On their way to the restaurant Watkins had carefully appraised Tim, recalled everything he could remember about the boy, and had reached a decision. He started the conversation over the white-topped table.
“I know what’s troubling you, Tim,” he began. “You’re afraid you’ll get in a rut. Right?”
Tim nodded, his eyes on fingers which were fumbling nervously with the silverware.
“I guess that’s about right,” he admitted, his voice low. “I don’t want to be a flying reporter all my life and I’m afraid I haven’t the background to get ahead. But there’s something more than that.” And Tim told the copy reader about the note from the Sky Hawk.
“Don’t let that worry you, Tim,” advised the veteran newspaper man. “It may be only a joke; it may not, but whatever it is, I have confidence you’ll be able to take care of yourself. Right now there is something we want to thresh out. A minute ago you said you didn’t think you had the background to get ahead. What do you mean by that?”
“Well, I’ve only had a high school education and it takes more than that to get ahead in the modern newspaper world. I’ve got a fine job now, piloting the new plane, but in a few years I won’t be fast enough for that. Then what? Oh, maybe the weather has made me blue, but I’ve gotten into an awful muddle.”
“I think you have,” agreed the veteran of the copy desk, “and it looks like it’s high time for your uncle Dan to straighten things out for you.”
“I’ve seen lots of young chaps go through this same trouble,” he went on. “Some of them snapped out of it while others went under. But listen to me, Tim,” and there was rare charm and power in the words, “You must never let this thing get your goat. You’re made of too fine material.”
Tim started to reply but Dan waved his words aside.
“You have the opportunity of a lifetime,” he continued. “Here you are—young, capable, and with aviation in its swaddling clothes. Within ten years it will be a giant among giants and the newspaper man who knows aviation from the ground up will be in an enviable position—a position to command real power and respect.”