“But what have they done? It must be something serious.”
“It is serious. You remember the Windsor Bank Robbery of over a week ago, where the cashier was killed and nearly a half a million dollars, mostly in large bills was stolen? The two men who did the job escaped in an auto. They were chased to a large wooded tract just about nightfall. When the pursuers closed in, they found the car but the men and the money were gone.”
“I remember that and also the mystery of their escape from the hundreds of men that surrounded the woods.”
“They did not escape through this fence of men, but over them. As soon as I had gone over the ground, I found tracks of where an aeroplane had made a short run in a break in the woods and could easily have shot upwards above the trees and away. The place was far enough from the edge of the woods, to enable the roar of the motor to go unheard as the two men fled away in the night.
“The run to the woods and the flight in the aeroplane was most likely planned ahead by the two men and would have remained undiscovered had it not been for a mark made in the soft ground by two small cuts in one of the aeroplane tires. It was one chance in a thousand that we ever found the aeroplane tracks and one in a million that it left the print of these two small cuts in the tire’s tread. Hundreds of aeroplanes are being driven across that part of the country each day and it would have been practically impossible to find the one that made the track if it had not been for the two small cuts. My men have informed me that the aeroplane of Kidwell and Dexter has a tire on it with two small cuts the same size and distance apart as the two marks left in the woods. I have just arrived and we expect to arrest the two aviators within the next few minutes. I thought I would notify you first, as I realize it will stop your exhibition flight for the Fair.”
“If these two men are murderers and robbers, as you state, I want you to arrest them at once—exhibition flight or no exhibition flight. You will have to hurry or wait until—listen—” The President broke off and turned his head to one side to hear better.
A roar of a multitude cheering came to the two listening men—the huge crowd at the Grand Stand were splitting the air with deafening cheers for something. “They are up and off.” The President continued after listening awhile. “You will have to wait until they come down. They are up to beat the world’s highest altitude record. Here is one of our advertisements for today. Read it.”
Pemberton took the paper that was handed him and read the following:
“WILL TRY TO BEAT THE WORLD’S
HIGHEST ALTITUDE RECORD”
STATE FAIR—AUGUST 25, 19—
Kidwell and Dexter—the world’s most daredevil aviators will try to beat the world’s highest altitude record for an aeroplane. They will use the latest type of aeroplane with new wing devices for climbing and flying in the rarefied air of miles above the earth. They will carry an extra supply of oxygen. They will have the latest thing in wireless telephone instruments and will be in constant communication with the receiving station established in front of the Grand Stand. To the receiving instrument will be attached a sound magnifier and those within a radius of several hundred feet can listen to the account from the aviators’ own lips as they circle up—up—up.