But opposition was only a stimulus to Tom. He began to argue the matter strenuously. Mr. Greatorex, to do him justice, was no bigot. His politics were at bottom a particularly intense form of patriotism; and when Tom showed him that there were at any rate possibilities in the suggestion, he gradually changed his view, forgot his reluctance to help a political opponent, and became indeed quite enthusiastic.
“By George, Tom!” he exclaimed; “what a grand send-off it would be to your invention if the first use of it were the rescue of this unfortunate diplomatist! And what a magnificent thing for the Country! Come and let’s talk it out over a cup of coffee. Not a word before Mrs. Greatorex, mind.”
“Well, John, are you pleased with your toy?” said that good lady when they re-entered the house.
“Quite, my dear, quite.”
“It will be quite a feature of our garden party. But I hope Tom will make sure that it is absolutely safe before he takes anybody up at half a crown a ride. I shall be glad of the half-crowns for my Nursing Association, but I should never forgive you if any one was hurt.”
“Why, my dear, the half-crowns would go to pay the nurses.”
Mr. Greatorex and Tom had a long talk in the study that night. Up to the present the longest journey the aeroplane had taken without descending was, as Tom estimated, about forty miles. Then something had always occurred to make a descent necessary. The principal stumbling-block had been the overheating of the motors. But Tom suggested that if he were content with a speed of about twenty-five miles an hour, a greater distance might be covered without this risk.
The practical question was, could the machine be brought so near the place of the envoy’s captivity as to make a dash upon it practicable? From the latest report, in the evening paper, it appeared that the prisoner was held in a mountain fastness some eighty miles from the Atlantic seaboard. Tom got out a map and pointed out the spot. It did not seem impossible to reach it by means of the airship from some convenient place on the coast.
“D’you know what occurs to me?” said Tom. “You were talking of a yachting cruise in the Dandy Dinmont in September. Why not make it a little earlier? I could then go in the airship and you in the yacht; and we could make that a kind of floating base, taking in it all materials necessary for repairs.”
“But you couldn’t repair the thing without letting it down on the deck.”