-"

His voice broke sharply. From the panel there came a thin call, a
quivering that was more a trembling than a sound; it reached out to
touch raspingly the nerves of every listener. Then the whole board burst
forth in a flash of fire where a flaming crystal leaped to life--and
none could see that pulsing flame without thrilling to the knowledge
that it was calling a whole world with its wordless summons.

The light died; a television detector whined as its motors came to
speed; and each watcher knew that the waiting world was connected with
that auditorium in New York; all that happened, there--each sight and
sound--was circling the globe.

An announcer's voice roared briefly before the regulator cut down on its
volume.

"You are seeing the Radio-central Auditorium in New York. On the landing
stage above, after a journey of five hundred thousand miles, a strange
craft has settled to rest. Its pilot: Chester Bullard, once rated as
Master Pilot of the World! Its journey, now safely completed: from the
Earth to the Moon, and return!

"The world is waiting to greet Pilot Bullard, though of this he, as yet,
is unaware. World-wide radio control is now transferred to Radio-central
Auditorium in New York! They are coming! They are entering!"

* * * * *

But the thousands gathered in that great hall heard no other words from
the radiocone. Their attention was focused upon the broad stage, where,
descending from a lift, a strange group stepped out upon the stage,
stood an instant in startled wonder that was near embarrassment, then
took the seats to which they were shown.

And again the venerable President of the Federation Aeronautique
Internationale was speaking.

"It is less than a month since I stood here before you, when, as again
is true to-night, the entire personnel of the executives of the
Stratosphere Control Board was gathered to do honor to the pioneers of
space--the discoverer--"

On the stage near the speaker, Chet Bullard stared in consternation at a
girl in a pilot's suit as grimed and ragged as his own. His gaze passed
on to the set features of Pilot O'Malley--to the blue eyes of a
flaxen-haired giant--then on to where Walt Harkness and Diane, his wife,
sat regarding him with happy smiles. Dimly Chet heard the man at the
speakers' stand.

"--and on that other occasion, Mr. Bullard refused a decoration tendered
him and marking him as the first to travel through airles