“And now—” Mary’s brow wrinkled as her eyes took in the gathering gray around them. “Now it is going to snow and we—” She did not finish.
Yes, they must land. But how? Where? Suddenly, seeming close enough to be touched, a mountain loomed before them.
With a wild whirl that took her breath, the airplane swung about to go speeding along the side of that jagged ridge.
“It—it’s beautiful—and terrible!” she whispered as she sat up to stare out of the window.
Ah, yes, it was all of that. Here was a wall towering and smooth like the side of a sky-scraper, and there a black shaft of rock rising like a church spire, and here a shining river that, as their eyes became accustomed to it, turned into a broad glacier.
“The snow is falling faster. Where can we land? And if we can’t land?” Terror gripped the girl’s heart.
Of a sudden the plane once again swooped downward. She caught her breath. What had happened? Was their supply of gas running low? Were they to make a forced landing? Or had Speed’s keen eye discovered some hidden valley offering a safe landing? She was soon enough to know.
Directly beneath them there appeared a broad stretch of white.
“A valley!” The girl heaved a sigh of relief.
The plane circled. She was glad they were to land now, for in the last two hours they had made good progress. She was hungry. Soon they would be brewing hot cocoa on the little gas stove, heating canned meat and searching out big round crackers. They—