“We’ve arrived, Tom!” he yelled.
“Not quite yet! A few minutes more!”
Tom steered with a clear vision now, out toward Long Island. The airship had been sighted, and a din of whistled greetings arose from the harbor.
“Stand by to land!” cried Tom a little later, as he glimpsed the field he had left nearly three weeks before. A big crowd was with difficulty kept out of the danger zone.
“And the Red Arrow isn’t in sight!” exulted Ned.
Down to the ground floated the Air Monarch. Her wheels ran over the sod and she came to a stop within a few feet of where she had taken off. Cries and cheers greeted the returning voyagers.
“Tom! Tom!” yelled Mr. Damon, rushing out of the crowd as Tom, Ned and the others stepped from the plane. “You win! Bless my alarm clock, but you win!”
“What was our time?” asked Tom, as he greeted the eccentric man and then noticed Mary coming toward him with her father and Mr. Swift.
“Nineteen days, eleven hours, fifteen minutes, eleven seconds,” was the answer of the official timekeeper. “I congratulate you, Mr. Swift. You have won the hundred thousand dollar prize!”
“And your father wins his bets!” echoed Mr. Trace who, with Mr. Burch, had arrived in time to see the landing. “I didn’t believe it was possible to circle the globe in less than twenty days.”