The Ypsilanti daily press., 1944-09-29
BY TOM GILL

Blair VS. a grand person! She
was acting against her better judg-
ment, but she was going through
with it for him. He remembered
a time, years back, when their ca
noe snagged and they had swirled
down through white water to climb
out more dead than alive on a gran
ite shore. She was frightened then,
too, and wet and cold, but she had
tramped miles back to camp with
out a murmur. She was the kind
to count on.
Colin turned To Trina. "We're in
for a storm. 1t may be bad going"
"Is it safe to smoke here?" she
asked.
Put your ashes in that paper
cup"
They headed straight for the cloud
bank. Already it was showing be-
meath them as Blair dropped lower
great wet flakes slanting before
rising gale-then suddenly it was
on them, wrapping them in q blan-
ket Of white that blotted out the
world, while the plane quivered like
stricken thing, and the drone of
the motor raised to an angry whine.
Colin glanced at Irina-she sat
quietly smoking, her eyes on the
fast-frosting window.
Still lower. Blair was feeling
her way down toward the unseen
ground, and through break in the
drifting clouds they caught sight
Of the river again; then the clouds
closed and they were lost once more
in binding whiteness.
No sign of land or water now,
yet the altimeter showed barely five
hundred feet. They dared go no
lower, and Blair pulled the nose Of
the plane level while her eyes
strained hopelessly into that swirl
ing wall of snow. She banked
sharply to the west.
"We just can't go under it,"
Colin heard her say. Let's try 60
ing around"
For more than twenty minutes
she few through snow so thick she
could barely see her wing tips,
blindly following a compass course
due west, while the plane bucked
like a frightened horse and Colin
wondered how soon ice would begin
forming on the wings.
Then the clouds ahead lightened.
Cautiously Blair lost another hun
dred feet of altitude. They were
dangerously low, but they were
beginning TO catch intermittent
glimpses Of ground.
A maze of endless muskeg swamp
and low jack-pine ridges-no sign
of either lake or river. Minutes
passed, while they peered anxiously
ahead, hoping to pick up some
known landmark; then in small,
terror-stricken voice Blair said,
Were lost"
Colin tried TO reassure her. Eve
can always make it back to the
lake"
"Not against that wind. We're
too low on gas to buck it very long,"
Lets see il we can pick up the
river"
Obediently she banked and
headed east toward the fringe of
the storm. He could see her hand
trembling-no time now for nerves.
He scraped the frost from the win
dow. II only
Suddenly he pointed. "That's
Long Portage, Blair. We're ten
miles west of Trappers Lake"
"Then Learmonth's in the center
Of the storm. Colin, we can't 20
back into that"
"Lct's land at Trappers Lake and
wait till the storms over. The old
cabins still there"
Doubtfully she frowned at the
map. "It's pretty small puddle
to land in" She opened the throttle,
"We'll look it over"
Folding the map, Colin turned
toward Trina. "We were lost" he
told her.
IL know" Carefully she crushed
her cigarette and dropped it in the
paper cup while Colin watched her
curiously.
Doesn't anything throw you on
your stride?" he asked. "a mar
rushes into your room, q plane 4,
lost in a spowstorm-are you really
fearproof?"
Unsmiling, she shook her head
mo, my friend. Only have learned