Then Tim was ready to soar into the clouds again. The test flight was successful and the flying reporter was highly elated with the new Lark. He was ready to follow new trails through the sky in his quest for the news of the day.
One morning a copy boy stopped at his desk.
“Say Tim, Mr. Carson wants to see you.”
Tim’s slender fingers stopped their tattoo on the keys of his typewriter. Anchoring his notes securely under a piece of lead he used for a paper weight, he left his desk and walked down the aisle in the center of the big news room. At one end, on a slightly elevated platform, were the desks of the managing editor and the city editor, so located that the executives in charge of the paper could see at a glance just what reporters were in the room. Directly in front of the platform was a large, horseshoe shaped desk where half a dozen copyreaders were busy editing stories which were to go into the editions that day. At the center of the horseshoe sat the head copyreader, a gray-haired veteran by the name of Dan Watkins, who could spin many a yarn of the early days.
The copyreaders, engrossed with their work, did not look up as Tim passed by.
“Sit down, Tim,” said the managing editor, and he waved the flying reporter to a chair beside his desk. For a minute Carson was busy with the makeup editor, completing the final layout for the first page of the mail edition for that day. The layout finished, he turned to Tim.
“I’m well satisfied,” he commenced, “with the way you’re handling our plane. There’s just one thing, though, Tim. Sometime you may not be able to take the controls and then we’ll be up against it.”
“But you could get any one of half a dozen reliable pilots at the municipal field to fly for you in an emergency,” suggested Tim.
“I know it,” replied Carson, “but I want more than pilots. I want flying reporters. When I first gave you the assignment of handling our new plane, I felt sure that many of the big stories of the future will be in the air. Now I’m more convinced than ever. What I want is another flying reporter; someone that can take your place if need be. I want you to pick your man from the staff and devote the next few weeks to teaching him how to fly. I’ve made arrangements with the manager of the municipal field to give you whatever assistance you need.”
“That’s fine, Mr. Carson,” said Tim enthusiastically. “Does this mean you want me to take three or four weeks and give all my time to teaching someone on the staff to fly?”