Mary and her mother were getting accustomed to the idea of Mr. Nestor’s absence. Besides receiving a cheerful letter written by the invalid before he sailed from New York with Mr. Damon for Denmark, they had received two wireless messages sent while the travelers were at sea.
Then followed a considerable wait before the letter arrived from Denmark describing the voyage and explaining how they were to reach Iceland the following month. Mr. Nestor was much more cheerful and was feeling better already. He said that Mr. Damon was blessing everything in the universe because of their delays, but that they hoped to reach Iceland and the village of Rosestone while the weather was still comparatively mild.
Of course Tom Swift was interested in all that Mary was interested in. Nevertheless he had pretty well put out of his mind any anxiety for the invalid. He believed that Mr. Nestor was in very capable hands, for the eccentricities of Wakefield Damon did not keep him from being a loyal friend and a jolly traveling companion.
As Mr. Barton Swift said, Tom ate, slept, and lived flying boat! Nothing else in the world seemed just then of so much importance as the building of the Winged Arrow, which was the name Tom had selected for the seaplane.
“If the craft accomplished the speed Tom expects, she will be well named,” the elder Swift said in confidence to Ned Newton.
Secretly Ned was quite as proud of his chum’s ability and brains as was Tom’s father. But he felt it his duty to put brakes on whenever he saw a great amount of money being risked in an enterprise that might toe a fizzle in the end.
To Tom’s mind the weeks passed with astonishing celerity. Mary was looking for news from Iceland when the huge flying boat was removed in sections from the erecting shop and trundled down to the edge of Lake Carlopa on trucks.
There it was once more put together on the ways, every part tested for faults, the motors put aboard and connected with the propellers, and then, like any ship, she was launched into the water. It was a gala day in Shopton when the marvel was given her first bath. The works closed down and everybody connected with the Swift Construction Company was on hand to see the launching.
Mary Nestor broke the bottle of grape juice on the nose of the Winged Arrow as she struck the water and was splashed in return by the water as the plane “made a hole” in the lake.
It was a rough and windy day when this took place; but the boat merely rocked gently upon the surface after that first splash. It made a very brave appearance indeed.