“Lieutenant, I have been flying with you for some time,” said Breene, “and I must say that you have picked out better landing fields than this one.”
“Depends upon the way that you look at it,” replied Bill. “Compared with the rest of the country hereabouts, I think that this is probably the best landing field in the vicinity. In fact I am glad to have had the opportunity of trying it out.”
“Which way do we hike?” asked Breene.
“All I know is that it is a long way to civilization,” replied Bill. “We will take our canteens, emergency rations, pistols and the airplane compass. With the compass and the map, we ought to be able to hit the Umpqua River. We can follow it down until we reach some sort of habitation.”
“How are we going to get the compass?” asked Breene. “Everything but the compass seems to be here on the ground waiting to be picked up.”
The compass was just beyond their reach, even though they stretched to their utmost. Finally Bill stood on Breen’s back while the sergeant was on his hands and knees and was able to get his hands around the compass. He yanked, twisted and pulled, but the instrument board was stoutly built and the compass could not be budged. All this time Bill was moving around on Breene’s back with the heels of his shoes digging into Breene. Breene stood it as long as he could and then squirmed. Bill lost his balance but clung to the compass. When the confusion was over Bill was sitting on the ground with half the instrument board in his hands. They had secured the compass.
“No matter which way we go, we are going to have some rough traveling,” said Bill, as they stood by the plane. “We can follow the creek off to the east and hit the river, or we can head to the west and hit another creek and follow it to the river. The latter route is shorter, but I doubt if we find any trails either way.”
“You are the boss,” said Breene. “You select the route and it will be all right with me.”
“We are on our way,” said Bill, and headed out through the underbrush to the west.
Each had his canteen, emergency rations and pistol. Breene carried the compass and Bill had a map mounted on a board.