Tim and Ralph fully understood the urgency of their mission and they swung the tails of their planes around, opened the throttles and bounced over the field in a smother of snow.
The mail planes, their 525 horsepower motors barking in the near zero weather, lifted off the field and sailed away toward the Great Smokies. Somewhere hidden in the dim peaks to the west were the air mail planes and their pilots.
CHAPTER SIX
The heavy mail plane was much different from the Good News and Tim spent the first five minutes in the air getting used to the controls and the feel of the ship. The air speed indicator showed one hundred ten miles an hour with a quartering wind.
The sky was clear and the cold air made him thankful for the heavy flying clothes he had donned before climbing into the ship.
The flying reporters had mapped out their plan of action before leaving the field at Atkinson. Tim was to search for Lewis while Ralph would hunt for Mitchell. Lewis, on the eastbound plane, would have been the farthest from the Atkinson field, and Tim gunned his ship hard as he headed for the mountains.
The frosty peaks of the Great Smokies loomed ahead of the churning propeller, ready to snag any unfortunate plane and pilot.
Tim adjusted his headset and tuned the radiophone in on the station at Atkinson. Hunter was talking with the air mail station west of the mountains when Tim broke in with his buzzer signal.
“Any news?” he asked.
“Not a word,” replied the field manager. “Looks like whatever rescuing is done today will have to be handled by you and Ralph. We won’t have extra ships and pilots here until nightfall and that will be too late. You’ll have to find Lewis and Mitchell today.”