6. BEATING TIME AND SPACE

HAROLD ORDWAY RUGG

Find the writer's purpose in writing this imaginary story. Determine whether he accomplishes his purpose.

"What's that? What's that?" Bob Sanderson, New York office manager of the Flick Rubber Company, Limited, nearly dropped the telephone receiver in his excitement. "Say that again, Mac."

Back over the wire came the voice of the Western manager in his Chicago office: "I say, Steiger tells me that the big Thompson rubber contract is to be awarded to-morrow morning at a special meeting of the Continental Trust. Now get this and in a hurry, too. Either the chief or you must be in Chicago to-morrow. Better both come."

"Can't be done, Mac. Chief is at his place at Norwalk." "It's got to be done. There 're millions in this contract. Mr. Flick must be on hand to present our case. Meeting's at ten, room 717, Exchange Building. See that he gets the Twentieth Century Limited. It's now 2.32 Eastern Standard Time. The Century leaves New York at 2.45. You can get a cab and catch it. It stops at Harmon for five minutes to leave the electric engine and put on the locomotive. You've got an hour and a quarter to get the chief from Norwalk to Harmon and thirteen minutes to make it yourself. Rush it."

Sanderson hung up the receiver and things hummed in the New York offices of the Flick Rubber Company. In two minutes the senior partner was acquainted with the situation over the private telephone that connected his country home at Norwalk with his New York City office. In five more his chauffeur was driving the big roadster out of the garage. Questions thrown at the chief concerning important business matters of the day were answered by a short, "I'll wire you what to do from the Century. Stay near the telephone all day, and keep in touch with Western Union. I'll relay everything to you."

Five minutes later the automobile was speeding over the twenty-five mile stretch to Harmon, and when the Twentieth

Century Limited pulled into the station, Mr. Flick was waiting at the platform.

"Close connection, sir?" asked Sanderson as he boarded the train.

"Yes, but we made it easily. Couldn't have done that twenty years ago. Good long-distance service, private wires, sixty horsepower motor, fine roads, trains absolutely on time-that's what good transportation is, Sanderson. Now we've nineteen hours to get ready to sell Thompson our rubber to-morrow morning in Chicago. Let's go to work in my stateroom. Tell me all you know about this and we'll get in touch with Mac in Chicago by wire."

He chuckled as he settled down to work. "It's rather giving the slip to old Joe Telford. He's expecting me to speak at a Chamber of Commerce dinner in New York, this evening. I sent word that I had an important errand out of town. Guess he'll think so when he finds out what it was. He's the only rubber man I'm afraid of, with Gorham out in California on a vacation."

The next morning at breakfast on the train, Flick read an item in the paper mentioning Telford's speech and his own absence from the New York dinner. Sharply at 9.45 the Century rolled into the La Salle Street station at Chicago; the two men stepped into a waiting car that MacLean, the Chicago manager, had ready, drove quickly to the Exchange Building, and, to the astonishment of their Western competitors, appeared at the offices of the Continental Trust.

But a moment later it was Mr. Flick's turn to be surprised; as he greeted the business men in the room he was amazed to receive a smiling handshake from the man he had left behind him.

"The Twentieth Century of the New York Central or the Broadway Limited of the Pennsylvania may be fast but let me tell you something that's faster, John Flick," said Telford.

"How did you get here?" exclaimed Flick in the midst of a chorus of laughter from the group around the table. "Sanderson said he was positive that you were at a meeting in your office when the Century left, and I have just read the mention of your speech last night."

"That's right, I made the speech and right there I heard about this meeting. But I'm here anyway. Want to know how I

did it? You thought you'd steal a march on me. Well, you forgot just one thing the airplane service from Long Island, New York, to Grant Park, Chicago. I caught the tubes under the river to the flying field on Long Island at 10.20 last night, bought the rights in an airplane, practically had to kidnap an air pilot, and just got out of his machine over in the park five minutes ago. Eleven hours and fifteen minutes on the way, and lost time at that. Fine ride, though. Had motor trouble near Cleveland and had to come down for what seemed like a week. Fog bothered my pilot, too. And now, gentlemen, will you let me tell you why you should buy Telford Rubber for your tire plant, and not my old friend Flick's product?”

"We'll be glad to hear from you both," said the presiding officer, "but it's only fair for you to know that you'll have to make better terms than we think you can, to beat the offer that John Gorham made us before either of you arrived."

"Has Gorham been telegraphing from the Coast?" asked Mr. Flick.

"No," was the answer. "Gorham is up-to-date as well as you gentlemen. He's been talking to us by radio. We have our own amplifier in the room, and he certainly made us a convincing speech. Now we are ready to hear from you, and we'll listen to you in the order of your arrival."

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. To test your reading, see if you can make a list of the events which concern each man separately: Sanderson, Flick, Telford, and Gorham. Check and correct your list after a second reading.

2. What means of communication are named in this selection? Name those you have used yourself. Which have been used by people you know personally? Which have you seen but not used?

3. What new information have you gained from this reading? Go back and get one definite fact about travel or messages from each part of the story.

4. Volunteer work: Find out all you can about the convenience and comforts of travel in a passenger airplane.

ADDITIONAL READINGS. 1. "Darius Green and His Flying Machine," • John Townsend. 2. "Two Masters of Flight," F. L. Darrow, in Masters of Science and Invention, pp. 315–325.

7. THE FIRST AIRSHIP ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

WALTER DURANTY

An American seaplane, the NC-4, finished her journey from New York to Lisbon, Portugal, on the evening of May 27, 1922, the first air vessel ever successfully to cross the Atlantic. Following is the story as told by a correspondent for the New York Times.

Lisbon, May 27. "There she is!" At four minutes to 9 o'clock to-night the cry burst from the lips of the sharp-eyed lookout on the U. S. S. Shawmut's motor boat, which was lying near the mooring buoy, a few hundred yards upstream from the mother ship of the American seaplanes.

Far away in the western sky appeared a tiny speck, clearly visible against the gorgeous panorama of the sunset, with its rosy wisps of mare's-tail cloud, "like a Belasco stage setting," as the artist Reuterdahl, who was in the boat with Commander Cummins, described it. Then the steam puffs broke from the whistles of the Shawmut and the Rochester, and loud sirens filled the air.

Soon the drone of the NC-4's four great motors was audible, as she floated-slowly, it seemed, so slowly- 1,500 feet high above the center of the river. Amid a tremendous tumult of sound she swept past the warships and slid lightly down in a wide curve to the water. Even with glasses the moment of contact was imperceptible to those who watched; one instant she was flying and the next she rocked gently upon the water.

"A perfect landing," said Commander Cummins, briefly, and the words seemed to break the spell of tension that held everyone in the boat, during the wait of the last half hour. The nervous strain had been greater than we knew. None had spoken save when Commander Cummins gave the last order to the signalman: "Tell the Shawmut to direct her searchlights westward into the wind, so as to shine upon the water."

At exactly 9.02, Lisbon time, the NC-4 took the water and began to "taxi" toward her moorings. Soon she was close, and wide as was the spread of her wings, they seemed but flimsy fabric. to have braved and accomplished such a prodigious feat. The

boat looked a mere cockleshell, and the sight of it brought home the full realization of what must have been the NC-4's experience amid the Atlantic waves.

Suddenly the roar of the motors ceased, and the seaplane slid up beside the motor boat.

"Fine work, boys," was Commander Cummins's greeting, with a wave of the arm to Lieutenant Read, perched right on the flying-boat's bow. That was all-no wild cheering or excitement. It is not the habit of our navy to be demonstrative.

Read's reply was lost, as the motor boat started its engine to swing the stern close enough to throw the heavy mooring rope. The first time the rope was flung Read missed it.

"Try again," he cried, "I slipped.”

By piquant contrast this admission of failure was the first audible word spoken by the man who had played the leader's part in winning a success which marks an epoch in human history.

Then carefully and methodically the crews of the plane and the motor boat went on with the job of mooring, as if this final achievement of man's victory over the Atlantic was the most ordinary thing in the world.

When the mooring was finished the welcoming party scrambled aboard, and there was something more impressive in the quiet sincerity of the handshakes and the few words of welcome with which they were greeted than in any outburst of enthusiasm. It was a greeting of men who had accomplished, by men who knew how that accomplishment had been won.

As the motor boat turned its nose toward the flagship, Read, like a true skipper, had eyes only for his plane.

"Don't let those fellows come too close," he cried to the Shawmut's crew, a detail of whom were to spend the night aboard the flying boat as guards.

A host of craft, from trim power launches to fishing smacks and rowboats, and even four-oared outriggers, were careering around - "yelling their heads off" as Pilot Stone expressed it - in dangerous proximity to the seaplane.

"If they foul her there'll be damage done. If they come too near, hit them lightly over the head; that will keep them