His mood was not optimistic that morning.

He was not even hopeful.

He had held an exalted respect for aviators, believing them all supermen, gifted beyond the common herd and certainly owning a fine valor, a gameness that surpassed the best courage of men content to remain close to earth.

He had brought Bland Halliday away down here only to find that he lacked all the fine qualities which Johnny had taken for granted he possessed.
"Say! On the square, did you ever get any farther away from the ground than an elevator could take you ?" he asked bluntly, when he was finishing his coffee after a heavy silence.
"Ten thousand feet--well, once I went twelve, but I didn't stay up.

There was a heavy cross-current up there, and I didn't stay.