The reporter stopped in a small clearing and called lustily through cupped hands. Again and again he shouted and at last he thought he heard a faint reply. Perhaps it was only an echo. He called again and a voice, far away, answered.
Confident that he was near the missing pilot, Ralph hurried forward, bending almost double in order to follow the dim trail. He stopped every few hundred feet and shouted. Each time the reply came clearer and stronger.
Ralph came out on the bank of a small stream. Below, on the rocks beside the creek bed, he saw the crouched form of the air mail flyer.
“George! George!” cried Ralph.
“Down here,” came the reply. “Take it easy or you’ll slip and twist your ankle just like I did.”
In less than a minute Ralph was beside the man he had been hunting and Mitchell told him of the events preceding the crash and how he had attempted to escape from the forest and reach some habitation.
“The storm struck so quickly I didn’t have a chance to escape,” said the air mail flyer as Ralph worked over the twisted ankle. “The snow and ice collected on the wings and forced me down. Maybe you saw where I took the tops off the trees before I finally cracked.”
“Sure did,” said Ralph. “Matter of fact, the only way I found your ship was through seeing those broken tree tops. They gave me the clue that a plane had been in trouble. A little further along I saw the tail of your ship sticking up in the air.”
“I took a real flop,” went on the mail flyer. “Just nosed right straight down and smacked the old earth. I ducked just in time and outside a few bruises wasn’t hurt. Managed to get the sack of registered stuff out and figured I could get out of the woods and reach some ranchhouse or the railroad. Then I fell over this bank, twisted my right ankle, and I’ve been here ever since.”
Ralph chopped some dry wood from a dead tree nearby and soon had a fire blazing merrily among the rocks. He made the mail flyer as comfortable as possible, warmed the lunch he had brought with him and they both enjoyed the meal, the first Mitchell had eaten in twenty-four hours.