Page:Flying Death.pdf/65

 particularly assertive moustache. He was wide at the brow, equally wide at the jaw, narrow at the chin; he looked over Pete and then he looked over me with greyish, indolent eyes.

"Henry," she said to him in some sort of protest. He said nothing to her; he hardly looked at her but he reached for her hand and enclosed it in his own while he continued to favor us with his indolent scrutiny.

It was largely assumed, I realized; it was a pose which he perfected. He not only was assertive but he possessed a natural alertness and aliveness which would make the air service pick the man, at sight, for a pilot. You could count upon the accuracy and steadiness of his hand under all conditions. Physically he was muscle and bone; and the correlation of his mind with his muscle must be excellent; his reaction time, infinitesimal.

Reaction time, you know, is the interval which elapses between the moment a man's brain receives an impression and the instant when his hand acts in obedience to the stimulus in the brain. It is essential, in flying, that this time be exceedingly brief.