PART ONE<br > CHAPTER 1<br > Le Petit Santos<br > In February~ 1902， the customary collection of royalty and riches was<br > gathered in the small principality of Monaco to enjoy the excitement of<br > the casino， the scent of the flowers and the brilliance of the sunshine.<br > There were entertainers， industrialists， gamblers， hypochondriacs， dis-<br > erect "other women，" masters of cuisine. Amid such a motley group， it<br > was difficult to be different but Alberto Santos-Dumont succeeded.<br > He was an aeronaut.<br > Santos-Dumont was already well-known throughout France and he<br > was the idol of Parisians， who had dubbed him Le Petit Santos after read-<br > ing in the press of his astonishing aerial exploits and， in fact， often seeing<br > him for themselves as he soared and swayed above the buildings of Paris，<br > dangling beneath his huge， sausage-shaped balloon. He was the intimate<br > of academicians， particularly the scientifically inclined， and this is how<br > he d come to Monaco; he d been invited by His Serene Highness Prince<br > Albert the First. ruler of the principality and a man with a passion for sci-<br > ence.<br > The invitation was particularly important to Santos-Dumont because it<br > would give him an opportunity to fly out over the sea， perhaps for some<br > distance. The visit to Monaco， as it turned out， was also important to the<br > future of trans-Atlantic flight because it brought Santc~-Dumont together<br > with an energetic and somewhat eccentric British publisher， Alfred<br > Harmsworth; one of Harmsworth s newspapers later was to initiate a<br > spectacular competition among flyers and between countries - to be the<br > first to fly acro~ the Atlantic.<br > Santos-Dumont found the sunshine of Monaco much more to his liking<br > than the mid-winter greyness of Paris. It allowed him to fly his strange<br > machine and， besides， he was used to sunshine; he d been born in Brazil.<br > Alberto Santos-Dumont had been a birthday present to his father， a<br >