THE RESCUE ; 



moment digging out of Hassell between his mouth- 

 fuls of soup, and a quarter of an hour later with 

 lantern in hand I was hurrying up over the rocky 

 trail of three miles to the observatory, which I 

 reached in about three quarters of an hour. I 

 seated myself and wrote out the initial sentence, 

 "Hassell and Cramer here safe and well." As I 

 continued to write Schneider carried the first sen- 

 tence over to Baer, who shot it in to the Times 

 office. No sooner were these words received by 

 the Times than there was an interruption, "Hold 

 on, I must see the editor". One could sense the 

 thrill within the Times office. While the editor 

 was getting this first news another operator took 

 up the transmitter and sent Baer the message, 

 "Cramer's brother Will is here in the office trying 

 to organize an expedition by planes to hunt for 

 the lost flyers". But now the operator is back 

 from the editor's office and the next sentence goes 

 out, "Notify families at once. Outline story fol- 

 lows"; and again an interruption, "Hold on, I 

 must see the editor again!" Again the assistant 

 is at the Times transmitter with the remark, "Bill 

 Cramer is now passing around the cigars". 



Meanwhile with as clear a head as I can com- 

 mand, I continue my writing, and every few sen- 

 tences Schneider takes my sheet over to Baer and 



277 



