Helen in the Editor's Chair

“Do you think Rand will give you an interview?” demanded Tom.

“I’ve got to get one,” said Helen, her face flushed and eyes glowing with the excitement of her first big assignment for the Associated Press.

“What will you ask him? How will you act?” Margaret wanted to know.

“Now don’t try to get me flustered before I see Rand,” laughed Helen. “I think I’ll just explain that I am the local correspondent for the Associated Press, show him the telegram from Mr. McClintock and ask him to confirm or deny the story.”

“I’ll bet Rand’s been interviewed by every famous reporter in the country,” said Tom.

“Which will mean all the more honor and glory for Helen if she can get him to tell about his plans,” said Margaret.

“I’ll do my best,” promised Helen and her lips set in a line that indicated the Blair fighting spirit was on the job.

They were still more than two miles from Sandy Point when a scarlet-hued plane shot into sight and climbed dizzily toward the clouds. It spiralled up and up, the roar of its motor audible even above the noise of the speedboat’s engine.

“There’s ‘Speed’ Rand now!” cried Tom. “No one flies like that but ‘Speed’.”

The graceful little plane reached the zenith of its climb, turned over on its back and fell away in twisting series of spirals that held the little group in the boat breathless.

The plane fluttered toward the lake, seemingly without life or power. Just before it appeared about to crash, the propeller fanned the sunlight, the nose jerked up, and the little ship skimmed over the waters of the lake.

It was coming toward the Liberty at 200 miles an hour. On and on it came until the roar of its motor drowned out every other sound. Helen, Tom and Margaret threw themselves onto the floor of the boat and Jim Preston crouched low behind his steering wheel.

There was a sharp crash and Helen held her breath. She was sure the plane had struck the Liberty but the boat moved steadily ahead and she turned quickly to look for the plane.

The scarlet sky bird was limping toward the safety of the higher altitudes, its under-carriage twisted into a grotesque knot.

“What happened?” cried Tom as he stared aghast at ‘Speed’ Rand’s damaged plane. “Did we get hit?”

“Nothing wrong with the Liberty,” announced Jim Preston. “I don’t know what happened.”

Helen glanced at the speedboat’s wake where a heavy wave was being rolled up by the powerful propeller.

“I know what happened,” she cried. “‘Rand’ was just trying to give us an extra Fourth of July thrill and he forgot about the heavy wave the Liberty pulls. He must have banged his landing gear into it.”

“You’re right, Helen,” agreed Tom. “But I can’t figure out why he didn’t nose over and dive to the bottom of the lake.”

“I expect that would have happened to any flyer except Rand,” said Helen. “He’s supposed to be a wizard in the air.”

“Wonder how this accident will affect the crowd at Sandy Point. Think it will keep them from riding with the air circus?” Margaret asked.

“Depends on how widely the story gets out,” said Tom. “I’d hate to have Old Man Provost’s celebration ruined by wild rumors. He’s spent a lot of money getting ready to give the public a good time.”

Helen had been watching the progress of Rand’s plane. Instead of heading back toward Sandy Point he was crossing the lake to the east side.

“He’s not going back to Sandy Point,” Helen cried. “Look, he’s going to land on the east side back in the hills.”

“Then he’ll leave the plane there and no one at Sandy Point will know anything about the accident,” exclaimed Tom. “That means we’re the only ones who know.”

Helen was thinking rapidly. Here was just the chance she needed to get hold of Rand and ask him about his world trip. She might be able to make a trade with him. It was worth a try. She leaned forward and spoke to the boatman.

“Will you swing over east, land and pick up the pilot of that plane?” she asked Jim Preston.

Tom, divining the motive back of Helen’s request, added, “We’ll pay for the extra time.”

The boatman agreed and the nose of the Liberty was soon cleaving a white-crested path for the east shore. The scarlet plane had disappeared but from the drone of the motor they knew it was somewhere in the hills back from the lakeshore.

Jim Preston let the Liberty drift to an easy landing alongside a rocky outcropping and Tom, Helen and Margaret hopped out.

“We won’t be gone long,” they promised.

Back through the sparse timber along the lake shore they hurried and out into a long, narrow meadow. The scene that greeted them held them spellbound for a moment. Then they raced toward the far end of the pasture.

“Speed” Rand had landed the damaged plane in a fence.

Tom was the first to reach the wrecked craft. He expected to find the famous flyer half dead in the wreckage. Instead, he was greeted by a debonair young fellow who crawled from beneath one wing where he had been tossed by the impact when the plane struck the fence.

“My gosh,” exclaimed Tom, “aren’t you hurt?”

“Sorry,” smiled Rand, “but I’ll have to disappoint you. I haven’t anything more than a few bruises.”

Helen and Margaret arrived so out of breath they were speechless.

Rand bowed slightly. Then his eyes glowed with recognition.

“Hello,” he said. “Aren’t you the folks in the speedboat?”

“We sure were,” Tom said. “You scared us half to death.”

“I scared myself,” admitted Rand, his blue eyes reflecting the laughter on his lips. “It’s been so long since I’ve been in a speedboat I’d forgotten all about the big wake one of those babies pull. I’m just lucky not to be at the bottom of the lake.”

“You’re really ‘Speed’ Rand, aren’t you?” asked Margaret.

He smiled and nodded and Margaret decided she had never seen a more likable young man. His hair was brown and curly and his face was bronzed by the sun of many continents.

“If you’ve got your boat around here, suppose you give me a lift back to Sandy Point,” suggested Rand.

“We’ll be glad to,” Helen replied. “I don’t suppose you’ll want it broadcast about the accident this morning on the lake and your cracking up in a fence over here?”

“What are you driving at? Trying to hi-jack me into paying you to keep quiet?” The last words were short and angry and his eyes hardened.

“Nothing like that,” explained Tom quickly. “We know that broadcasting news of an accident to ‘Speed’ Rand will hurt Old Man Provost and his celebration.”

“Then what do you want?” Rand insisted.

“We want to know whether there is anything to the rumor that you’re considering a non-stop refueling flight around the world,” said Helen.

Rand stopped and stared at the young editor of the Herald in open amazement.

“Great heavens,” he exclaimed. “You sound like a newspaper reporter.”

“I am,” replied Helen. “I’m the editor of the Rolfe Herald and also correspondent for the Associated Press.”

“And you want a story from me about my world flight in return for keeping quiet about the accident.”

“You can call it that,” admitted Helen.

They had reached the shore of the lake and Rand did not answer until they were in the Liberty and Jim Preston had the craft headed for Sandy Point.

“Suppose I deny the rumor,” said Rand.

“You’ve already admitted it,” Helen replied.

“I have?” he laughed. “How?”

“Less than five minutes ago you said ‘And you want a story about my world flight in return for keeping quiet about the accident?’ That certainly indicates that you are seriously considering such a project.”

Rand laughed and shook his head.

“I guess I might as well give in,” he chuckled. “I’ve been questioned in every city I’ve been in and so far I’ve managed to evade confirming the rumor but it looks like you’ve got me in a corner. If I don’t tell you, will you still spread the story about the accident?”

“No,” replied Helen quickly. “Mr. Provost has too much at stake to risk ruining his celebration. It was foolish on your part to take the risk you did and we’re trusting that there won’t be any more such risks taken by the air circus while it is here.”

“You’re right. There won’t be,” said Rand firmly, “and I’ve learned a lesson myself.”

“You’re actually planning the world flight?” asked Tom, who wanted to get Rand back on the subject of Helen’s assignment.

“I can’t get away from you,” smiled the flyer, “so I might as well give you all of the details. Got some copypaper?”

Helen fished a pad of paper and a pencil from a pocket and handed them to Rand.

“If you don’t mind,” he explained, “I’ll jot down the principal names of the foreign towns where I’ll make the refueling contacts. Some of them have queer names and it will help you keep them straight.”

The flyer drew a rough sketch of the world, outlining the continents of the northern hemisphere. He located New York on the map and then drew a dotted line extending eastward across the North Atlantic, over Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Siberia, a corner of China, out over the Kamchatka peninsula, across the Bering Sea, over Alaska and then almost a straight line back to New York.

“This is my proposed route,” he explained, “covering some 15,000 miles. It will take about four days if I have good luck and am not forced down.”

“But I thought the distance around the world was 25,000 miles,” said Margaret.

“That’s the circumference at the equator,” smiled Rand, “but I’m going to make the trip well up in the northern latitudes. In fact, I’ll be pretty close to the Arctic circle part of the time.”

Rand bent over his makeshift map again, marking in the names of the cities where he intended to refuel while in flight.

“When will you take off from New York?” Helen asked.

“In about two weeks,” replied Rand without looking up from the map.

Helen gasped. This, indeed, was news. Every paper in the land would carry it on the front page.

“What kind of a plane do you intend to use?” Tom wanted to know.

“I’m having one built to order,” said the flyer. “It’s a special monoplane the Skycraft Company is testing now at their factory in Pennsylvania. I had a telegram yesterday saying the plane would be ready the first of next week so when I leave Sandy Point I’ll go directly to Pennsylvania to get the plane and make the final tests myself. The air circus will finish its summer tour alone.”

Before they reached the landing at Sandy Point, Rand explained how he intended to refuel while in flight, gave Helen the name of his mechanic and described details of the plane.

When they touched the landing at Sandy Point a heavyset man dressed in brown coveralls jumped into the boat.

“What in heaven’s name happened?” he asked Rand excitedly.

“I flew too close to this motor boat,” said the flyer, “and damaged my landing gear on the wave it was pulling. Instead of coming back here to crack up I went across the lake and landed in a meadow. These young people followed and brought me back. I banged the ship up considerable and in return for keeping them quiet, I gave them the story about my world flight. They’re newspaper folks.”

The heavy man stared at Helen, Tom and Margaret.

“Well, I guess it had to come out some time,” he admitted and Rand introduced him as Tiny Adams, his manager of the air circus.

“Tiny runs the show when I go gallivanting around on some fool stunt,” explained Rand.

Even at that early hour the crowd was gathering at Sandy Point. Motor boats were whisking down the lake from Rolfe and the beautiful beach was thick with bathers in for a morning dip in the clear waters of the lake.

They hurried off the boat dock and pushed their way through the crowd along the lake shore.

“I’m going to the hotel and telephone my story to the Associated Press,” said Helen. “And thanks so much, Mr. Rand, for confirming it.”

“That’s all right,” grinned the famous flyer. “I guess you youngsters deserve the break. You certainly were after the news and I appreciate you’re keeping quiet about my accident.”

“We’ll have to print it in our weekly,” warned Tom.

“Oh, that’s all right,” said Rand. “The celebration will be over long before your paper comes out. See you at the field later,” he added as he hurried away, followed by the manager of the air circus.

Helen stood for a moment looking after the tall flyer as he edged his way through the ever-increasing crowd.

“Isn’t he handsome?” sighed Margaret.

“What a story,” commented Tom.

“Let’s get going,” said Helen, and she started for the hotel.

They reached the rambling old hotel which overlooked the lake and were met at the door by Art Provost, the manager of the resort.

“Glad to see you down so early,” he said as he welcomed them.

“We thought we’d get here before the crowd,” Tom said, “but from the looks of the young mob down at the beach now they must have started coming in about sundown last night.”

“They did,” chuckled Mr. Provost. “Looks like the greatest celebration in the history of Lake Dubar. It’s the air circus that’s drawing them in and I hope there are no accidents.”

Helen glanced at Tom, warning her brother not to reply.

“I’ve met ‘Speed’ Rand,” she said, “and I think you’ll find him a careful flyer. I’m sure he’ll insist on every possible precaution.”

They went into the lobby of the hotel and Helen entered the telephone booth. She started to put in a long distance call for the Associated Press, then changed her mind and returned to where Tom and Margaret were waiting.

“I’m so nervous I’m afraid I won’t be able to talk,” she said. “Feel my hands.”

Tom and Margaret did as Helen directed. They found her hands clammy with perspiration.

“I think I’ll sit down and write the story and telegraph it,” said Helen.

“You’ll do nothing of the kind,” insisted Tom. “Here, I’ll put the call through and you just repeat what Rand told you. They’ll write the story at the Cranston bureau.”

Helen nodded in agreement and Tom bolted into the telephone booth, got the long distance operator at Rolfe and put in a collect call for the Cranston bureau of the Associated Press.

Two minutes later Tom announced that the A.P. was on the line. Helen entered the booth and took the receiver. Tom pulled the door shut and Helen was closeted with her big story in the tiny room, the mouthpiece before her connecting her with the bureau where they were waiting for the story.

“Is Mr. McClintock in the office?” she asked.

“He’s busy,” replied the voice. “I’ll take the message.”

“Tell Mr. McClintock that Helen Blair is calling about the Rand story,” she insisted.

She heard the connection switch and the chief of the Cranston bureau snapped a question at her.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Rand give you the usual denial?”

The sharpness of the words nettled Helen.

“No he didn’t,” she replied. “He gave me the whole story. He’ll leave New York within the next two weeks on a non-stop refueling flight around the world.”

“What!” shouted the A.P. chief.

Helen repeated her statement.

“You’ve got the biggest story in days,” gasped McClintock. “Have you got plenty of substantiation in case he tries to deny it later.”

“Two witnesses,” replied Helen, “and a map of his route which he drew and signed for me.”

“That’s enough. Let’s go. Give me everything he told you. Spell the names of his foreign refueling points slowly. I’ll take it directly on a typewriter and we’ll start the bulletins out on the main news wires.”

The first excitement of the story worn off, Helen found herself exceedingly calm. In short, clear sentences she related for McClintock all of the information “Speed” Rand had given her.

“Send me the map he drew by the first mail,” the A.P. correspondent instructed. “It will make a great feature story. Thanks a lot, Miss Blair. You’re a real newspaperwoman.”

CHAPTER XIV

The Queen’s Last Trip

When Helen left the close confines of the telephone booth after completing her call to the Associated Press she suddenly felt very weak and tired.

“What’s the matter?” Tom asked.

“I feel just a little faint,” confessed Helen. “Guess the excitement of getting the story and sending it in was a little too much.”

“Take my arm,” her brother commanded. “We’ll go back to the restaurant and get a glass of milk and a sandwich and you’ll feel all right in a few minutes.”

The food restored Helen’s strength and in less than half an hour she was her old self, ready to enjoy the Fourth of July celebration.

Every boat from Rolfe increased the size of the crowd at Sandy Point. The speedboats dashed down the lake carrying their capacity of passengers, turned and sped back to the town for another load. The Queen sedately churned its way through the lake, its double decks jammed with humanity. As they stood on the beach Helen wondered if the old lake boat would come through the day without a mishap. Almost any small accident could throw the passengers into a panic and the capsizing of the Queen might follow if they rushed to one side of the flat-bottomed old craft.

The Queen sidled up to the big pier at Sandy Beach and Capt. Billy Tucker stuck his white head out of a window in the pilot house and watched his passengers rush for the beach.

“He’s in his glory on a day like this,” Tom said, “but it’s probably the last year for the Queen. The boat inspectors won’t dare pass the old tub next year no matter how much they like Captain Billy.”

“What will he do if they don’t license the Queen?” asked Margaret.

“Oh, he’ll get along all right,” said Tom. “Captain Billy has plenty salted away. It’s just that he loves the lake and the Queen.”

The planes of the air circus were wheeling overhead and they left the beach and started for the air field. The attractions along the midway were gathering their share of the crowd and the mechanical band on the merry-go-round blared with great gusto. The ferris wheel was swinging cars loaded with celebrators into the tree-tops and the whip and other thrill rides were crowded.

Beyond the midway was the large pasture which had been turned into a landing field. A sturdy wire fence had been thrown across the side toward the summer resort and it was necessary to have a pass or ticket to get through the gate.

Two small stunt planes were taking off when the members of the Herald staff arrived and the three large cabin planes were being filled with passengers. Two of the planes carried eight passengers apiece while the largest, a tri-motor, could accommodate 12. They were sturdy, comfortable looking craft and Helen noticed that they appeared to be in the best possible condition.

They presented their passes at the gate and were admitted to the field.

“Speed” Rand, hurrying along toward the largest plane, caught sight of them.

“Want to ride?” he called.

The answer was unanimous and affirmative.

A minute later they were seated in the 12-passenger plane in comfortable wicker chairs. The door was closed, the motors roared, they bumped over the pasture and then floated away on magic wings.

The ground dropped away from them; the resort and the lake were miniatures bordered by the rich, green lands of the valley and at the far end of the lake, Rolfe, a handful of houses, basked.

It was glorious, thrilling, and Helen enjoyed every minute. They swung over the lake where the speedboats were cutting white swaths through the water. They did not cross to the east side and Helen guessed that the pilots were afraid some passenger with unusually keen eyes might detect the remains of the plane Rand had damaged that morning.

Then the trip was over. They drifted down to the field, the motor idling as they lost altitude. Helen sat absolutely rigid for a few seconds, wondering if the plane would land all right. The motors roared again, the nose came up and they settled to earth with little more than a bump.

Rand greeted them when they stepped out of the plane.

“Like it?” he inquired.

“You bet,” said Tom enthusiastically. “Biggest thrill I ever had.”

“How about you?” Rand asked Helen.

“I loved every minute until we started to come down,” she smiled. “Then I wondered where we were going to stop and how, but everything came out all right and I really did enjoy it.”

“Get your story in to the A.P.?” asked the flyer.

“Just as soon as I could reach a telephone,” Helen replied. “The bureau chief appeared pleased.”

“He should be,” chuckled Rand. “It seems like every place I’ve gone for the last month there’s been a reporter waiting to ask me questions about my world flight. Honestly, it got so I used to look under the bed at night for fear I might talk in my sleep and wake up in the morning to find a reporter had been hidden in my room.”

Another flyer called Rand and the famous aviator slipped away through the crowd. It was the last they were to see of him and they turned and went back to the attractions of the midway.

They tried every ride, the merry-go-round and the ferris wheel, roller skated, went bathing, listened to the band concert, munched hot dogs at irregular intervals and wound up the afternoon almost exhausted and ready to start for home. So were some other hundreds of people and they found it impossible to get a place in one of the speedboats.

The Queen puffed majestically at her pier and Capt. Billy Tucker pulled twice on the whistle cord. Two long, mellow blasts echoed over the lake. The Queen would leave for Rolfe in five minutes.

“Looks like we’ll have to take the Queen if we want to get home in any reasonable time,” said Margaret.

Tom looked at the throngs waiting for the boats.

“You’re right,” he agreed. “We won’t be able to get on one of the fast boats for at least two hours and I’m getting hungry. I saw mother putting some pie away in the ice box last night and there’ll be plenty of cold milk at home.”

“Don’t,” protested Helen, “I’m so hungry now I’m hollow.”

“Then let’s take the Queen,” urged Margaret.

They bought their tickets and hurried onto the main deck of the old lake boat.

“It will be cooler on top,” said Helen and they went up the broad stairs to the upper deck. Perched on this deck was the pilot house where Captain Billy ruled.

He saw them and motioned them to join him.

“Have a big celebration?” he asked when they entered the pilot house.

“Finest ever,” said Margaret, “but we’re ready to call it a day and start home.”

“Better set down on those benches,” said Captain Billy, motioning toward the leather-cushioned lockers which lined the walls of the pilot house.

The veteran lake skipper leaned out of the pilot house, watching the crowd on the beach. The electric lights flashed on as twilight draped its purple mantle over the lake and the whole scene was subdued. The cries from the bathers were not as sharp, the music from the midway seemed to have lost some of its sharpness and the whole crowd of holiday celebrators relaxed with the coming of night.

Captain Billy glanced at his watch.

“Two minutes,” he said, half to himself as he reached for the whistle cord. Again the mellow whistle of the Queen rang out and belated excursionists hastened aboard.

The ticket seller at the pier head sounded his final warning bell, and there was the last minute rush across the stubby gang plank. Captain Billy signalled the engine room, bells rang in the depths of the boat and the easy chouf-chouf of the twin stacks deepened as the engines took up their work and the Queen backed slowly away from the pier.

Two men who had tarried at the midway too long ran down the pier and yelled at Captain Billy. The skipper picked up his megaphone.

“Sorry, too late,” he shouted. “We’ll be back in two hours.”

“Gosh-dinged idiots,” he grumbled to himself. “Here I wait as long as I can and then they expect me to put back in shore. Not me, by Joe, when I’ve got to make connections with one of them excursion trains.”

“Have lots of business today?” asked Tom.

“Biggest day in the twenty odd years I’ve had the Queen on the lake,” he chuckled. “The old girl is about on her last legs but this season looks like the best of all. If the paved road goes through they’ll all come in cars and the railroad and the Queen will be out of luck.”