Evening star., 1928-04-19

, along all day, and still land never came
in sight. That must have been heart
breaking work, with them thinking il
was Just matter Of waltsing along up
!, the home stretch,
Now night was on them. The sun
began 10 set Their spirits started to
sink. But their calculations showed
them they must be over land, Then
they had their second spaSm of fog.
thick as a feather mattress.
They tried 10 climb over 1t. They
couldn't II went up too far. They
tried to climb under it. They couldn't
1t went down too low They just had
to plug hlindly along in the fog and
darkness during the night They were
tiguratively and literally at sea. Hour
| after hour for five hours they flew ms
If they were sliding through black
hole in He'll, until past midnight they
few on, not seeing anything.
Stars Break Through.
And then they suddenly saw tho stars.
| A great sight. They were out Of the
| fog They decided TO slide 90 a lower
altitude and find ont where they were.
| If possible,
Away down below they could see
patches of black and white. They were
| over land and weren't aware Of it. Be-
| ing strangers they didn't know the
| kind Of patchwork panorama Of black
| and white that the Northern bush,
| broken by frozen lakes. presents in VIM
/ ter. They figured that the white
patches were fog or clouds. They were
| not seeing very well by this time. any
way. The strain was telling on their
eyes,
They few on for more hours. More
| and more they were puzzled by that
| black and white combination below
| Koehl began TO argue that the stuff
! did not look like fog 10 him. Baron
| Huenefeld maintained that it must be.
Fitzmaurice, to settle their argument,
| fired three Very lights. 1t was well he
| did. The last one showed the plane
| mountain. Thsv could not get over H.
The only thing to do was 10 turn.
Koehi made 8 marvellous turn,
Where can we be?" he asked In
German. IN cool voice.
The three men were as lost as they
could be They didn't know, but they
| thought they must be somewhere over
| Labrador They knew that was not
! healthy place 10 be- There was nc
way TO dope out their bearings either.
/ for their compass had long since gone
/ dead. For hours 1t had been on its
| crazy own.
Sun Shines Again.
The card Of the compass started turn
/ ing. Then morning and the sun once
/ again.
They took their bearings and few
| southeast, which meant making half
turn back 70 Ireland They dropped
| from 5000 10 Is feet. For q while
/ they few along above the surface OF
frozen river II might have been a
| Siberian stream. for al they knew. II
vas only a matter OF flying as long as
/ they could Below there was nothing
/ but wilderness In every mans mind
! there must have been thoughts Of Nun
gesser and Coll and the other flyers
who have disappeared over the At
| lantic.
The crew we're under terrible strain.
All they could do was sit tight and
| keep flying blindly on. The baron
wrote On a piece of paper: We cannot
land here. There would be no food.
Fitx tried TO remember the things he
had read about ways Of existing in the
/ wilderness and living of the land
| The gas gauges we're all out The
| men didn't know whether they had
enough gas for an hour or two hours
| flying. A blizzard came on. They
couldn't see a thing They decided 10
climb 50 they wouldn't run into any
thing.
Koehl and Fitzmaurice had been
handling the controls on three-hour
shifts They were rapidly nearing cx-
| hauStion. They were SO weary and
| their eyes we're so tired from the strain
| of looking that they were seeing
| nirsges. aircromes, hangers and ma
chimes.
See Dog Teams.
They even saw cities up there over
the Canadian wllds. There seems little
doubt that they must have been well
up over northern Canada when they
turned and bore 10 the southeast
Finally the men saw what they at first
thought vas a ship frozen In the ice.
Capt Koehl said, Il do not think IL
/ is ship" A moment later. like gift
from God. they saw dogs running out
on the ice and couple OF people. They
cut the gun and made an attempt 10
land
no. having had experience on ice
they didn't think the Ice iashore would
hold them They saw a small pond. and
| honestly II isn't much bigger than the
paTior Of a Slx-roofued house. Il was
| here they cut the machine down.
They stalled. landed. sank. the tires
burst.
The Bremen cooked up on her rose
and bent the propeller. Koehi got a Bit
Of skin peeled OF hls forehead That
Was the only harm any Of the three sstf-
fered. The injury to K0ehl was no
| worse than " he had bumped his head
against q low beam
They climbed YEARLY out of the ma
| chine Their relief at seeing humans
| must have been tremendous. The men
| dldn't talk much about this. They
wouldn't. They asked the people who
came out where they were. For all
they knew, they might have been In
| Greenland.
They were told they were at Blanc
| babion. That didn't mean anything
| until they had seen q map.
Then they knew they were the frat
men To cross the Atlantic by air from
east " west
That made up sofne, guess. for the
| hardships 0f the fight
Getting There.
And nov. after taking Oh my hat
~ those three brave men who flew
ScFoss Eas Atlantic. let me go back
| sgain 10 my flight from Murray Bay
| 10 GFeeniy Island IN the North Ameri~
| can Newspaper Alliance plane,
In my former story for the Alliance
papers l told as much ~ could. tired
| aE I Was about the trip my companions
| and ] made 10 the Bremen. We were
the i1rst, as you know. ~ get 10 the
stranded flyers from the outside world.