The Highflyers

he dropped into a chair at the table which was regarded

aid. "Still unconscious

he crowd been out to Mount

just lies with his eyes half open. When you say he's

something-this crowd he t

id Randall. "One of those pillow things, or a horseshoe or

cigars and a book," s

an idea and goes ahead with it regardless.... I suppose if Potter had been an Englishman you'd have sent him cigars with d

rs and books to a sic

men and babies on 'em. Women and babies oug

rights in sinking the Lusitania, because she gave preliminary notice to all the world by establishing a war zone around England. She gave special notice to travelers before the

"Doesn't he recite beautifully!

girl is coming out a

f the hospital in a couple of weeks. Nothing broken, just shock, and a little concus

with Potter?" Watts said. "

ey say she had old von Essen fighting for air most of the time." La Mothe usually could be truste

e was bound to come a cropper som

st tense; Potter Waite, in a couple of week

d, sensational cropper when he got to it,"

eculiar," Kraemer said, seriously

e'll never be any more. Study over it a

" said Watts; "if he made up his mind to do a t

depression, then La Mothe said, "Seen t

iends. Why not? They had pronounced his obituary. He had been and was not. Dancers must dance and cocktails must be mixed and the worl

ess time of his busy father was spent in that still room. Had he been conscious he might have understood something of his mother's agony, for, quiet, simple as she was, she had retained her turbulent son's affection. Perhaps she underst

ther for granted, looking upon the other as something that was and could not be blinked. Fabius had no time for his son; Potter had no time for his father. They had no point of contact.... It was natural that Potter should now be unable to see into his fat

his voice was different from the voice with

m by a denial. "We have both b

then he said, fiercely, "I'v

d.... The nurse sat looking from the window, her back to the bed. Suddenly a voice, yet not a voice so much as the ghost of a

had spoken; his eyes looked up at them, dim, but intelligently; their

knows us!" his

tter said.

hat murky region which was no

sely, "he spoke. He recognized

a promise held out to them; it might have been

aid to himself again a

e compelled-against their wills, it seemed-to give Potter a reluctant chance of recovery.... Another ten days saw him fully conscious-not safe yet, but with chances of safety mu

his grasp upon it, until even the medical mind was convinced and, with due eye to its reputation, gave to the parents the assurance, "We've saved

accident. He appeared not to remember it or to have any idea

me," he said one da

on Essen," hi

s s

d, a bit resentfully. "She has be

. good," s

bout his 'plane. "What's beco

ore where you-fell

epeated. "The sho

up on Baltimore

as not satisfied. "It was on an island," he said. "A little

the mainland. You-

d. "There was an island," he said, and then let the

ll going on?" h

es

?" he asked,

N

's some reason why we should, b

recollections. For hours he would lie with closed eyes-thinking. It was the first quiet he h

to read to me?"

, son. What

e United States-the best one ther

ing for an understanding of it. Major Craig had asked him if he loved his country.... He fancied he had answered that question when he imagined it invaded as Belgium had been invaded. Now, day by day, he was learning why he should love his country; what his country meant, why it existed, why it had prospered, what his co

It made her glad, for there was promise in it.... One day, follow

or its name, because he thought to please her, nodded assent. It was a s

narrative before. His eyes did not leave his mother's face, and there came into them a hungry, troubled look.... His mother's face became dim, and he realized that he was seeing through a mist. Every word of that wonderf

ther, possessing that marvelous quality,

to his home, and there, in his own rooms, he demanded books. Not the books one might suppose, not books to pass the long hours

father who was now nearer to him by much than he had been befor

and I haven't any other business.... I'm going to be the man in the United States who knows more

to get into business seriously, why, when you're strong enough, jus

bout commercial suc

a, then?" his fathe

n keep out of this wa

iness. Nobody can get to us, and we couldn't get to anybody. You can't go to war in t

ess is educating them, and I shouldn't be surprised if Germany was helping the educat

ossibility of war both

em, but one of the most important. Twenty thousand! An army of millions-and the aeroplane is as vital to the army as the commissariat. That's fact. You can't dodge it. And we've g

"When you're well, you'll get these notions out of you

ut fifty 'planes to-day. Bulgaria's got more.

I guess nobody's going to monkey with us." It wa

aren't. Burglars don't break into a house when a policeman is standing in front and a bulldog is barking inside.... It's insurance. But w

at twenty thousand 'planes. I'm going to know how to build them, and I'm going to know where and how they can be built.

y-loving men in those summer days of the year 1915; those days which were seeing Italy's entrance to the war, which were witnessing Mackensen's war-machine crushing the Russians out of Galicia, capturing Przemys