Four weeks ago (TIME, April 23) there was a pause in the criss-cross race which Lady Sophie Heath (Sir James' wife) was having with Lady Mary Bailey (Sir Abe's wife). Lady Sophie was down in Cairo, fuming at British officials because they had cautiously padlocked her plane and refused to let her fly on to London. Lady Mary was lounging nervously in Tabora, a Central African native village, recovering from injuries and waiting for her wealthy baronet to send her a "Moth" to replace the one whose motor had stalled and which had catapulted her into this hot and wearisome metropolis of the jungle. Lady Mary wanted to get to Cape Town, whence her rival had started, before Lady . Sophie got to London, whence she, Lady Mary, had started. Lady Mary spoke rudely to the blackamoors who served her; she looked over the close trees of the forests, into the wide, vacant sky, blanketed with heavy clouds.
Last fortnight, Lady Mary hovered over the landing field at Cape Town, almost afraid to come down and hear that her rival had reached London and the record before her arrival. When she landed, she received different news. Lady Sophie had left Cairo in a huff and gone to London, not by plane, but by boat and express train. Lady Mary smiled with the pride of a perilous victory. Then, after 12 days' delay so that she might keep up the pretense that her London to South Africa jaunt had been undertaken for reasons of business rather than aeronautical rivalry, she started back from Cape Town to London—by plane.