Jack glanced quickly at the Skipper’s face to see if all was well.
The Skipper was looking straight ahead in a fascinated manner as the end of the runway approached, and the shallow gulley that lay beyond. Too late now to shut down the engine and make another try. The next second would decide.
The Skipper pulled gently on the stick, the plane lifted ever so slightly, cleared the ground, dropped back again for one last little bounce—and then it was almost as if the intense concentration of those two men helped to lift that tremendous load into the air and hold it there.
They whizzed off the end of the runway and soared just above the shallow gulley which had been the grave-yard of an earlier attempt.
Once in the air, the plane gained altitude very slowly. Just ahead was the line of hangars, one of which had housed it for so many weeks. The Skipper turned the plane slightly so that they might pass between the hangars and a line of trees. The red obstacle light on top of the highest hangar was methodically flashing its warning. They cleared it safely by several feet and continued their climb.
By the time they had gone a mile farther, they had height enough to make a gradual turn and head into the rising sun.
As they came back over the field, escort planes came alongside, and in one of them a news-reel photographer was steadily grinding the crank of his machine, getting a record of their start.
The sun rose from behind a heavy bank of clouds and touched them, lighting up the orange wings till they seemed a blazing flame. The land beneath still lay wrapt in a blue haze. To their right a larger bank of threatening clouds was even then sprinkling its waters into the distant ocean.
The escorting planes came closer, looking tiny and unsupported, their whirling propellers perfectly visible against the blue-gray background.
By the time the “Dauntless” had reached the end of Long Island, all of them had turned back save one, and there its pilot, with his hands high in the air, sent them a last handshake and a wave, banked his machine sharply and left them.