ds distant.

"My dear Kate!" he protested; "I'm not so young as I was. _Let_ him be
there first, confound him!"

But he ran all the same. The engine was roaring overhead,
_fortissimo_; looking up, the two panting runners saw the flashlight.
A sudden silence, as when the word _tacet_ in an orchestral score
hushes to silence bassoons and horns, drums and cymbals, all the
instruments that but a moment before were convulsing the air with
myriad waves of sound.

"He's gliding!" cried Kate, standing breathless at the door of the
shed. The machine descended silently and rested on the smooth level
sward. Kate darted forward.

"Oh, Charley!" she cried; "you've come!"

CHAPTER XVIII

THE LAST LAP

"Rather late, ain't you!" said Barracombe, as Smith jumped from the
aeroplane.

"Hallo, Sis. Hallo, old man!" cried Smith. "We've done it; seven days,
to the minute!"

Kate flew into his arms: only next day did she discover the ruin of
her dress.

"I've a voice like a corncake," said Smith, disengaging himself. "Glad
to see you, Billy."

"You're a wonder! But, God bless me! you look awfully done up. You
look positively ill. Come up to the house at once; we don't want you
crocked."

"Come on, Roddy," said Smith hoarsely. "You'll stay with us to-night.
Leave the machine for once. You see, Billy, I have to rejoin at nine
to-morrow--to-morrow, I say; I mean this morning. That gives me nine
hours, and as I haven't been to bed for a week I want seven good solid
hours sleep."

"But really, Charley, you don't look fit to rejoin," said Kate. "Your
cheeks are dreadfully thin, and your voice is nearly gone."

"Well, of course, I'm dead tired; feel all to pieces, in fact. But all
I want is sleep."

"And a medical certificate," put in Barracombe. "I've known a fellow
get two months' leave for what he called a strained heart. Strained it
to some purpose, for he got married before his leave was up. We'll get
you a certificate--a doctor's, not a parson's."

"I don't mind if you do, after I've rejoined; but I must show up
without fail at nine a.m. I'm later than I meant to be. Got snowed up
at St. John's."

"You didn't come straight from Toronto, then!"

"No. Didn't care to risk it. Besides, it would have meant eighteen
hours in the air at a stretch. I don't think Roddy and I could have
stood that. I took St. John's--in Newfoundland, Kate--on the way."

"But I thought Newfoundland was near the North Pole."

"A commo