In glowing language he pictured the scene that must have taken place. A plane loitering in the night over the hills and valleys of the Cedar River in the path of the air mail. Then the red and green lights of the mail as it flashed out of the west, a quickening of the vulture’s motor, a short dash through the night, a flash of invisible death, the mail plane careening down—a dead and fluttering thing.
And Tim wrote more, much more—of how he had found the motor of the mail plane a congealed mass, the pilot’s body a husk of a man, burned by a powerful but invisible electric ray.
Still Tim went on. He told how the invisible ray recently invented and of which little was known, could be shot from a small gun. He described how he had consulted the famous scientist at the state university and how together they had found that one of the few invisible ray guns in existence had been stolen. This, concluded Tim, must be the weapon of the sky pirates.
From then on Tim conjectured as to how one of the men in the bandit plane must have taken to his parachute and followed the mail earthward, robbed the registered pouches of their fortune in currency, and escaped in a waiting car.
He had just completed his story and was reading it over for corrections when the lights all over the editorial room flashed on and the managing editor, who had dropped in on his way home from a theater, trotted up to his desk.
Carson was reputed to be capable of scenting a good story a mile away and he devoured Tim’s copy, but not without evident astonishment and several open expressions of his admiration for the flying reporter’s work.
“It’s great stuff, Tim, great stuff,” exclaimed the managing editor when he had finished reading the story. “I’m glad I dropped in tonight. I’ll edit it now and schedule it for the early mail editions tomorrow. It will certainly set the town talking.”
“I wish you wouldn’t print that story tomorrow, Mr. Carson,” said Tim.
The managing editor, who had started for his desk, spun on his heels.
“And why not?” he demanded. “Didn’t you just tell me it was all right?”