Bill felt called upon to answer. “Petropavlovsk,” he said.
Bob tried it. “Petro—Petro-what?”
“Petropavlovsk,” repeated Bill.
They all tried it then, with varying degrees of success. Finally Bob got it. “Petropavlovsk,” he said proudly, and was able to go on with his story. “It was an easy flight, and they made it in about four hours. But Nemuro was next.
“Nemuro’s on the tip of Hokkaido Island, and to reach it the Lindberghs had to fly across the Kurile Islands, the worst fog trap in the world. There’s a warm Japanese ocean current that flows up here and hits the cold arctic blasts, so that there are sudden fogs that you can’t possibly see through. And besides, there are volcanic peaks that stick their peaks up but of the water. Some are dead and some are alive, but they’re all pretty bad news for an airplane if it happens to come in contact with one of them.
“The start was pretty good. The sky was clear, and the visibility good. But they should have known better than to trust such luck. They’d been out about 500 miles when a thick blanket of fog came up from nowhere and wrapped them around. A minute before they’d been able to see Muroton Bay, but when they turned back, it had disappeared. There were two things for them to do, and neither one pleasant. They could either fly on in the fog, and risk hitting a peak or losing their course, or land in the water. This was hardly better than going on, because the currents are very dangerous around there, and their plane might easily be capsized. But they decided that it was better to land. They landed on the sheltered side of a place called Ketoi Island, and put their radio to work sending out an S.O.S.
“It didn’t take long for somebody to get to them. The Japanese government ordered two ships to Ketoi to help them. One was the Shimushiru, and it stood by all night, while the Lindberghs spent the night doubled up in the cockpit of their plane. They stood by because of the danger. You see, the island is pretty wild, and is inhabited by Hairy Ainus, who live in caves. They’re white people, and they’re supposed to have lived all over Japan once, but they’re not very pleasant to have around, especially if you’re unprotected. But with the Japanese ship standing by, the Lindberghs were safe.
“In the morning the ship towed the Lockheed Sirius to Muroton Bay, and while it was sort of quiet, Lindy fixed up a wet spark plug and they were ship-shape again, and raring to go. But the fog wouldn’t lift. Finally it seemed to lift, and they started off.
“When they got to the island of Iturup a thick fog came up from nowhere and cut off their visibility again. Then a radio message told them that the safest place to land was at Shana, so at Shana they landed. And at Shana they stayed, too, grounded by the fog. But finally the fog lifted, and they were able to get to Nemuro.
“Tokyo next. And Tokyo was glad to see them! There were over 30,000 people at the airport when they landed. The Lindys were just as popular as ever, and just as much the good will ambassadors as ever. They were taken all over Tokyo, ate with chopsticks, lived through a little earthquake, and did as the Japanese did generally.