“I suppose you boys will be back now on commoner things for a while. Pretty lonesome here. I haven’t seen one of you in ten days.”
“You worked out that great circle from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to Cape Clear in Ireland, I suppose?” went on Bob throwing a leg over a desk. When the man nodded, the boy added, “Well, that’s all changed. We’re goin’ to start from Newark and head straight for London. You’ll get a request to route us on that line.”
“It won’t make much difference,” answered the calculator as he opened a portfolio and selected an outline sheet covering the Atlantic ocean. “As I remember it, a great circle course connecting Fastnet Light off Cape Clear and St. John’s harbor, if you continue it west, will pass just south of New York harbor.”
“Then St. Johns wouldn’t be much out of our way?”
“Almost on your path.”
“There’s a new deal on,” explained Bob. “Get busy and project the new course. And you might as well get down to all deviations; we’ll be goin’ in a few days.”
When Bob came back down the hall both Ned and Alan were busy at their desks, in which all sorts of mail had accumulated.
“Hey,” called Ned as Bob passed the door on his way upstairs. “Here’s an idea. There isn’t one of us really fit to go up there and have luncheon with the Herald man. Let’s ask him down here. This is the place to talk it over; we’ll cut out the eatin’.”
“It may happen to be just our host’s time for eatin’,” laughed Bob.
“I’ll chance it,” answered Ned, “on the theory that newspaper men can always go without food. If I can catch him, I’ll try to call it off and have him come down here.”