To have nosed the ship down at 180 miles an hour might be fatal for both of them. With the ceiling probably down to nothing they would flash out of the clouds at high speed with only a few hundred feet of clearance. Normally they could get away with it but with the wings weighted down with ice one of them might snap off when he pulled back on the stick. It was too dangerous to risk. He decided to take his time, come down gradually, and fight the ice as best he could.
The next ten minutes were an hour to Tim as he eased the Good News toward the ground. Little by little they lost altitude. The ship was loggy now with its burden of ice but he managed to keep it out of a dive and they finally levelled off at two hundred feet. Even at that low altitude the clouds were brushing their wings but the air was warmer and the ice gradually disappeared from the wings.
For a few minutes Tim had been too busy with his own troubles to think about those of the villagers back at Auburn, but the danger of the ice past his mind returned to them.
It had been plain to him that unless something was done in the next few hours the massed ice would give way and march down the valley, sweeping everything before it. As towns went Auburn wasn’t much to brag about, but its people were friendly and the village was home to them. Tim, an orphan, knew what it meant to be without a home and he resolved to do everything within his means to help the villagers.
They roared over the suburbs of Atkinson, sped across the heart of the city, and skidded over the ground to roll to a stop in front of their own hangar.
The managing editor was waiting for them.
“Get the pictures O. K.?” he cried.
“Camera full of the best ice photos you ever saw,” grinned Ralph as he eased his cramped legs over the side of the plane and dropped to the muddy ground.
“How is the situation in the valley?” asked the managing editor.
“Critical,” replied Tim as he shut off his engine. “I never saw so much ice in my life. The jam is at a sharp bend in the river just above the village. Thousands and thousands of tons of ice has piled up there and the river is bringing down more every hour. The flow of water below the jam is practically shut off and it’s spreading out above the ice. By tomorrow morning the whole thing will let go and that will be the end of the village.”