for some minutes. Nor did he speak until the boys had pushed th

d-the-world trip, and if she performs then as she did this morning, we are not only going to defeat the Clarion's crew, but we are going to smash all existing records for a

," declared John Ross without a moment's hesitation,

ck out a route and get fuel supplies at the different airports or stops for you. John, you and Tom may consider yourselves under sala

ad?" broke in Bob anxiously; "aren'

schedule. Do this just as soon as you can, so that I may be able to give Mr. Wrenn, the publisher of the Clarion, a copy. He can then make intelligent preparations for his own

no

ngs?" inquired Paul. "I mean, do you know what sort of a cra

ess man, will keep us in ignorance of his personnel until the last minute. The fact is, I am going to treat him to a dose of h

e afternoon, and all four young men immediately repaired to the Yonkers Pu

umference of 24,899 miles. In the second place, for stops they must choose cities or towns with either established landing-fields, or with grounds level enough for this purpose. In the third place, these

he had secured a score of back numbers of travel magazines. Into this divers collection of diagrams and reading matter they dove with an avidity which would have surprised the teachers they had when they were in grammar school, i

hy, and so forth, and so forth," drawled Tom Meeks. "Say, fellows, I feel like kicking myself t

verred John; "but we have several months for that. J

hey had one which everybody seemed to agree was the best that could be picked out. With the schedu

rport Ar

------ 1

own 5:30a 21

6:00p 21st

wn 6:15p 22

1:00p 23

6:00a 24th

o 5:30a 25t

re 6:00p 25t

rwin 5:30p 2

5:45a *27t

a 9:00a 28th

tobal 6:00p 2

A 5:30a 3

-

4

on of crossing 180th Me

tween Port Da

en met by appointment in the private office of the publisher of the Daily Independent. After they we

ur fuel cap

ive thousand miles, throttled down to an average of one hundred and twenty mile

fference if you fle

ses per mile. Full out-that is, going at the limit of her speed-th

s sufficient to cover your longest jumps at any reasonable speed. Let me see; y

we can easily refuel in that time, and

blisher. "That shows great care in the selection of this route to meet my viewpoint; but may I ask how you

ed them out, sir

ow

9 miles by 360, and obtained approximately 69.5 miles to a degree. By taking a map of the world and finding the number of

rt of men on this job. But here is another thing which occurs to me: Have you bas

we might expect to land at a station in broad daylight, only to find that we were really coming in after dark. Another thing: Our figuring showed us that the lappages of time, all added together, exactly totaled o

may be wrong," h

proved them correct," sta

ow

time eastward keeps getting later, and that this rate is four minutes to every deg

than ten days I could scarcely credit my senses, and I figured it all over to make sure you had made no mistake. I found out you had not. If you can maintain an average speed of one hundred and twenty miles, and can make up any unforeseen delays by greater speed, I must admit it really looks possible for you to be back inside of ten days. That is bet

nds in unison, while Bob exploded: "But

d a chart of the trip, showing every scheduled stop, country, and ocean crossed. This will be electrically lighted at night, and as you boys fly in your machine away off in some distant part of the world, our bulletin board operators will follow your course on their huge charts, and represent you with a miniature airplane. In fact, I plan to get the Clarion to 'phone over reports of their crew as fast as received, I doing likewise with them, and then we can have two dummy airplanes on each of our boards, showing the race in earnest at all stages of the journey. This would

, sir," responded Jo

, well satisfied with the turn of events, and each determined t