The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1936-12-17

he came up, she was rubbing snow
on her barred ankle. She looked up
at him, white-faced with pain and
despair.
81 tried, Alan. can't even walk, y
she said. go back. It's all my fault.
Hurry and save yourself. Maybe
can-delay him."
For reply. Garth swung her up
across his shoulders and headed
again for the plane. There might be
time. He put all his strength into
anothe burst of speed.
They came to the glacier stream,
with no sight or sound of the pursu-
ers behind them. Garth lifted the
girl from his shoulder and set her
on the front edge of the monoplane
wing. He grasped hold to vault up
beside her.
A bullet famed the girls pain
whitened cheek. Another bullet
struck the wing edge between her
and Garth. He jerked her down off
the wing. The firing ceased. But the
angle of the shot in the wing edge
told Garth the direction from which
it had come.
After numbering Constable Dillon
but before starting to trail Garth,
Hubby must have sent one of his
men running along the foot of the
tundra shope to take possession of
the planes. Garth had outrun the
miner. But the man had come within
easy rifle range and clear view of
the plane-at least of its upper parts.
Garth did not hesitate split Sec
ond. He carried Lilith to the mooring
tree and slashed the line with his
knife. Then, taking the girl picka-
back, he set off up the stream bank.
His one backward glance showed
him that the plane was drifting out
into the lake. But, the cross-wind
had died down. The lesSened stream
current could be counted upon to
carry the plane out beyond reach be-
fore it was stopped by the skim ice.
The rifleman up on the edge of the
tundra was off to the right of the
stream. Garth knew he had a thick
screen of spruce trees and scrub all
the way to timberline. AS he climb
ed, the man above began to yell and
halloo. Garth had no doubt that the
fellow was shouting about the out
drift of the cabin plane.
Before long, other yells came from
the lake shore They were followed
by rifle shots. 1t was easy to guess
that one or more of the pursuers had
sighted the plane and opened fire, on
the supposition that Garth was hid
den in the cockpit. The shouts of the
man above told that he was running
downhill, probably to let the others
know he had kept the fugitives from
getting aboard.
Garth moderated his rush. Even so,
his steady uphill slogging brought
him near timberline before the four
men got together down at the lake
shore. From the sudden stoppage of
the firing, he knew the fourth man
had, explained the situation. Yet he
did not quicken his climbing pace.
For the first time since leaving the
plane, he spoke to Lilith: "Try hold
ing out farther from my neck, Miss
Ramill. We're safe enough now. We
are climbing faster than they can
wade the drifts
With less than a hundred PAGES,
Garth saw a whitish pail surge out
from the down-rolling clouds on the
western mountain side. A snow-Spit-
ting wind-gust whooshed aslant the
tundra slope. He turned sharp to the
left and headed uphill towards the
foot of the glacier. Before he had
covered another hundred PAGES, the
air was thick with snow.
Fortunately for Lilith, the storm
was only an early autumn blizzard,
not a 80 or 40 below zero gale of the
subarctic winter. The rabbit-fur un-
dersuit inside the buckskins saved
her. Though greatly chilled, she was
only slightly frostbitten when Garth
reached the brink of the lateral mo-
raine, little below the foot of the
glacier.
He went out across the rock
strewn gulch bed. Within a few mo-
ments Lilith suddenly found herself
out of the wind and snow and the
white gloom of the storm. She could
not see. Her elbow rasped along a
smooth wall. Then she was placed
upon ledge.
A match flared in Garth's appraised