nding the number of degrees between any two airports it was
not difficult to come pretty close to the actual distance in miles
between them."

"Very good; very good, indeed," approved his father. "I think I have
the right sort of men on this job. But here is another thing which
occurs to me: Have you based your time of arrival and leaving at each
port upon local time or New York time?"

"Local time," stated Paul. "If we had not done so we could not have
arranged the schedule with any accuracy at all, as regards daylight and
darkness and the lapping of time. With our watches set to New York
time, we might expect to land at a station in broad daylight, only to
find that we were really coming in after dark. Another thing: Our
figuring showed us that the lappages of time, all added together,
exactly totaled one day of twenty-four hours, which we gain by
traveling eastward. So, while the schedule on a calendar at home would
only show ten days which we would be gone, we would in reality be away
one day longer, or eleven."

"Your local times may be wrong," hinted Mr. Giddings.

"I don't think so, sir; we proved them correct," stated Paul, with
conviction.

"How?"

"After the same method we used in getting the mileage, sir. You see,
we knew that time eastward keeps getting later, and that this rate is
four minutes to every degree. We just counted the degrees between
places and figured it out on that basis."

"Splendid!" exclaimed Mr. Giddings, who was far from as ignorant of
these processes as he led his visitors to suppose. "Boys, I wish to
compliment you very highly upon this piece of work. When I first
looked at the schedule and saw that an airplane meeting its
requirements would make this trip squarely around the world in seven
and a half hours less than ten days I could scarcely credit my senses,
and I figured it all over to make sure you had made no mistake. I
found out you had not. If you can maintain an average speed of one
hundred and twenty miles, and can make up any unforeseen delays by
greater speed, I must admit it really looks possible for you to be back
inside of ten days. That is better than I actually hoped for, young
men,--far better! In fact the situation, as I view it, contains
wonderful opportunities for both newspapers in the way of sales and
advertising. I do not doubt but that I can handle this affair in such
a manner that I can afford to give each of you five thousand dollars if