And again he drifted and supposed himself content, until one day when a young man hailed him and told him to drive to Islington where there was an exhibition of modern engineering. Halfway there, the young man stopped the car, leaped out excitedly, gripped René by the arm, and cried:
"I say, you take me out to Hendon and we'll have a yarn. They told me you were still at it, and I was meaning to come and see you, but I'm up to my eyes in work. Let me drive."
He took the wheel and sent the car whizzing through the traffic at a speed that made René cry out in protest that he'd have him run in and his license forfeited. Kurt slowed down a little.
"Cars crawl so," he said, "once you've tried a flier."
"Yes. I won my first race, Glasgow to Edinburgh round the coast of Scotland. Bit stiff, some of it, with mist and rain. I say, I _am_ glad to see you. You're looking fit. Better life than mugging away with books, what? Though I don't know that I'd care about being out in the streets in all weathers, what?"
"Oh, you get used to that. I hate it when the engine goes wrong and I have to stay at home."
They reached Hendon and Kurt took his old friend to see his new monoplane.
"Like to go up in her? She's a snorter. Takes the air like a bird; you can feel her planes stretching to the air, and the engine's like a cat."
Before he could think twice about it, René found himself sitting up behind Kurt with the machine rushing over the ground and the engine roaring. He could not tell at what point they left the earth, but trees, sheds, houses seemed to fall away as though the earth were tilted up, and then the air rushed in his ears, caught at his throat, pressed hard against his body. He looked down. They were ascending in circles. Roads looked like ribbons, trees like haycocks, trams like toys, men and women were little dots mysteriously and absurdly moving. They hovered for a moment as they turned out of the final circle and made straight for a low gray cloud. Soon they passed through it, and up again. Presently they turned, dipped, and Kurt shut off the engine and they came gliding down; the earth tilted up alarmingly to meet them; houses, trees, sheds slid back into their places. René was startled to find the earth almost immediately flattened out again without the threatened impact, and back they darted to the hangar.