At the moment Ned whirled the wing wheel for a new lift a loud voiced boy dashed from the rear of the _Herald building_.
“Here y’ar; extry papia; all ’bout big airplane crossin’ ’Lantic ocean; papia, double extry _Hurld_!”
On the first page of the damp sheets under the boy’s arm—and the first loaded wagon of extras was now rattling down Broadway—was the story Buck and Bob had written three days before. In display type above this was printed this bulletin:
“The first aeroplane to cross the Atlantic Ocean reached the _Herald_ office at ten minutes after two o’clock this morning. It left London at one minute after two o’clock yesterday afternoon. Distance traveled 3,218.1 miles. Time, twelve hours and eight minutes. Highest speed, 205.2 miles an hour. Greatest altitude, 31,000 feet. Lowest temperature, 2° above zero. The monster triple-planed _Ocean Flyer_, with a daring crew of five men, has conquered the air at last. Under the auspices of the _Herald_ and _Telegram_, Captain Ned Napier and his associate Alan Hope, left New York Wednesday, June 21, at one o’clock, twenty-one minutes and twenty-two seconds in the afternoon. Their monster aeroplane successfully crossed the Atlantic—traversing Massachusetts, the Gulf of Maine, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, 1,709 miles of trackless water, Ireland, the Irish Sea—and delivered the plates of the _Telegram’s_ special coronation edition safely to the _Herald_ representatives in Hyde Park, London, at twenty-five minutes after one o’clock the next day. The story of the preparations for these marvelous feats, with a full description of the _Ocean Flyer_, its unique ideas and a detailed account of its now celebrated crew, appears below.”
Then followed a full page of the matter that Bob and Buck had written and a graphic story, written by night city editor Latimer, of how the _Herald_ discovered the _Ocean Flyer_, of the “beat” that was not printed and a full account of Ned Napier and Alan Hope, the “Airship Boys.”
When the _Ocean Flyer_ reached the yards of the aeroplane factory in Newark fifteen minutes later and came to a final stop, there was no more demonstration than might have followed a half hour’s flight out over the marshes. President Atkinson was awaiting his friends. As he took Ned’s hand he handed him a telephone message just received. It read: