The Flying Doctor

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22883, 2 December 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Flying Doctor

All the morning the temperature had been falling, and reports from the south were bad. Snow had come right down to the lower level's, and the more distant riverflats were already isolated. Dr. Philip Scott, of the South Point relief station, was not surprised when a call came j. -t before noon. Somewhere beyond the Black river a roadman had fallen: his arm was broken, and there were other injuries that, without a doctor’s aid, they could not detail. He had been found half-frozen, and now he was lying in a bridge-building camp beyond snow-bound roads. Therefore, Dr. Scott: S.O.S. It was not an unusual tale, lor the south. Phil looked at the map before him and murmured, “Aeroplane case.” In five minutes the. call for aid was stuttering out. He •at pausing for a moment.' Far to the ; north the white ambulance aeroplane would be speeding skywards—and • stormwatds—in the sunlight. Doctor and pilot would be racing to save life, risking, their :<o*n, while Phil sat waiting. He sighed and walked to the doorway. The beach was less than 100 yards away through the trees. He stared at the sky. There would be. snow before night, he decided. ' ■ .The ambulance aeroplane was due to check through at 4 p.m., but at *43 there was still no sign of her. Phil paused from time to time jo listen, and fried to make con? tact by wireless. A distant drone Awarded him at last. He slipped wto'his cojit, and went quickly JOwn to the beach. The machine dropped swiftly out of-the northern J*5V and before the propellers: had *®Pped turning he was on to the ?30g,.and opening the ' door. The “Mle that greeted him was tired i *afr.-strai’ned, the face grimy, the i OOos spotless overalls were splashed 1 2jtfo;oil. And with sudden alarm tUf-saw that the pilot was: 'alone. started: '"Johnson, what—?” 1 ‘JTSpgine trouble,” said- Johnson 1 s®tly, as he closed his switches..And,” his - tone became more Jd®an, “Ralph’s done in. I’m , A nasty smack on the ! “N-” 9 , ?e-pulled back the curtain be- \ “jaq the pilot’s seat, which gave I S® BB t° the stretchers, and the i '.face of the young doctor, blood staining his forehead, to smile at them, d’you feel, boy?” Johnson - i-*Af°od deal better,.l think. But -bit rick.” • a dirty day.” .Jobnson said brief way. “And the old i kicking like a buck..Jlilpoked at his watch suddenly, , C'wry face, and swung to f?®fground. I hours of daylight,” he said; : ! Mis}:’ un derstood. With Ralph out E|a“' ”mning, he and Johnson new unit whose co-opera--1 at the single object of lellow mortal’s life, mtes sufficed to-carry the 1 >ctor into the bach; Phil the wound on his head rt. hands. ' not hurt elsewhere?” he 1 | bad. Ten minutes .will i Id Johnson. “You’ve time , - . lit the petrol burner, < it cups; Phil reached for i oandages.’ When he had i patient as comfortable as i « 'set food nearby, and :

(By P. A. Jones)

between sips of coffee tapped out to the hospital a brief report of the mishap. ' Johnson dictated in clipped phrases as he went along. One engine had cut but, they had landed on the beach, and it was while they were effecting repairs that Ralph had struck his head. This story Phil related. One minute later he was crossing, the clearing at Johnson’s heels, in two the cabin door was slamming with a muffled thud, the engines were roaring, the sand reeling by, the aeroplane’s nose lifting into the south. "It’s touch and go whether we make it," said Johnson, scanning the clouded • horizon. "Wind’s against'us.” He paused. “Hope they’ve brought the fellow through to the beach. If we have to —” '

Something wet smacked against the. cabin, window.-Johnson glanced sideways at the sudden swirl of white. ' ~ , . “Snow," he said, and his mouth In a few minutes the storm had completely enveloped them. Both -the sea below and the land to port Vanished; wherdver they looked they saw only the flying snowflakes. Johnson was compelled to rely bn his instruments, and he set the machine in. a slow climb to , increase his. margin of safety. At 4000 feet he flattened out. . “WeTe for it, he told Phil. “Thought we might climb out of the storm, but—” “What do you think of our chances if we go on?” Phil .interjected. “You know the weather better than I do.” Johnson screwed up his eyes. - “We can risk half an. hour,” he said slowly, “and still have a good chance of getting past the worst if we have to turn back. Of course —there’s a risk.” He pondered. "But, that fellow’s probably in a bad way.” He paused, then jerked, “Well?” Phil said, “I’m with you. Fly on.’’ •' ■■ • The half hour that followed seemed without end; the little clock on, the instrument » board ticked out the minutes with dreary slowness. Johnson: flew on at a steady 105 miles an hour, his eyes watching his instruments, while

Phil looked ahead for any signs there might be of a break in the storm. Twice the port engine faltered, coughing for a few seconds. Johnson scowled. Then the steady drone went on. “Lung fever,” he told Phil dryly with a grim smile after the second attack.' He glanced at the clock. “Only five minutes more, thank heaven. Pull out that map.” : He indicated a small pocket by Phil’s side. Phil took out the map and' spread it out. Johnson scanned it with practised eye. “Don’t know just what the drift is, but we should be about' there,” he said, and pointed. . . “Quite near ; Larne Island? “Quite hear.” “And only a few miles from our patient?” ~ “Yes. Put it away. We 11 have a look below.” ■ V.. He swung seawards for a few hundred yards, throttled back the engine, and started to descend. in

wide circles. At 500 feet visibility was as bad as ever, and he ;said disappointedly, “No good, I’m afraid.” ‘ He opened the throttle. The port engine ■ coughed and ; was - silenj, broke into ; life, ■ coughed . again. Johnson gave it a worried look. At the same moment something showed throuch the swirling show ahead---a black wall, it seemfed, that rushed towards them. Phil gave a .wild, shout of warning. ; Johnson stared, yelled, “Larne Island!” and. pushed the machine up into a steep climb., The black wall fell away and they thought they were over. 'But a sudden dark pencil with waving arms hit the aeroplane’s nose, the tail came up, and with a sickening twist they went groundwards. As the machine struck, the port wing crulmpled. The shock, breaking the aeroplane’s fall, threw them violently, against the cabin wall. The nose seemed to hang suspended for a second, then it tilted gently into a drift of deep snow, and was still. , Dazed -and suffering from shock, Phil lay for a time where he had been thrown. The silence was unearthly. Something, wet pattered on his face and-he .saw that all but one of the windows had been broken, and the- u snow was in. He rose uncertainly to his feet on the sloping., floor,, .supporting, himself against* one <of the seats; Johnson; one arm twisted . crazily.

under him, lay still against the broken door. He was not dead but unconscious; his left arm was broken and his forehead was bleeding. Phil made him as comfortable as he could in the confined space, then set about getting one of the stretchers from the rear compartment out through a broken window. It was a difficult job, and in bis still dazed condition took him a long time. When it was accomplished he faced the still harder task of getting his patient out. But at last he had him lying straight, wrapped in blankets and a waterproof, in a “cave which he had stumbled upon nearby. f . Then he himself sat down to rest. Outside the snow fell ceaselessly. The pounding of the surf sounded nearby, and so far as he could tell he must be looking out from the cave-mouth in the. direction of the mainland. The cold air seemed to clear his head, and he remembered distinctly the position of the island as he had seen it from the air on an earlier journey south. Only 100 yards lay between it and the mainland, and a swift current swept past it up the coast. He wondered what would happen if he were to slip out into it. He looked at Johnson: he needed help. If that roadman had been brought through they might be camped nearby, and it would ba possible to get a wireless message through to the hospital, or to South Point. The aeroplane’s, wireless had been damaged in the crash. Perhaps— ... And so he lost himself in speculation. , , „ Time passed. Night fell. Phil built a fire in front of the cave with.pieces of broken fuselage and wet driftwood. He did not; sleep, but sat staring at the injured man. Johnson seemed to be getting worse. Towards midnight the snow ceased falling and the sky cleared. .He could see then, by starlight, the black shadow which was the mainland. He thought of the current again and' walked down towards the beach. If Johnson should die? And he could do so little - here—almost nothing. He ran wildly back and heaped more fuel on the fire. Johnson lay still : and silent. He pulled the blankets around him, and then ran down towards the sea. ; Tt was daylight when he awakened. The sunlight lay over the - beach outside, and he could hear birds singing. -Beyond the ... tent flap the figure of a man stooped 7 over a billy above a fire; He looked’ up' quickly when he felt Phil’s eye upon him and came in with a smile. “How d’you feel?” , “I’m pretty weak.” The man laughed. “You’d have been a good deal weaker if you’d spent the night on the beach.” r And then his host told the story of- how, camped on the beach with the injured roadman, they had heard the aeroplane in the storm, and the crash; and of' how, when the storm passed, they had seen the fire on the island and walked two miles to a miner’s camp to borrow a boat. “And we were just pushing off when you bumped into, us,” he concluded. “Pretty far gone, too. Only that current had- pulled you through.” • , ; -.-i There was nothing for Phil to" do. The: wireless had already been singing its song, and it was only an hour later that a relief ambulance aeroplane landed on the. beach. It carried Johnson and the roadman off to hospital. Phil remained, for - if was only rest he needed. He refumed to his post a week later. ' Johnson: came off, worst. > He was iin hospital; for six - weeks; and the > ; medical... superintendent .. repri-, manded him for taking’“unnecessary risks."