The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1936-09-24
CHAPTER II
TreacherY

Garth followed Miss Ramill in I'M
der the monoplane's wing. He did
not offer to hand the girl up into the
cabin or help ship the steps. Wom-
ems right did not include courteSieS
in return for insults.
He cast off the tail mooring line
and swung aboard, with the coiled
rope and his rifle.As the plane drift
ed clear, the breeze swerved its head
off from shore. Huxby paused mo-
ment. to jerk out a question:
'Route?"
For answer, Garth pointed west
erly. Hubby set the propeller whirl-
ing with the self-starter. With rapid
idly increasing Roadway, the plane
skinned out on the smooth river.
Rifle between knees, Garth settled
down upon the cockpit seat at the
pilots elbow Huxby was first to
speak. When the plane scared above
the west bank of the great river, he
leaned close to shout repetition of
his question: 'Route?"
Garth looked oversize before
pointing The plane had climbed
nearly thousand feet.
Even to a man who had spent
years in the North, this view of the
subartic landscape was puzzling
maze. On the ground, Garth would
have had slight trouble retracing the
course he had followed in and out of
the wilderness From the air, every
thing looked different. For all his
flying experience, Garth. could not,
as he had expected, strike Decline
Though he knew the general direc-
ton of his find, he was unable to
guide the plane as the crow flies.
At his sign to bank, Hubby frown-
ed but brought the plane around in
wide curve Very soon, upriver from
the refueling station, Garth sighted
the small swamp stream on which
he had begun and ended his trip in
to the unknown. This was familiar
point of departure From it he again
directed the pilot to the westward.
Somewhat under an hour later,
the swamps and low ridge ended at
the upheave of an eastward thrust
mountain range. A near view of the
barren peaks caused Garth to twist
the course about on sharp angle to
the southwest. Those mountains had
not appeared any too familiar. The
difficulty of finding landmarks rec
ognizable from the air had not les
sened. For days on his trip in and
out, he had travelled through dense
forests of spruce that shut off almost
all wide views, even of the noun
tains.
The westward rise of the country
had by now forced the plane up an
other thousand feet Higher slopes
ahead called for still more altitude.
The Jagged skyland reared a thou
sand feet or more higher than the
plane. Huxby started to climb. Until
with mile of the savage cliffs he
ignored Garth's advice to lessen the
angle. Then, as the plane swept past
an out jutting peak on the right,
Garth signed toward the gap be-
tween 1t and the main mass.
The highest point of the pass was
more than half thousand feet low
er than the plane Hubby pushed the
stick forward and shot down for the
gap on long slant The monoplane
soon drove in between the towering
precipices and steeply pitched side
slopes of the immense cleft. A little
more, and the cleft crooked to the
north. The plane banked around the
turn. Below the bend the cleft wild
ened in the neve of a glacier. Earth
er down the expanse of snow-ice
pinched into narrow gulch. The
gulch ran down into a deep noun
tain-rimmed valley. Down the rough
bed stumbled stream, of milky gla-
cier water.
Garth noted moving dots on the
tundra and white specks up on the
rocky slopes above them. But Hulk
by saw neither the caribou nor the
mountain sheep. He had at once
spotted the lake in the valley bot
tom. He angled on down as if to
plunge into the silvery sparkling
ripples of the lake. The monoplane
swooped above the upper shore and
drove on toward the foot of the lake
at full speed Garth pointed to the
intake from the glacier stream, and
signed for descent.
The plane nosed down SO steeply
that the pontoons went under. For
!. tunately the. craft was almost fool
proof. She bobbed up without plung-
ing to the bottom. Huxby TAXED
shoreward against the current from
fho cfrnaYo and fha Thrust of the