The Red Arrow hydroplane was, in truth, a craft not to be despised. Kilborn had left the starting field in a swift automobile. He had given orders that the motors of his hydroplane were to be kept turning over so that he could get aboard and start at once. This he had done, and, as she was moored not far from the aero field, had taken the air only a little behind Tom Swift.
“There goes the dirigible—I mean Modby’s,” went on Ned, who was viewing the start of the other contestants while Tom attended to the running of his machine.
“He must have had some trouble with his motors,” the inventor stated.
“He did,” agreed Ned. “He’s a bit late in starting. Well, I wish Modby all sorts of luck, but I’m afraid he hasn’t much of a chance.”
Professor Modby was considered a friendly rival, for he and Tom had been associated in aeroplane research on several occasions. The Cloud, as the big dirigible had been named, was now soaring into the air, but her speed was as nothing compared to that of the Air Monarch. Ned noticed, however, that the Red Arrow was a very fast machine, and she might prove a dangerous rival, for she was not as heavy as Tom’s craft.
“But this is only the beginning,” murmured the young inventor, as he noticed how the Red Arrow was picking up speed. “We’ve got to go twenty days yet—more or less,” he added, with a grim smile.
Bob Denman, the millionaire sport, had started from the flying field in a rush in one of his high-powered cars. He was off to catch a special train that would hurry him across the United States. He said he would take a special steamer in San Francisco, cross the Pacific, and then, by means of other special trains and boats, endeavor to come in ahead of everybody else.
Jed Kimball, in an aeroplane somewhat like the Red Arrow, also got off to a good start, but some of the other contestants, especially one in a free balloon, did not have such good luck. One of the big hydrogen gas balloons, of which there were several, was caught by an adverse wind soon after rising and entangled in a clump of trees. Tom and Ned had only time to observe this before they were out of sight, speeding on their way over the Atlantic Ocean.
There was no rule as to what direction the contestants must take in this world race. They could start east or west. Those who started west would cross the United States and then go over the Pacific, as Bob Denman planned to do. They would come to the Japanese Islands in due time, cross China, Persia, the top of Africa, perhaps go across the Mediterranean Sea and so reach the Atlantic. Crossing this they would again reach the eastern shore of America and so complete the circuit.
Tom’s plan, and that of the Red Arrow and several hydroplanes, dirigibles and other aircraft, was to cross the Atlantic first, then go over Europe and Asia, reach the Pacific, and eventually get to the western coast of the United States, crossing that as the last leg of their journey.