O’Reilly’s response to these conjectures is illuminating. In his book Green Mountains, he stated that bush knowledge and instinct alone would be insufficient for finding a plane in the dense vegetation of the McPherson Ranges. Due credit, he said, must be given to the prayers of his mother that buoyed his hope and guided him.3 Faith also countered the speculation that O’Reilly was driven by a hunch. He did not believe in hunches. Behind his human reasoning was the divine hand of God. In O’Reilly’s
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