These brief and colorless notes by Observer Osborne give little indication of what was occurring on the Flyer. When the last calculation was made just before ten o’clock it was plain, unless a change came at once that the great experiment was to be, in part at least, a failure. With only one thousand three hundred and twenty-eight miles covered in seven hours and forty-eight minutes the problem before the aviators was hard enough.
Although by taking the 6,000 foot level at seven forty o’clock they had escaped the stiff southwest breeze and had since averaged three miles a minute they were now so far behind their schedule that one hundred and eighty miles an hour would not save them from defeat. In addition, the higher flight was telling on all. Mr. Clarke had borrowed an overcoat and was working in gloves. Mr. Ballard was buried under blankets.
“We’ve got eighteen hundred and ninety miles before us,” explained Captain Ned. “If we can’t beat a three mile a minute gait for that distance, it’ll be nearly half past three o’clock in the morning when we land. That makes it impossible to get anything—stories or pictures—in the regular editions. And the biggest card of our assignment is to get these things in the regular editions. An ‘extra’ will take the edge off success.”
“Well,” said Alan determinedly, “you know we always have a last resort. It means compressed air and polar temperature. But, there’s the high altitude!”
“A shade under three miles and a half a minute will do it,” Ned announced.
“That’s over two hundred miles an hour,” suggested Roy.
“It’s three and forty-two hundredths miles a minute,” added Ned, “or two hundred and five and two-tenths miles an hour. We’ll try it!”
“Can you watch the compressed air tubes and gauges and keep up your other work?” asked Alan, turning to Roy.
“We’ll have to do that,” broke in Ned. “Let Roy stick to his work. He’s got to watch the aerometer readings and the wind pressure chart. We’ll all know when the air is wrong, but his speed figures must be watched.”
“Are you goin’ to tell our passengers?” asked Roy.