“Lindy and Anne had a use for the plane and the cockpit covers very soon. They flew across the country one day and broke the cross-country speed record that existed then.
“Hardly anybody knew what they were up to, and there were just a few people at the Glendale airport, where they started from. It was a terrible day, cold and rainy, and the sun hadn’t come up yet to dry things out. But the Lindberghs didn’t care. They had on suits heated by electricity, because they knew that it was going to be even colder where they were going.
“A basket of sandwiches, 400 gallons of gas, and they were ready. It was hard taking off, because the load was heavy, but Lindy got his flat-nosed Sirius into the air beautifully, and they disappeared from sight. Disappeared is the word, because for hours nobody saw them. They were looking for them, too, because you can bet on it that as soon as the Lindberghs took off, everybody knew about it. All over the west the cowboys and Indians were gaping up to see the blunt-nosed plane, but nobody saw it.
“Then suddenly Anne and Lindy dropped out of the sky at Wichita, Kansas, said hello, they’d like some gas, they’d be in New York about eleven, and sailed off.
“They were in New York around eleven, too, and New York was waiting for them, with auto horns, and whistles, and all the other noise that it can make for people who have gone out and done things. The Lindberghs certainly had done just that. They’d come across the country with one stop in 14 hours and twenty-three minutes and some seconds, and had clipped two and a half hours off the record then standing.”
“But what happened out’ west?” asked Hal. “Why hadn’t anybody seen them?”
“Because you can’t see 10,000 feet into the air, and that’s where the Lindberghs were flying. Way above the clouds, from 10,000 to 15,000 feet high, flying blind, with the cockpits closed to keep out the cold. It’s mighty cold 15,000 feet up in the air. Flying blind that way, they had to depend upon their sextant to keep their course, and Anne Lindbergh did her part by using this. She did all the navigating from the back cockpit, and took the controls part of the time when Lindy rested.
“Lindy and Anne hadn’t intended to set a record. At least, that wasn’t what they set out to do. They wanted to test out flying at high altitudes, because Lindy believes that planes in the future will fly high to avoid storms and wind, and that blind flying should be encouraged. That’s why they flew so high up, out of sight of all landmarks.
“There was no flying for Anne and Lindy after that for a while, because in June that year little Lindy was born. It seems awfully sad now to talk about all the excitement not only in this country, but all over the world when that baby was born. Lindy was the world’s hero, and his baby was adopted by everybody just as Lindy had been. Nobody could have dreamed what a terrible end the Lindbergh baby would come to.”
Bob paused. The events of the Lindbergh baby’s kidnapping, and the finding of its body a few months later, after the whole world had searched for it, were still fresh. In fact, they were too fresh for Bob to talk about then, and with the silent consent of all the men there, he passed over the horrible details of the case, and in a few moments went on with his story.