“Huh! On the ice would sound better,” grumbled Ned. “All right. Whichever way you wish to put it. Anyway, if we let the thing go on until next spring any crime of the character you suggest would be well covered up. I am going to get there as soon as the wings of the wind will take me.” His decision, which he communicated to Captain Olaf Karofsen by cable, must have amazed that individual immensely. Tom cabled two hundred dollars through a Danish-American bank for the captain’s use until Tom himself arrived in Reykjavik. “Expect me on Friday,” was the concluding sentence of Tom’s cablegram to the skipper of the wrecked _Kalrye_. That day was three days following the date of the cablegram. Later it was proved that the message shook society in the Icelandic port to its very foundations. The fact that the new flying boat was about to start upon a flight into the Arctic could not be kept out of the newspapers, for the crew had to be told where they were going if they stuck to their jobs. And not one of the mechanicians refused to take part in the expedition. Besides, Koku was to go. Rad Sampson scoffed openly at this. He knew well enough that he could not go himself. He must stay and take care of Mr. Swift. But the old colored man refused to acknowledge that Koku could be of any possible use up near the Arctic Circle. “Mus’ be, Mars’ Tom, you is wantin’ to weight down dat flying boat so she can’t eben rise out o’ de sea. Dat big chunk of meat won’t be no good to yo’ lessen yo’-all uses him fo’ an anchor.” “Whuf!” snorted Koku. “Koku great man. Koku fight!” “See here, big boy,” returned Rad, “yo’ll have a hot time fightin’ icebergs an’ polar bears. Won’t be much else fo’ yo’ to fight—no, sir.” However, the giant was proud indeed to be one of the party booked for a transatlantic passage heretofore never tried. The newspapers made much of it. In the sheets issued the day following the announcement of Tom’s determination there were photographs of the crew of the _Winged Arrow_, and prominent in the group was Koku, dressed in the violently checked suit that had been given him by the president of the Hendrickton & Pas Alos Railroad. Beside Koku, who could actually be called a member of the working crew of the _Winged Arrow_, Ned Newton had announced his intention of being of the party. “If the inventor and head of the Swift Construction Company risks his life in such a venture, the treasurer of the concern might as well go along,” Ned declared. “If you are lost, Tom Swift, there will be no company, so my job as treasurer won’t be worth much. Count me in.” In like manner Kingston, the wireless operator, asked for a berth in the cabin of the seaplane. Tom really was touched by these expressions of loyalty and good will. “Mary is crazy to go, as well!” he said, with a laugh. “But Mrs. Nestor vetoed the proposition and saved me from doing so. Mary has pluck enough to go.”