Bob Giddings carried home a copy of this schedule, and the following Monday morning all four young men met by appointment in the private office of the publisher of the Daily Independent. After they were seated, Mr. Giddings brought forth the tentative draft, studied it a few moments, and then asked:
"What is your fuel capacity, boys?"
"Our tanks will hold enough gasoline and oil to carry us a little better than five thousand miles, throttled down to an average of one hundred and twenty miles an hour, the basis on which we figured out this schedule, sir," answered John.
"Would it make a difference if you flew faster than that?"
"Oh, yes," said John; "the faster a pilot flies the more fuel he uses per mile. Full out—that is, going at the limit of her speed—the Sky-Bird probably would not cover more than three-thousand miles."
"I am glad to know this," said Mr. Giddings. "I see that your cruising radius is sufficient to cover your longest jumps at any reasonable speed. Let me see; you allow yourselves three hours' stop at each airport; will that be long enough?"
"Plenty, sir," said Tom; "we figure that we can easily refuel in that time, and attend to any local affairs we may have."
"I notice your total mileage is exactly equal to the estimated circumference of the world," remarked the publisher. "That shows great care in the selection of this route to meet my viewpoint; but may I ask how you know your distances between airports, as here recorded, are correct? From whence did you get these mileages?"
"Bob and I figured them out, sir," spoke up Paul.
"How?"