“Best story we’ve had in months, Tim,” congratulated Carson. “And the Transcontinental is going to replace our plane so you can go cloud-hopping again.”
“I’m glad you liked the story,” replied Tim, “And it’s great of the Transcontinental people to buy a new plane, but I felt I sort of fell down on the story. I should have caught those fellows.”
“Nonsense,” exploded the managing editor. “It wasn’t your fault the posse wasn’t on the job. You did everything you could.”
“Yes, I know,” said Tim, “but it makes a fellow’s blood boil to think of flyers who will stoop as low as that pair. Besides, they’re apt to try the stunt again. Not with the death ray but with something else. The airways aren’t patrolled like the highways and some mighty valuable cargoes are carried by plane these days.”
“Kind of riles up your Irish pride at the thought of them getting away, doesn’t it?” asked Carson.
“Guess it does,” admitted Tim, “but you don’t want to be too sure they’ve gotten away. Next time it will be a different story.”
“I hope there isn’t a next time,” said the managing editor, and he picked up the handful of copy he had been reading when Tim came in.
News is news but for a day and then it fades from the front pages to become only a matter for memory, and so it was with Tim’s adventure with the sky bandits.
For a few hours he received the praise of his fellow reporters. Then his deed was forgotten in the hurry and bustle that is part of a great daily newspaper. Tim would not have wished it otherwise. He had no desire to be a hero, even in the News office, and considered the entire incident as nothing more than a part of his duty, for reporting takes its followers into many a situation which calls for quick thinking and steady nerves.
In less than two weeks the new plane which the Transcontinental Air Mail company had agreed to buy to replace the one wrecked by Tim in the Cedar River valley arrived and was uncrated at the municipal field. The mechanics were busy several days assembling the plane and another day was required for the ground tests.