Fred threw on the switch of the radio and opened up with the code call. Almost immediately he got a response. He repeated the message, and then gave their approximate location as Don had plotted it out.
There was a considerable delay, during which they concluded that the dispatch was being telephoned to General Bronson, and then the answer came, "Good work," and out of the silence of the night there was recorded no more.
The balance of their journey was without incident, but every turn of the propeller, every explosion within the cylinders, it might be said, gave them renewed confidence that when they essayed the ocean flight, if that should be their privilege or their mission, they would do so with a machine as near to perfection as modern engineering could make it.
It was hardly dawn when they settled on the surface of the Potomac, and, with the time still left them made a cursory overhauling of their engine in search of any weaknesses or defects. They found none. It was as though the long trip from Halifax to Washington had been merely a warming-up, preliminary to some real test of staunch durability.
It was immediately and amicably decided that Fred, because of his knowledge of the wireless, which might catch some message relating to their disappearance from Halifax and thus tell them what was being speculated about them, should remain with the plane, while the other three changed into the presentable "cits," or civilian clothes, they had brought with them, and carry out the balance of the instructions concerning meeting General Bronson at nine o'clock at his office.
We know what they were to be told, and it did not take General Bronson, a man noted for his brevity, long to impart to them the fact that they were to undertake a mission which, considered in all its phases, was absolutely without precedent.
"We will now go and meet the members of the Cabinet," he said.
In fifteen minutes they were in the presence of the men who had directed the various services of the Government during the greatest war in the world's history. They were introduced, most critically looked over, and asked a few, but a very few, questions. Then the Assistant Secretary of State gave them their final instructions.
"You understand thoroughly the importance of these papers?" he asked.
"Absolutely, sir," Big Jack replied, and the other two nodded affirmatively.