Precious minutes were passing. The Skipper felt that the time had come to go and that saying good-bye to Kiwi would be too much of an ordeal for him. So he turned to Bert and said huskily:
“Say ‘good-bye’ to Kiwi for me. I am trusting you to take good care of him. As far as I can see, everything has been provided for, and I know he will be safe in your hands.”
Fearing to trust himself to say more, he hurriedly shook hands with his close friends, gripped Billings’ hand hard and slapped him on the back. Then he climbed up into the cockpit, where Jack was already waiting, and the motor was started.
As the engine was warming up, the crowd could see through the glass window the Skipper laughing nervously at some remark of Jack’s. Then he opened the throttle and the huge engine made a tremendous uproar as he gave it a final try.
Billings stood at one side, his practised ear listening for the slightest skip in its measured beat.
The Skipper throttled back the engine, leaned out of the window, and motioned for Billings. As he came up, the Skipper said, “How does it sound? All right?”
Billings, who had listened to many engines in his day, who had seen many men trusting their lives to them, and who had heard that same question asked many times before, felt a lump rise in his throat as he realized the tremendous responsibility that rested upon him and upon his answer. He gulped hard, and then choked out, “All right, Captain—and the best of luck to you,” waved to Jack, and motioned to Cosgrave to pull out the chock from under the wheel on his side.
Billings and Cosgrave stepped back, and for a few moments that were awful in their suspense they waited for the flight to begin.
The engine opened up gradually, took hold, and the plane slowly started to roll along—the slow roll which was to start the Skipper and Jack off on an epoch-making flight that would carry them across the wide Atlantic, over the Mediterranean, and on to India. The engine had started, and for seventy hours it would have to keep up an uninterrupted flow of power.
The plane gathered speed, rocking gently as the tail left the ground.