eleven o'clock
Ai n't no use o ' flying against such veterans as us , '' supplemented Chuck Crossman , with a wag of his frowsy head . Mr. Wrenn frowned . While these might be his own men , it was hard to countenance such bragging . By eleven o'clock the tanks of the Sky-Bird II had been filled with gasoline and oil , and the radiator of each engine supplied with twelve gallons of water . In addition to this , its crew had carefully gone over every brace , control , bolt , and nut to make sure that everything was tight , the engines had been run detached from the propeller for a few minutes to warm them up , and every bearing not reached by the lubricating system was well oiled by hand . Mr. Giddings had appeared about an hour earlier , bringing with him the two special correspondents of the _ Daily Independent _ , as well as several other newspaper men representing various prominent foreign publications . As soon as our boys had finished shaking hands with these , they were introduced to a number of well-known Government officials and aviation representatives , who added their good wishes for the success of the big undertaking .