Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-20
byrd REACHES TRIO.
||SOLATED IN STORM
Commander Goes in Plane to
ICebound Cache of
Missing Men.
Continued From First Page.)

first mountain. They passed another
mountain, but there was no sign of the
plane. Men were listening around the
buzzing loud speaker from which the
sound of the planes motor came like an
echo of a distant wind.
Signals licked in and looking over
Howard Mason's shoulder as he copied
the message could be read:
See the plane now some one below
waving" A shout went up, They are
safe" but there was only one man APP
parently THE message said some one"
Where were the others? Were they
dead or injured in the tent? We asked
ourselves these questions, looking at
each other, sucking at forgotten and
unlighted pipes.
Waving and working blinker," wrote
Mason. We could see that tiny light
flashing up In morning darkness. What
dreadful message did it carry?
Fear Pervades Base.
"Landin," the pencil spelled out. We
looked at each other in amazing fear
The blinker must have told of some
thing very serious if they were to
chance a landing in that poor light
after storm that had bumped and
torn the surface. Could they do it
safely? We were a silent and worried
group of men. There was long period
of silence. Mason looked up and said
they had taken in the antenna and he
could no longer hear the engine after
it had been throttled down for the
glide. We could imagine stalling in
over a surface, waiting for the first
shock of touching. The moments drag
ged as Mason twiddled his dials. turn
ing them back and forth without re-
suit. Suddenly he picked up his pencil.
Gloom Disappears.
Landed o. K. Every one o. X" he
wrote. The shadow of gloom which had
hung over us all day was lifted by those
commonplace little words. Men Jumped
up and down and pounded each other
on the back until Mason looked I'D with
a frown of annoyance. He wanted to
hear this message.
There was nothing more for the time
and then came word that again startled
us. 1t was from the plane and was
sent by June, the chubby, calm-eyed
and efficient pilot. who had been acting
as radio operator on flights. He and
Balchen were on their way back with
Smith and were 20 minutes out from
the mountains in the approaching dark
ness. Comdr. Byrd was staying behind
with Hanson and Larry Gould until
they could be reached on another flight.
They tumbled to their feet and ran
out on the field. They waved their fur
parkas, for it was bitterly cold out there
with the wind blowing strong from the
east. We stared into that wall of
darkness above, in which a few stars
tWinkled dimly. Behind us was the first
glow left by the sun, a cold pale radi-
ance that marked the horizon sharply
under line of broken clouds
A lantern was held up to the mouth
OF the orange marker so that it showed
clearly in the gloom, and then there
was the distant whine of a plane and
faint against the dark sky we could see
the plane, and the long line of hooded
figures jumped up and down in the
twilight of the fires and put their arms
out in greeting. The plane was banked
and circled over the field and then
went out over the bay and turned in a
wide circle, then it glided down toward
the lights. 1t was a strange and beau
tiful picture as the plane, like a huge
black bird, was silhouetted against the
dim light over the bay ice coming from
trip Of rescue. 1t slipped sideways a
little to check its speed and then moved
toward US very slowly In the darkness.
The skies flashed by just over flying
flags and then it came down gently.
A slight crunching sound, few quick
dips of the wing and 1t was safely in a
perfect landing.
Copyright. 1929. by. the New York Times
for publication reserved throughout the
world.)