“Let’s bring Major Honeywell to luncheon with us. He expects to go over to Newark with us to-day. Then we’ll get a big car and motor out early in the afternoon. With that off our minds we can get down to business,” suggested Alan.
“Say,” exclaimed Bob, “I don’t see any need to bother about picking up that bundle of matrices. That’s easy.” To the looks of inquiry he responded, “You know the postal crane that young Roy Osborne planned for use on ocean steamers? Well, the model is finished. He figures on installing it on liners so that passing ocean aeroplanes can swoop alongside, toss off the latest London or New York papers with the mail bag, and pick up the ship’s mail as the express trains do on land.”
“That’ll be all right when the time comes,” laughed Alan, “but I don’t know any liner that needs to spend money now on such an equipment. It’s a little previous isn’t it?”
“Just in time,” exclaimed Bob. “We need it now. At two o’clock when these sheets are ready, they can be tossed into a fast motor, whirled to the Battery, thrown on the _Herald_ motor boat, rushed out into the sound and delivered to our ocean tug in fifteen or twenty minutes, maybe less.”
“And then?” repeated Bob contemptuously. “Why, there is Osborne’s postal crane rigged up on the tug and waitin’ for our ‘pick up arm.’”
“Simplest thing in the world,” Ned chuckled. “Great! Check off that problem.”
“And meanwhile the _Flyer_ loses twenty minutes soaring around over the bay,” suggested Alan. “You ought to allow for that in the contract.”
“Lose nothing,” went on Bob. “We won’t lose a second. We can come from Newark to the Sound in eight or nine minutes. We’ll be all set and ready to start at two o’clock. When the matrix bundle is hustled into the automobile, the _Herald_ will notify us—”
“Sure,” exclaimed Bob. “Ten minutes after the auto leaves _Herald Square_, they’ll give us the signal by wireless. Then we’re off. Eight minutes later, we ought to grab the bag off the tug and drop our ‘good-bye.’”
“I pass that up,” replied Bob. “What I don’t know about London is a whole lot. That’s up to some wiser head than mine.”
“That suggests something,” said Ned after a period of thinking. “We’ve generally planned to make Roy Osborne our companion and fourth operator.”