The Language of Bees - Laurie R. King [151]
“Why not employ an aeroplane?”
I stared at him. “What?”
“An aeroplane. Heavier-than-air fixed-wing contraption? Been around since two brothers in America persuaded a propeller and some canvas to go airborne? You have been up in one, I believe?”
“Memorably,” I said, with feeling.
“Well?”
For thrilling entertainments, darting air battles, or emergency exits from sticky situations, aeroplanes were ideal; for transporting human beings over long stretches of countryside, I was none too certain. Yes, Lofte could throw himself headlong on a dare; yes, the mail now flew daily across America; still, there was a great deal of difference between sacks of mail and human beings when it came to surviving mechanical difficulties a thousand feet in the air.
I had to clear my throat before I could say mildly, “They're hardly dependable.”
“Imperial Airways has been in existence since March,” he pointed out. “Not all that many flights, to be sure, but air travel is the way of the future.”
“You're not saying that there is commercial aeroplane travel from London to Orkney?” I demanded.
“No,” he admitted. “I should have to arrange something more private.”
I had a brief vision of Lofte's bedraggled condition on Saturday night, but told myself that had been the result of six thousand miles; this would be a mere tenth the bedragglement.
As if following my thoughts, Mycroft said, “If I can find you a 'plane, you could be there in a day, Thursday at the latest.”
“You needn't make this sound like some treat you're offering a child, Mycroft.”
“What is this you're offering Russell, Mycroft?” Holmes had come into the room at the last phrase, to fetch the stack of photographs showing the Adlers and Reverend “Hayden.”
“Aeroplane travel,” I said bluntly. “And do leave us some of those.”
He concentrated on setting aside a few of each photograph, but emotions played over his face: surprise giving way to a queasy apprehension, then serious consideration, finally settling into wonderment.
“One forgets,” he reflected, “that in half a year's absence, technological advances will have been made.”
“It's been an entire year since Kelly and Macready crossed America without stopping,” Mycroft said, stretching out an arm for the telephone. “And the American Army round-the-world team has reached Iceland with two of its original three machines.”
“Yes, and the Boston wrecked off Orkney, didn't it?”
“Is that your answer, Mary?”
“No, I suppose I could think—”
But Mycroft's hand was already on the instrument. “Sherlock, if you are looking for the folded maps, I've moved them to the escritoire. Hello, is that Carver? Can you find Lofte and send him to me?”
Holmes pawed through the maps and removed several, then noticed me. “Need you stand there gawping, Russell? Don't you have things to do? I recommend you begin with locating a pilot who has taken a pledge.”
“Thank you, Holmes, for offering me up to the gods of technology.” It appeared that I was to become a barnstormer.
Holmes' driver rang the bell a few minutes later, and the two men left through the hidden doorway. Ten minutes later, the bell rang again, this time for me.
Mr Lofte's appearance had improved out of all recognition in the three days since I had seen him. His face was shaved, his suit so new it still bore traces of tailor's chalk, and the only odour about him was the faint aura of shaving soap.
Mycroft greeted him by saying, “My brother's wife needs to be in Orkney immediately. I wish you to assist her.”
The unflappable modern-day Phileas Fogg merely asked, “Will you need both the 'plane and the pilot?”
“I can requisition the machine, if need be.”
“When you say ‘immediately,’ do you wish to undertake a night landing?” I hastened to assure him that my need for speed was merely desperate, not suicidal. He nodded.
“In that case, let me see what I can scare up at the Society.”
“I'll come with you, if I may,” I said, thinking: my life, my choice