“Well, we will talk it over later,” said Mr. Ridgeway. “Perhaps I can help you. At all events, I will take you with me until the dirigible is mended. It will not be a long job. I hope O’Brien is feeling well. He must have been stiff and sore after that bout. We will have a lot to tell Mrs. Ridgeway.”
They got the dirigible up safely and sailed off in the direction of the young republic, Bill declaring that hobnobbing with royalty had utterly ruined Hank as a machinist.
Four hours later they had reached their destination and were once more waiting for Mr. Ridgeway to get through the complicated ceremonies of meeting the heads of the new nation. Messengers raced here and there, telephones buzzed, lights flashed up in the state hall, and finally while Lawrence and the others dozed in the lobby of the nearest hotel, the President and Cabinet indicated their readiness to receive the messenger from the big republic across the sea.
An hour later, when Mr. Ridgeway saw that the meeting was to be a long one, apparently to impress him, he telephoned to the patient waiters to have supper. They obeyed with great cheer and then settled themselves for another long wait.
When Mr. Ridgeway finally appeared it was so late and his bruised head was throbbing so that Lawrence suggested spending the night there.
Hank and Bill went back to the dirigible, and Mr. Ridgeway secured a large room with twin beds for himself and Lawrence. It was a comfortable novelty to find themselves between clean sheets again, and they were almost too comfortable to go to sleep immediately.
So they talked awhile, of the fight, and Van Arsdale, and the jewels, and the journey, and its pleasant ending, and a hundred times Lawrence started to tell Mr. Ridgeway about himself and stopped. More and more the feeling had come that perhaps there was nothing in it after all, and in that case he decided that no one should ever guess what high hopes had filled him, or what black disappointment had followed.
CHAPTER XV
Noon the next day found them over England, searching out one of the aviation fields that had been arranged at frequent intervals since the end of the Great War.
Airships of all sorts were so commonly used that this was a necessity. All Country Clubs had them, as well as extra hangars for visitors. At most fields there were instructors, most of them American, just as golf instructors are almost always Scotch. And the finest fields had wide exercise fields where beginners and children could potter around in safety.