The railroad men had completed the work of repairing the right-of-way where it had been damaged by the fire, and trains, delayed for hours, were on their way once more. Transcontinental limiteds and long strings of refrigerator cars were wheeling down the steel as fast as their engineers could roll them.
Colonel Searle decided to ride back to Vinton on one of the trains and requested Tim and Ralph to take Collins to Atkinson with them. This the flying reporters agreed to do and in less than ten minutes they were winging their way homeward, passing train after train which seemed to be little more than crawling along the twin ribbons of steel.
When they slid down out of the sky to a perfect three point the sun was far down in the west. Less than twenty-four hours had elapsed since Tim had climbed into the cab of the midnight mail at the union station but many things had happened in those few hours and more portended.
A car was waiting at the field to whisk the fingerprint expert away, but before Collins left he promised to telephone the News office whatever secrets the fingerprints might unfold.
Tim and Ralph helped the mechanics wheel their plane into the hangar and then started for the city. They had dinner and then went to the News office to await whatever word there might be from the fingerprint expert.
The building was deserted except for a scrub-woman who was busy swishing her mop around the desks in the business office on the main floor.
Tim and Ralph walked up to the editorial office and switched on the lights over their desks. The telephones, which kept up an almost incessant clamor during the daytime, were silent, sulking on the desks. The electric printers which brought in the news of the world in never ending sheets of copy paper slept beneath their steel hoods. It was strange how quiet the plant could be at night. With the setting of the sun its life seemed to drain away, only to return again with the sunrise.
Tim worked on his aviation column for the next day while Ralph wrote a feature on the speed with which the railroad crews had repaired the right-of-way damaged by the fire.
It was mid-evening before the telephone on Tim’s desk rang. The summons were imperative.
Tim took the receiver off the hook and his hand shook. Ralph stopped work and came over to lean over his shoulder.