"We can never do it, I'm afraid, Frank."
"We've just got to, no matter what chances we take. Hold hard now and if
you can jump out in time, help stop her before we wreck her against a
tree."
Even while speaking the air pilot was starting to drop down. He had made
a specialty of this part of the business, knowing how very important it
must always be to aviators. The rise was nothing compared to the
descent, for many a gallant aircraft has been injured or even wrecked by
clumsy manipulation, want of room or some other cause while landing
after a flight.
Andy gripped hold of an upright. He tried to see down into that little
slash in the great forest, as though it might hold every hope connected
with his fortunes and the success or failure of his mission of mercy.
"Oh, be careful, Frank!" he called, as they just barely missed the top
of a great tree.
There was no need of saying this, as Andy ought to have known. No one
could possibly be more careful than Frank Bird. And yet this was one of
those times when daring had to go hand in hand with caution. The space
in which they meant to try for a landing was so very small that it
seemed necessary for the aeroplane to come down almost as lightly as a
feather.
Fortunately the youthful pilot possessed a good pair of eyes. And the
gloom had not as yet entirely blotted out all features of the landscape,
now that they were so close to the earth.
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