THE ESCAPE
"He's killed!" cried Andy.
"Oh Perfessor! Perfessor!" exclaimed Washington. "I tole yo' not to go
out."
"Never mind! Start the machine gun!" yelled Andy. "We must fight off
these human fiends!"
"Call up the boys!" shouted Bill. "They'll be killed under the ship!"
"I'm afraid it's too late," said Andy. "Here, Tom, you help Washington
work the machine gun!"
The weapon had been covered by canvas, and, fortunately, the snow had
not harmed it. The canvas was yanked off, and, while Tom prepared to
feed the cartridges down the hopper, Washington worked the crank. In a
few seconds there was a fusillade that sounded like a small battery
going into action.
From the muzzle of the machine gun poured out a leaden hail. It struck
the Esquimaux fairly and though they tried to stand against it they
could not. Their arrows and spears dropped from their hands and they
staggered back, many badly hurt or killed.
"Why don't those pesky boys come up!" wondered Andy. His gun was again
empty. He hastened into the cabin to reload the magazine. As he did so
he heard a tapping on the plate glass window set in the floor of the
car.
"Who is there?" he cried.
"It's us; Jack and Mark!" a voice answered. "Let us up! The ship is
free!"
Andy flung open the window. It was just large enough for a boy to
squeeze through. In a moment Jack and Mark were in the cabin.
In the meanwhile Bill had dropped his gun and carried the professor from
the deck inside. The old man was unconscious, but a glance showed that
the spear had made only a slight wound on the head, and not one that was
likely to be dangerous.
"Is he dead?" cried the boys.
"We hope not," answered Andy. "But we have no time to lose. Can one of
you start the ship?"
"I can!" exclaimed Jack.
"Then do it, while I help hold the enemy at bay!"
The Esquimaux, in spite of their losses, were returning to the attack.
Closer and closer they pressed to the ship. The machine gun was making
great gaps in their ranks, but they did not seem to mind. They were bent
on recapturing their former captives, whose track they had followed from
the ice cavern.
Jack ran to the engine room. He saw that everything was in readiness for
sending the ship aloft. But little gas more was needed in the bag. He
turned on the full supply. The noise of the guns, the shouts and yells
of the natives, made the place resound with wild noises. It was a battle
such as the arctic regions had never before witnessed.
A tremor shook the _Monarch_. The ship shivered. Jack ran to the conning
tower. He grasped the lever that started the propeller. Then came a
sudden lurch. The airship tore loose from the ice and rose swiftly in
the air. Jack set the screw to working and turned the steering wheel so
that the _Monarch's_ nose was pointed due south, away from the land of
perpetual ice and snow.
A wild yell of disappointed rage burst from hundreds of throats as the
Esquimaux saw their captives escape. They filled the air with arrows and
spears, but to no purpose. Andy sent the last shots in his rifle at the
savages, and, as the ship rose a hundred feet in the air, the remaining
cartridges in the machine gun were exploded.
"Hurrah!" cried the old hunter. "We're off!"
On and on sped the _Monarch_, every second putting the frozen north
behind her. Jack had all the engines going at full speed.
"What has happened? Where are we?" asked Professor Henderson, suddenly
recovering consciousness.
"We's on de _Monarch_ an' we's done left dem cantankerous conglomerated
disputatious Mosquitoes down on de ice!" exclaimed Washington, coming in
to see how his master was. "Are yo' much hurted, Perfessor?"
"It's only a scratch," replied the inventor. "I'm all right," and he
insisted on getting up and seeing how the engines were running. He was a
little weak, but some medicine which Washington fixed at his master's
direction soon brought him around.
The airship was working beautifully in spite of being frozen up in the
terrible cold. On and up she went until she had left the vicinity of the
savages far behind. After about an hour's flight the professor had Jack
lower the craft to within half a mile of the surface, as he said he
wanted to see what was below.
The boy, who was in charge of the conning tower, set the necessary
machinery, while the professor went to the window in the bottom of the
ship to watch.
"We're over the sea!" he exclaimed. "There is no land or ice in sight!"
"Come here quick!" cried Washington, from the engine room.
"What's the matter?" exclaimed the professor.
"De gas machine am gone on a rampage ag'in!"
Then, all at once, the airship began to sink. All rushed to the engine
room. The gas generator had ceased working and the craft was settling
toward the ocean, there being nothing to keep it aloft.
Frantically the professor and Washington worked at the apparatus. It
could not be adjusted. Despair was on every face. Faster and faster sunk
the _Monarch_.
"Will we sink?" asked Andy. "I can't swim."
"We may float," said the professor. "The bottom part of the ship is
water tight. We may float long enough to fix the machinery."
Then, with a splash, the _Monarch_ settled into the ocean, the gas bag
falling limply on top of the cabins.
"Get out the life preservers!" shouted the professor. "They are in the
forward part. Put them on, while Washington and I try to fix the gas
machine!"
The airship had now become a water ship. It rose and fell on the waves,
rocking from side to side.
"Get ready to jump!" yelled Jack, running in from the conning tower.
"What now?" asked Professor Henderson, "Haven't we troubles enough?"
"There's a big whale and he's headed right this way!" yelled Jack. "He's
coming on like a locomotive, to ram us!"
Andy caught up his gun and hastened to the tower. As Jack had said, a
big sperm whale, spouting water high in the air from his nostrils, was
headed for the _Monarch_, which, as it lay on the surface, the whale
evidently took for a rival.
"I wonder if I can stop him with this rifle," exclaimed Andy.
"No, but you can with the machine gun!" said Jack.
"Not while it's in the stern," replied the old hunter. "I guess we are
done for this time. I'll fire a few shots, anyhow, before I die!"
"Wait!" yelled Jack. "I'll turn the ship around!"
"Can you do it?"
"I think I can," was the short reply.
"We cannot use the machinery."
"I know that, but I can use something else--that is, I think I can."
"There is nothing to use."
"Yes, there is. See here!"
As the youth spoke he seized a long pole from the deck, and stuck one
end of it in a large cake of ice that floated close by. Slowly, but with
the strength of despair he pushed the bow of the airship around so that
it was pointed away from the on-coming whale.
"Run to the rear!" the boy cried to Andy. "And hurry up!"
The hunter did so. A few seconds later the stern of the ship was toward
the ocean monster. Andy called for some one to bring ammunition and feed
the hopper of the machine gun, and Bill responded.
Then, when the whale was within a hundred feet of the _Monarch_, Andy
began turning the crank. A storm of lead shot out toward the big fish.
The water about was dyed with blood and the spouting streams from the
nostrils were changed from white to red. With a terrible flurry, lashing
the waters of the ocean to foam with its broad flukes, the whale died,
hundreds of bullets in its head.
The airship was saved.