“Well, it’s like this,” began the young inventor. “You know over in Europe and here, too, though to a much more limited extent, great interest is being manifested in travel by aeroplane—I mean travel by private parties. They have aeroplanes now that carry ten or twelve at a time over the English Channel. You can also fly from Paris to Berlin and between other European cities. In fact, they have regular routes of travel there. But here we have only a few which might be called experimental if we exclude the air mail which is a great success between New York and Chicago and western points. Now what I plan is this: An airline express from New York to San Francisco, a straight-across-the-continent flight by daylight—say from sunrise to sunset.” “What do you mean, Tom?” cried Wakefield Damon. “Do you mean to tell me you can build an aeroplane that will cross the continent in twelve hours?” “Not in twelve hours, perhaps,” replied Tom, with a smile. “Though I’m not ready to admit that’s impossible. But there are more than twelve hours from sunrise to sunset—or rather, from dawn until dark. I’ll set the time at sixteen hours. That ought to be easy.” “But you spoke of making the trip continuously—without change,” said Mr. Damon, to whom Tom’s idea was not altogether new. “None of the aeroplanes we have at present can do that—it’s all of three thousand miles. The British transatlantic fliers didn’t make as long a journey as that, though of course they were in more danger, flying over the ocean.” “Probably it wouldn’t be a non-stop flight,” said Tom. “The air mail doesn’t do that—different planes are used. It’s just the same in making a transcontinental trip in a railroad train. No one engine makes the entire trip, nor does a single train crew. But it is possible to get in a sleeping car in New York and stay in the same car until you get to San Francisco. The car is merely coupled to different engines, made up into different trains at certain designated places.” “Is that your plan?” asked the odd man. “I thought you said you were going to run aeroplanes, not railroad cars.” “I am, if I can make a go of it,” replied the young inventor. “But it will be a combination aeroplane and railroad coach. Here is my idea in a rough form.” He laid before Ned and Mr. Damon a sketch of a large and powerful plane and also a sort of coach on wheels. The two were shown separately and in combination.