Free Amelia Earhart by Doris L. Rich Page B

Railey was certain she would be perfect, he explained that the decision would be made by others at a secondinterview in New York. When he asked her to keep the plan a secret, Amelia said she would have to ask her supervisor, Marion Perkins, for time off from Denison House but assured him that Miss Perkins could be trusted.
    Miss Perkins gave her a two-week leave and a promise of confidentiality. To her family Amelia said nothing except that she was going to New York and would be staying with Marian Stabler. Nor did she confide in her hostess during the brief visit. Her thank you note written six weeks later said, “You may grant me pardon when you hear, in a little while, what all this mysterious business is.… Yes, my performance in New York was successful—at least, it gives me a chance at success of a kind.”
    For the interview Amelia went to the office ofPutnam, who told his secretary to have her wait in the outer office. She made no effort to disguise her irritation when the handsome, forty-one-year-old, publisher-promoter came out to greet her. Nor was she overly impressed by the electric tension and instant charm directed at her by this tall, broad-shouldered man in the well-cut suit. There were four persons at the interview—Mrs. Guest’s brother, John S. Phipps, Layman, Railey, and Putnam, who was already in charge of the project. After explaining that the trimotored Fokker was to be named
Friendship
as a symbol of goodwill between Mrs. Guest’s native and adopted countries, the committee asked a battery of questions, Amelia said in her account of the meeting:
    Was I willing to fly the Atlantic?
    In the event of disaster would I release those in
    charge of of all responsibility?
    What was my education—if any?
    How strong?
    How willing?
    What flying experience?
    What would I do after the flight?
    Amelia was told that Wilmer Stultz, test pilot for one of Byrd’s planes, would be paid twenty thousand dollars to fly the Atlantic flight and themechanic, Louis Gordon, five thousand. There would be no reward for her except for opportunities in aviation that she might be offered after a successful crossing. Fees for newspaper stories she wrote would be put back in the operating fund. Accepting those terms, Amelia made some requests of her own. She wanted to check the equipment and to meet the pilot. She also wanted to do some of the flying on the trip. Returning to Boston, she reported to Marion Perkins, “I found myself in a curious situation. If they did not like me at all or found me wanting in many respects, I would be deprived of the trip. If they liked me too well, they might be loath to drown me. It was, therefore, necessary for me to maintain an attitude of impenetrable mediocrity.”
    After the interview she said Putnam had escorted her to thetrain station. He talked all the way, telling her about his young son, David Binney Putnam, who had accompanied him on a trip to Greenland and written a book about it for juvenile readers. Amelia thought him an interesting man but was amused by how quickly he hustled her aboard the train without offering to pay for her return ticket.
    Two days later she received a note and formal agreement from Mrs. Guest. Amelia was to be captain of the flight; her decisions, once aboard, to be final. Anymoney from royalties or advertising would be turned over to the operating fund.
    Amelia signed the agreement and returned it promptly. She knew how dangerous the flight would be. Since Lindbergh’s crossing the previous May, fourteen persons attempting the flight had been lost at sea, three of them women. The last, the Honorable Elsie Mackay, an Englishwoman accompanied by Capt. Walter Hinchcliffe, disappeared somewhere over the Atlantic within days of Amelia’s interview in New York. A fourth woman, American Ruth Elder, accompanied by George W. Haldeman, had survived an unsuccessful attempt when they were plucked from the sea by the crew of a Dutch freighter three hundred miles