Although he was now in a daze of weariness, young Dane forced himself to answer quietly and simply their many questions. To hold the fascinated interest of such great men was an overwhelming honor. But something besides honor was overwhelming the gallant aviator. Sleep, sleep—how he ached for it!
Then next thing, he was stretching out his weary bones in the deep comfort of a bed and getting his first real rest in two days and the better part of two nights.
When he at last awoke, he found that in all reality he had written his name across the sky! Newspapers in all the cities of the world were giving pages of space to his marvelous flight. Telegrams of congratulation swamped him in ten thousand yellow flutters of good wishes. Crowds surrounded the walls of the American Embassy begging the “honorable one” but to show himself. Tokio outdid herself to pay him honor.
“All Japan breathes a welcome to the great flyer of the skies” were the headlines of a newspaper. And all Japan extended him uncounted courtesies. There was an endless round of processions and receptions in his honor. He was introduced to the romance of the symbolic “No” dance, the dainty tea ceremony, the elaborate Kabuki Drama, fruit of thirty centuries of culture and tradition. He must see the royal wrestlers, and the strange sword-dance of old Japan.
On a fete day, he had the tremendous honor of riding the streets of Tokio in a great, closed, red Rolls-Royce, seated beside His Highness Hirohito, Emperor of Japan. And seeing the rider of the skypath seated with their own beloved Son of the Sun, all that Japanese throng kneeled. Long after the crimson limousine had passed, the crowd still held its awed position.
For a week, Hal Dane “saw” Japan from sacred Fuiji’s mountain crest to the beautiful, sinister hot lakes of Kannawa.
Then America refused to wait longer for her idol to return. Again the hordes of telegrams began pouring in.
There was one from Hal Dane’s mother, that simply said, “We knew you could do it—come back to us now.”
Vallant, the millionaire giver of aviation prizes, cabled, “You have won it. Your thirty-five thousand is waiting for you.”
From the President of the United States came a radio message, “Your victory is all victory—a peaceful victory. You have bound nations together with a bond of friendship.”