Evening star., 1935-09-20
FEATHER
INHERHkT
i JULIE ANNE MOORE


tinctly little after IL o'clock.
"Flukes," Charlie Biggs said.
Bill nodded. Lets hope that last
one is"
No one there knew how near that
came to being prayer 1t had taken
these hours of increasingly anxious
waiting to bring Bill to his senses.
Earlier he had said, Tough If Lee
kicked off now when he's sitting on
top of the world" Perhaps then he
had really believed his chief concern |
was for Lees safety Or had wanted |
to believe it, But for an hour now |
he had been abusing himself for what |
in retrospect, he saw as his shabby"
treatment of Ann; and it was AIMS
face-not Lee's-that burned in his
brain like a picture in flame when he
thought of the tragic possibilities Of
this flight she had made with the
man whom he, Bill Hudson, had al
most thrust upon her.
Lee was trying to start fire with
wet matches. Every time a match
Spluttered and went out, Ann grinned.
She was sitting in the open door
of the twisted cabin, a bandage around
her head.
Lee drew a fresh match along the
edge of the box. There was a mo-
mentary flash, followed by faint
splutter as the flame died out.
IF I were you," Ann suggested,
I'D put the rest of those matches in
the sun and give them chance to
dry. You may need EN- before we
get down from wherever this place is
:. Do you suppose we're still in the
United States, Lee?"
Laughing, Lee closed the match box
and pulled up on one leg. Ann jumped
up and ran to him.
You mustn't try to use that leg,
Lee. You'll only make it worse"
| He looked down at his limp left
leg as mother would look at child
who was misbehaving. Couldn't If
I tried,"-he said grumpily.
Ann pulled his arm behind her
head and over her shoulder and put
her right arm around his firm body.
"All right-let's co.
Putting as little weight as possible
| on Ann, Lee hoped the dozen feet
to the wrecked plane and sat down
by the open cabin door. He leaned
back and looked up through the trees
at the irregular shaped patches of blue
sky. Looks like swell weather up
there" he said. musingly. TOO bad
the old boat couldn't have stuck on
top of one of these trees q. Must be
late, too" He looked at his watch.
"Ye gods! It's just o'clock. Unless
this thing has stopped
His watch had not stopped. 1t was
Z o'clock-which meant that exactly
eight hours ago he was hearing that
first ominouS cough of the motor.
At intervals since Ann had regained
consciousness and learned they had,
due to an empty gasoline tank, made
a forced landing in what appeared to
be a mountain wilderness, she had
teased Lee to tell her what happened
during the interval when she was
catching up on lost Sleep" But he
had steadfastly refused to talk about
it and now, as she began the Oft
repeated question, he shook his head
firmly -..
Some day, maybe Not now, Ann.
I'd rather talk about something pleas
ant" But after a little he said: III
tell you what I was afraid Of. though
that we had been carried out to sea
. :. The minute we came out on top
and the old boat responded to the
controls, put her nose right in the
wind and held her there That's why
I can't figure out where we are. We
may have gone 10 miles inland. and
we may have gone 200 . BY the
way, are you any good at shinnying
up a tree?"
Ann laughed. I'm out of practice,
but I'll probably manage to get up q
nice skinny one"
| She chose a maple far up the noun
! tain side and ultimately reached a
point from where she could see out
over miles of forest. Forest that
spread out over a broad valley and,
in the distance, swept up on all sides
to completely cover winding noun
! tain wall.
! Lee shook his head grimly when
she told him what she had seen
What a mess" he said. I'm darned
! sorry, Ann"
She forced a smile. But there's
nothing to be sorry for. 1t was all my
fault. If I'd let you land when you
wanted To-" She saw the shadow
that suddenly passed over his face and
knew the pain in his knee was grow
ing worse. I'll take little hike
after a while and see if I can dig
up a human being. There must be a
farm house around here somewhere"
That's the devil of it," he said, his
head shaking slowly "If you went
off alone, you'd probably get lost. And
since can't navigate on this leg,
there's nothing to do but wait and
hope they'll come looking for us.
Ann" he paused as If undecided
whether to continue, then abruptly
leaned toward her I'VE may be in
this place for days, Ann"
And SOP" said Ann.
There's nothing to eat"
People don't starve in few days"
1T may be more than few =.
And there's no water"
There's water in that thar valley,
probably" Ann grinned. "I'll go down
and take look presently
Genuine admiration filled Lees eyes
as she took the small box from his
hand and went off in search of
sunny spot in which to dry the
matches. She wasn't very big, this
girl, but she had courage.
(To Be Continued)