Cape Breton's Magazine

ing chain, and each time the engine cuts, I see a broken link in the chain and catch my breath until it passes. The land is under me. I snatch my map and stare at it to confirm my whereabouts. I am, even at my present crippled speed, only twelve min? utes from Sydney Airport, where I can land for re? pairs and then go on. The engine cuts once more and I begin to glide, but now I am not worried; she will start again, as she has done, and I will gain altitude and fly into Sydney. But she doesn't start. This time she's dead as death; the Gull settles earthward and it isn't any earth I know. It is black earth stuck with boulders and I hang above it, on hope and on a mo? tionless propeller. Only I cannot hang above it long. The earth hurries to meet me, I bank, turn, and sideslip to dodge the boulders, my wheels touch, and I feel them submerge. The nose of the plane is engulfed in mud, and I go forward strik? ing my head on the glass of the cabin front, hear? ing it shatter, feeling blood pour over my face. I stumble out of the plane and sink to my knees in muck and stand there foolishly staring, not at the lifeless land, but at my watch. Twenty-one hours and twenty-five minutes. Atlantic flight. Abingdon, England, to a nameless swamp--nonst Beryl Markham in the Lewis ______ __ _ __ Eva Lewis, Ms. Markham, Dr". Freeman"?'TIenT, GeorgeTewTs. Running, R.N., 'September 1936) stop. A Cape Breton Islander found me--a fisherman trudg? ing over the bog saw the Gull with her tail in the air and her nose buried, and then he saw me floun? dering in the embracing soil of his native land. I had been wandering for an hour and the black mud had got up to my waist and the blood from the cut in my head had met the mud halfway. From a distance, the fisherman directed me with his arms and with shouts toward the firm places in the bog, and for an? other hour I walked on them and came to- MicJ/nitt EDUCATIONAL TOYS 76 Townsend St., __._?__ Sydney, N.S, 539-3035 Stmtt0'+ O'i' Gortex Parkas and Pants by Woolrich and North Face 189 Townsend St., Sydney Phone 539-7165 The Treasure Cove High Quality Gifts and Handcrafts AND A SELECTION OF QUALITY BOOKS Phone 564-8158 Corner Charlotte St. & Townsend St. Sydney High Quality Gifts and Crafts fro; Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and Abroau LeBlanc Siding Ltd. ''' estimates ** Professional installation of We Install Authorized Dealer for ICAYCAN Aluminum & Vinyl Siding margaree Iwindows Aluminum Windows & Doors - Shutters Softfit - Fascia - Awnings 109 Reservoir Road Sydney Professional installation.of Aluminum & Vinyl Siding in Cape Breton County for over 10 years. Free Estimates for R.R.A.P., N.S.H.C, & C.M.H.C. Programs and all other siding inquiries. Call collect: SONNY MacPHERSON 539-4626 (55)!