The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-09-01
CHAPTER XII-Continued

Didn't you know =. we were .
dead?"
"Say, listen, we're not dead and
we're not going to be dead! I tell
you they're on the job, looking for
, us! 1t won't be long, now!"
y The planes kept flying over them.
i They returned again and again, but
they never hesitated. Kitty Me-
dill stood on her rock and waved
and screamed, but the pilots gave no
sign of noticing her.
''You fools, you fools! You blind
bats!" she sobbed, cursing.
Then she made a careful survey of
their situation and realized that they
were hidden from above by a ledge
over the one on which they had
crashed. She might gesture and yell
the rest of her life without being
seen by the fiiers.
"Okeh, then. I'll get out where
they can see me-" she decided. She
didn't try to tell Sarah Lynn. She
took half her matches and a sheaf
of maps and charts and walked
in the direction of Mt. Umunhum,
stopping constantly to mark the trail
In some fashion, tying to the chap
arral the ribbon from her hair, her
belt, her pink satin garter. When she
found a bare rocky space she tore
up her papers and gathered twigs
and dry leaves and got her fire to
going. She broke off branches of
manzanita and fed the flame, and
she discovered that green stuff
made a denser smoke.
In an incredibly short time the
planes were back, three of them,
dipping and circling. She could see
the pilots peering down. She stood
away from the fire and tore off her
blouse and waved, and one of the
airmen waved an arm in answer.
He few perilously low, and she rec
Ognized the Hermod with Gunnar
Thorwald leaning out to look at her.
She pointed back toward the place
where she had left her passenger,
and he nodded and flew away in
the same direction.
Kits knees gave way and she
sat down and the breeze blew acrid
smoke into her eyes and mouth, but
she was up in moment, running
back to the wreck.
babe, it's okeh! He's here!
mean, he will be in a minute-your
boy-friend in his bus! Kid, it's all
right, do you hear me?"
If Sarah Lynn heard she gave no
evidence of it. She seemed to be
busily preoccupied talking to her.
self, and the free hand opened and
closed and tensed stiff1y, so Kitty
Medin raced back again to keep
her fire going and wait for Gunnar
Thorwald. He was an intolerable
time in coming. She had moments
of panic in which she was sure he
hadn't seen her after all; that she
had imagined the Hermod.
But at last she saw him working
his difficult way swiftly through the
thick, harsh underbrush.
''She ives?" he demanded hoarse-
~.
''She's alive, sure"
Hurt? How" Ice-blue gimlets,
boring into her brain.
swell, you see-it's on her. On
her back. The ship is. tried to
lift it off but"
'Take me there!"
She turned and ran back, Gunnar
following so closely that he almost
trod upon her. "Quick!" he kept
saying. "Be quick!"
When they reached the wreck Kit
ty Medill shut her eyes. She didn't
want to see his face when he saw
Sarah Lynn, but it was almost as
bad to hear him. 1t sounded as if he
had flung himself down on the
ground beside her, and Kit thought
he must be talking in his own Swede
lingo, for she could not understand
the words, but she understood per-
fectly the terrible, racked sobbing.
When she heard him working Kit
took her hands away from her eyes
and looked at him. He was working
SO fast, so furiously, so surely, with
such fierce efficiency. He wrenched
and chopped and tore away, twist
ed and pried, dead white, with sweat
pouring from him. It seemed to
Kit, watching the cold frenzy, that
he could have done it all with his
bare hands.
Once he called to her and pointed
TO his canteen. "Give her water
a small drink at first" He looked at
her fully for the first time. "Only
that / may need your help" he
said levelly, 81 would kill you"
"You needn't trouble yourself" "
she said jauntily. 81 can tend to
that little chore." She crawled close
to Sarah Lynn and managed to
make her take three swallows.
Two other men came running
through the chaparral presently,
with young Bill Dana following.
They set to work instantly under
Gunnar's directions and that speed
ed up the affair tremendously, Kit
could see, but she was sure the
ace could have done it alone.
One thing he did do alone. When
the weight was finally dragged off
Sarah Lynn the others stood aside
and let him stoop and lift her.
She screamed once, a short,
dreadful cry, and he put her down