Famous Flyers

ut a long way past the end of the low foot-rest. Pat lay in the glider, swinging himself lazily, squeaking in a melancholy rhythm at each forward and back push, Hal, who had got permission from

n Pat said, "Well, Robert, te

as ever made. It must have been pretty boring for him to go to banquet after banquet, and listen to all those speeches praising him. He must have blushed like anything at some of those flowery compliments. But he stayed calm, and didn't lose his head and get all swelled up ov

l." Bob looked around at the group. "He wasn't the Captain any more," he explained. "He was now Colonel Lindbergh. Well, anyway, there were banquets and parties, until Lindy had to leave. St. Louis started where New York left off. After all it was St. Louis where Lindy had found his backers, and naturally they were pretty proud of him there. Slim took it all smiling, just as modest as he'd been from the beginning. There was no fussing him. And the people loved it. Slim was the most talked-about hero the United Stat

thing to the people of the United States for being so kind to him, so Lindy set out on a trip around the country. He stopped at almost every important city, and covered every state in the union. He traveled almost 20,000 miles. And that's some traveling. Just think if he'd had to travel that distance

at clinched his name of 'Good Will Ambassador,' although he'd been one to all of the European countries that he went to. In Dece

as one flyer who always got places when he said he'd get there. He was never off schedule. So imagine how everybody felt when the time set by him to reach Mexico City

u don't see how that could be possible. They gave Lindy a chance to explain that he'

w was Ambassador to Mexico then, and he had a daughter named Anne. Well, I don't like to g

embarrassed, and saw an opportunity to rub it in. "What part?" he as

dy's marrying Anne

e whole thing. You can't leav

, but it doesn

id Bill, and sett

zig-zagged a bit to get in all of the little countries, and went from Guatemala City to Belize in British Honduras, and then

alpa," s

her, as Lindy flies, which is much better than any crow I've ever seen. He didn't have any trouble making the flight, and say that they weren't glad to see him down there, especially in the Canal Zone, where the Ameri

na, in Colombia, adding another continent to his list. From Cartagena he flew to Bogota, and then straight across the top of South Ameri

alled upon to confess his ignorance, "I never did," he said. "And gee, Bob, how do you

or the hundreds of times that he had wished that Lindy had flown to some easy place like Canada, where the names were all pronounceable. But then, Lindy might have flown to Wale

ed from island to island in the Caribbean Sea, stopping at San Juan, Porto Rico; Santo Domingo; Port-au-Prince in Hayti; and then to Havana. From Havana he made

, because he got back to St. Louis on February 13th, and he'd left Boiling Field at Washington on December 13th. But in those two months Lindy accomplished a great deal. He'd made friends with all the little countries down to our south, and with Mexico, too. They understood us better, and we got to

s broadly as the moon that had risen over the trees and was shining

for international peace and understanding, and then he went to Washington to get the Congressional Medal of Honor. And he had to get a new plane, too, from the Mahoney people who made the Spirit of St. Louis

't have gone, he flew up to help Captain Koebl and Major Fitzmaurice and Baron von Huenefeld, who'd flown across the Atlantic, and were forced down off the coast of Labrador. Well, he landed with pneumonia in a Quebec hospital, and they needed some serum in a hurry to save his life. Lindy offered to fly with it, and took off right away for New York. It was 500 miles from New York

mittee of the Transcontinental Air Transport, the company sending planes cross-country. This gave him the chance to be right in on the ground-or ra

that would be news. But in February of '29 he flew the first mail from Miami to Col

rters and photographers hung around in order to be in at the wedding. But Lindy and Anne fooled them. They were marri

dbergh went with him. She's a great flyer, and helps L

s. You know, the Mayan Indians had a wonderful civilization all built up long before the white men came to Yucatan. They had a huge empire, and big cities with buildings as large as ours. Scientists are always digging around down there to uncover the ruins, so that they can find out a

skimmed his plane over the tops of the jungles, so low that it seemed he might almost reach out his hand and grab a branch of one

ore. And it took only four days, where it might have taken a party on foot months t

ed-Sirius, a monoplane with a Wasp motor. It had a flattish-looking nose, but it was graceful just the same. It had something new that Li

covers very soon. They flew across the country one day a

rom. It was a terrible day, cold and rainy, and the sun hadn't come up yet to dry things out. But the Lindberghs didn't c

beautifully, and they disappeared from sight. Disappeared is the word, because for hours nobody saw them. They were looking for them, too, because you can bet on it th

at Wichita, Kansas, said hello, they'd like some ga

t it can make for people who have gone out and done things. The Lindberghs certainly had done just that. They'd come across the country

west?" asked Hal. "Why h

with the cockpits closed to keep out the cold. It's mighty cold 15,000 feet up in the air. Flying blind that way, they had to depend upon their sextant to keep the

t out flying at high altitudes, because Lindy believes that planes in the future will fly high to avoid storms and

to talk about all the excitement not only in this country, but all over the world when that baby was born. Lindy was the world's hero, and

world had searched for it, were still fresh. In fact, they were too fresh for Bob to talk about then, and with the silent

n the country will protect this child. People all over th

That was in July of 1931. There was some delay in choosing the route, because they had to consider all sorts of things, like chances for refueling, and over-water flying distances,

for you for remembering that.

lew roughly northwest, and then south again, making the two

d Lockheed Sirius with a Wright Whirlwind motor. It was a blunt-nosed ship, painted reddish orange and black. And since they were traveling over wate

to have along in case they sat down in the middle of the ocean. Then, of course, they had food and water, and an emergency radio set, besides the one that Anne Lindbergh was going to use. This emergency one was ready for anything. You couldn't hurt it by getting it wet, or by dropping it. In fact, they tested it by dropping it from a hanga

bye to the baby. But there was trouble right at the start. About two hours after they had left New York, the Lindberghs had to turn back again. Somebody had tampered with

disappeared. The newspapers ran big headlines, 'Lindberghs Missing.' But they weren't really missing. That is, the Lindberghs knew all along where they were, but th

d of it, before the Lindberghs landed there, but it's quite a p

it wasn't a very pleasant leg of their journey, and there was almost nine hours of it. I'll bet they were glad when they flew into Churchill Harbor, and saw the whole town waiting for them. There were only

they got into Baker Lake. Everybody was waiting for them, and everybody in this case was made up of Eskimos. There are only about six

enzie River. Aklavik is pretty far north, just about 130 miles within the Arctic Circle, and the route called for a jump of over 1,000 miles across this cold country. But Slim and Anne made it. They did that 1,000

you'd call their first real taste of the arctic. There were all the people you read about up there-Mounties, and Eskimos and fur trappe

e days. The weather grounded them, but on August 7th, the sky cleared, and they were off

og was raising. Finally at 11 o'clock that night the fog grew so thick that the Colonel and his wife thought it would be bes

sitation of any kind, and he was waiting for the praise that he felt was due him. There was

as required of him. "Good work," he sa

o on. "They sat

Shismaref Bay on Kotzebue Sound. What heathen name

been mighty uncomfortable in the cockpits of their planes. When they finally did get started, they f

th a mighty exclamation.

is time they came down on Safety

ption, this time from Hal. "W

u're just trying to test me, or not," he said, "but I'm prepared for you. I've been over every inch

ly impressed, and his large eyes beamed in the light. He wa

men caught in storms out at sea used to come in to the bay for safety. It was a 'safety bay' for the Lindberghs, too, all right. They wait

Peninsula. The Pacific has been crossed before, and was crossed later, too, by Herndon and Pangborn. But it's a tricky place to cross, especially in the northerly part, whe

iation trail. For half an hour there was silence. Then the St. Paul Naval station in the Pribiloffs made the first radio contact. Anne Lindbergh signaled that everything was all right, the w

iles. Finally the radio operator got the message that they'd sighted Cape Naverin, and that everything was O. K. They got to Karagin Isla

off for the southern end of the Kamchatkan Peninsula, for Petro-Petro-" Bob pause

on to answer. "Petr

t. "Petro-P

ovsk," rep

"Petropavlovsk," he said proudly, and was able to go on with his story. "It w

n current that flows up here and hits the cold arctic blasts, so that there are sudden fogs that you can't possibly see through. And besides, there are volcanic peaks that

le to see Muroton Bay, but when they turned back, it had disappeared. There were two things for them to do, and neither one pleasant. They could either fly on in the fog, and risk hitting a peak or losing their course, or land in the water. This was hardly better tha

night doubled up in the cockpit of their plane. They stood by because of the danger. You see, the island is pretty wild, and is inhabited by Hairy Ainus, who live in caves. They're white people, an

ort of quiet, Lindy fixed up a wet spark plug and they were ship-shape again, and rar

Then a radio message told them that the safest place to land was at Shana, so at Shana they landed. And at S

he Lindys were just as popular as ever, and just as much the good will ambassadors as ever. They were taken a

be a regular airplane route between Japan and the United States. He said that he thought the

and flooded hundreds of villages and cities. Together they'd covered about 1,000 square miles of land, so you can imagine in what sort of condition China was then. Everything that goes with flood had come to China too, including starvat

t one place he landed on the water in a village that was completely covered. He had a doctor and medical supplies with him, but the poor Chinese thought that he had brought food. They paddled over to the plane, grabbed the supplies and tore them to shreds, looking for something to eat. Lindy and the doctors took o

ere to take off in the Yangtze. But just as they were about to leave the water the current caught one of the wings, and it crumpled up. The plane turned over, and threw them all into the river. They were all weighed down by their

father, had died. This meant that their trip was over, since they had to get back to the United State

in until that terrible day when their baby was kidnapped. That was on March 1st, you remember. But in spite of every

get so used to airplanes that they'll ride in them just like they ride in automobiles, without thinking twice about it. He hasn't had any serious accidents, because he's always ca

ation than in the year that Lindy flew across the Atlantic. That made them sit up and take notice. The United States was way behind Eu

one. I've seen him give an exhibition, when we went to see the air races, and golly, you could tell his plane from anybody else's i

n make a big success when he's only 25, and then go on as though nothing had happened, sticking to his work, only working harder than ever. If anybody gets my

ur mounds of deeper black where they sat. Suddenly a light in the house switched on, sending out

nxiously. "I'd better be getting on. The

, and a figure approached, then down

to be a tray with glasses and a covered dish. He took the tray from her. "You can't go now," he called to Hal. "Look what we've got." He set the tray down, and

I suppose, if for no other r

ut cookies. You should have been here to hear your s

aise from Bill was rare and much sought a

yarn," said Bil

ll right," said Mrs. Martin. "There was never an

nother cookie. "If I can tell st

e to break in. Now he broke in, chance or no chance. "I've got to go, really I do," he said. "My mother will

m. "Say, what's the matter w

know. "I guess he's afraid to be out so late alone. You see, Hal's pretty much of a baby yet. He's afraid o

until he can't do a thing or think for himself. She just didn't know that the best way to re

out so well, isn't

know about you. You must be the

t Hal," he said. "I like that boy. He's got the stuff there

so much in his friend. "I've been trying to help Hal, and I thi

an improvement,"

before I go home,"

but most important contribution to the conversation.