“That’ll have to be arranged for by cable.”
“And don’t forget this,” went on Ned. “You can’t count on finding dehydrated sulphuric ether for sale like peanuts.”
“They don’t sell peanuts in London,” suggested Alan soberly.
“And they don’t generally sell this kind of ether,” answered Ned. “This is one of the things on my mind. This ether must be specially made and it should have been ordered by cable yesterday.”
“Righto,” answered Alan, who seemed in a specially good humor. “Why don’t we take on some gasoline at St. Johns?” he added. “We can stop there.”
“Because we won’t need it,” explained his chum. “And we ain’t goin’ to load up with anything we don’t need. I’ll run into town and see the Herald about these supplies. When Stewart comes out you can tell him he’s in charge of the larder. And I wish we could get that new sailing chart at once. The lieutenant ought to go to the office and work on it in the afternoon. He can come over here in the evening for the pressure tests.”
Plans for certain alterations in the ether tanks having been talked over while at breakfast, it was decided that Ned should go to New York on an early train and have a personal conference with their journalist patron while Alan and Bob went to the aeroplane factory and started the work on the airship. While waiting for the editor to reach his office Ned did some shopping in the clothing line, and at a sporting goods outfitter, laid in special outdoor underwear, felt boots, wool jackets, fingered mittens and heavy caps for five persons. He also made a note of what the returning Herald men would need, to be given to the editor to be included in his many other cabled instructions.
“It’s a pity,” said the editor a little later when Ned met him, “that we did not get together a few days earlier. We should have sent a man across on the steamer with full instructions. However, we have five days and our own cable. Don’t hesitate to tell me all you need.”
Ned carefully went over every preparatory detail, made memoranda of the supplies needed, described the grade of gasoline and sort of ether needed, and drew up suggestions how these articles were to be delivered to the Flyer in Hyde Park. There were also instructions to the men as to typewriters, what facilities could be expected aboard, the kind of clothing needed, the absolute necessity for promptness in reporting for embarkation and a list of food supplies for the return trip. Then the editor and Ned reviewed the plans for shipping the Telegram matrices in New York bay.
Close figuring showed that, while it was a fraction under ten miles from the Aeroplane Company’s yards in Newark to the point off the old Battery in East River, where the sea tug would be waiting, it would be advisable to allow the newspaper operators at least twenty minutes for transporting the forms to the Ship News wharf and to start the Flyer on signal about ten minutes before the expiration of this period. This meant that the double set of matrices would leave the Herald office on a fast motor at two o’clock; that the Flyer would leave Newark about two ten and, advancing under slow speed, pass over the waiting tug at two twenty.