“Our field is a little bumpy but we’ll try and make up in hospitality what we lack in air accommodations,” said Andy.
“The field is O.K.,” smiled Lieutenant Crummit. “A couple of the boys came in too fast and bounced a little high but they’ll soon get over that. We’re all glad to be here where we can watch the completion of the Goliath.”
“I understand several ships will be detailed to accompany us on all trial flights,” said Andy.
“Those are the orders direct from Washington,” said the lieutenant. “Now, somebody tell me what all the fuss is about?”
They walked over to the office where Andy and the secret service chief explained in detail every event of the preceding twenty-four hours.
“That does look serious,” said Lieutenant Crummit, “especially since you have an admission from the agent of the Gerka you caught here that an attempt was to be made to destroy the Goliath. At least you can feel reasonably safe from an air attack. Anti-aircraft equipment with night lights will be in tonight and the unit also carries special microphones for the detection of planes in flight. Any craft approaching here will be known while it is miles away and we can give it a warm reception.”
Assignment of the army flyers to quarters had been held up pending Andy’s return and he arranged for them to have accommodations at the hotel, six of the construction foremen agreeing to give up their double rooms and move over to the company houses on the reservation proper.
It was late afternoon before Andy was alone in his office with an opportunity to go over the day’s mail There were several important looking letters on top but he shuffled through the stack until he came to one in his father’s familiar writing. He slit it open and read it eagerly. It was with a real feeling of relief that he learned his father and Captain Harkins would return late the next day, coming in on a special National Airways plane. His father wrote that final arrangements had been finished for all of the delicate apparatus which was to go into the control room of the Goliath and that, unless there were unforeseen developments, everything was now lined up so that construction would be completed ahead of schedule.
The afternoon freight train brought the anti-aircraft unit, with its searchlights, field pieces and other equipment. The twenty-five men of this company were housed in company quarters, which had been vacated only the week before by a crew which had finished its work.
Before nightfall Bellevue had been turned into a truly military camp with its strict guard around the grounds of the National Airways plant, the army planes ready to take the air at any time of day or night, and the great searchlights, crouching under their shrouds of canvas, eager to send their searing blue-white beams tracing through the night sky.