been received, telegrams having been relayed from the radio stations to which they had been sent.
These messages were checked, one by one, against the large map which had been hung on one wall of Andy’s office. On this map had been worked out the probable course of the strange plane. It had come out of the northeast, swung over the home of the Goliath, and then darted away in a southeasterly direction, heading toward the mountains.
Telegrams which failed to indicate a plane in this general line of flight were consigned to the wastebasket. The few that might furnish information were studied carefully but in a majority of cases the description of the plane which the sender of the message had seen failed to come close to that of the machine they sought.
Timms found several messages which appeared worth telephone calls to the senders but on each occasion he was doomed to disappointment.
“I thought you said we’d have some definite news before midnight,” he told Bert.