It is a shock to smug civilized security to learn that two men have actually been lost somewhere along the familiar lane between England and America. When Nungesser and Coli left Paris on their flight, the world looked on in satisfaction, anticipating the forging of another link in the long chain of human achievement. And now, in the excitement of the aviators' disappearance, there is a note of surprise.

Together with worldwide enthusiasm and wishes for success, the French flyers held the public confidence in their attempt. So common have the wonders of science become that in the average mind there is no admission of chance of failure, no realization of the impotence of modernity's most trusted inventions against the still uncurbed forces of wind and wave.

The human voice has bridged the sea, and aircraft ride the sky with some degree of safety. But all is not conquered yet, and it is such incidents as this latest flight which show unsuccess. With all the encroachments of science on the domains of sea and sky, that man still has need of triple bronze who, like the two lost flyers, or like Chamberlin and Bertrand, who are preparing their own trans-Atlantic trip, will venture against the perennial foes of man.