The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-26
leak. An air mail mechanic welded the jacket in 10 minutes.
Reads As He Flies.

Reads As He Flies. We sped over prosperous cities, with the business sections packed solidly with automobiles; lesser settlements were all marked by towering grain cle- yators alongside the railroad tracks. Ahead the Platte forked into TWO branches and the air mail hanger at North Platte appeared below. We de- scended for lunch.
 My nervousness passed as we again took the air. I turned to a magazine and began reading. Suddenly l dropped the magazine The purr of the Liberty motor became irregular, interspersed with a heavy clank that sent chills up and down the spine. McDuffie, with a slightly perturbed expression, was circling for landing place in a hurry. Beneath stretched prairie upland. We landed safely enough, both of us swearing so fer vently that a startled jack rabbit dis appeared over the hilltops and gophers sought safety in their holes.
 TelephOned For Aid.
 We found a broken rocker arm on the motor and two new leaks in the water jacket. After some futile chas- ing about the country we called up the air mail hangar at North Platte The field manager promised to send us aid the first thing in the morning.
 At daybreak we were back on the prairie with our plane. We heard the hum of a motor and an airplane drop ped from the sky alongside our dls- able craft. In less than half an hour the damage had been repaired.
 Our rescuers were the. maintenance crew of the air mail. Twice a week a pilot and mechanic visit every emer- rency field on the night flying division to make sure that the lighting system functions constantly. They had left North Platte, ninety miles away, at sun-up. They left us to fly fifty miles east to visit the light keeper at an emergency field.
 Jinx Still There.
 Our link was still with us. It grew cold. Before we took off, rain was descending in torrents. Rain drops stung the face cruelty and before we had travelled the twenty-seven miles to an emergency landing field we were drenched to the skin, cold and miser- able. The emergency field was at Sid ney, Neb.
 We deserted the plane and went to q hotel for a bath and rest. We were dozing when the telephone rang. It was the maintenance crew again. They were travelling west and had seen our come down. The rain had ceased, but the sky remained overcast. It was bitter cold. We hastened back to the field, determined to fly into Cheyene.
 For more than an hour we climbed steadily upward, but the ground ascend ed with us. Table lands spread away north and south, and we marked the foothills of the Rocky mountains as we reached the summit of the Cheyenne plateau.
 Over The Top Of The World
 The next hop is one of the most ardu- ous in the transcontinental journey. A strong west wind sweeps across the mountain tops, frequently reaching velocity of seventy miles an hour: West of Cheyenne is the top of the world and there is nothing to break the force of the >gale.
 Rawlings is only 135 miles away but it requires at least two hours to reach there. The air speed of mail plane IS between 100 and 120 miles an hour. Yet at times it has taken six hours to fly from Cheyenne to Rock Springs, 22O miles away.
 The jinx is still with us. As we take off, our motor coughs spasmodical- ly. We manage to get the tall skid over fence and circle back into the field. It requires three hours to correct the defects and put on new landing wheel.
 It is il 80 o'clock when we finally get away. The Cheyenne plateau stretches benegth us. Ahead loom the humps of the Laramie range, white hooded, bleak, forbidding. We climb and climb. At last we hurdle the hump and are, gliding down the slope into the comparative shelter of the Laramie plains.
 Take Opening In Hills
 We find a comparatively low open ing to the north of Elk mountain and drop over hills to fertile valley where we again meet the meandering waters of the North Platte river. Up the val ley is Rawlins and we alight for fuel.
 We fly over the state penitentiary and look into the high walled enclOS-