THE ALBATROSS RELEASED.
Frank Reade, Jr., saw at once how useless it was to attempt to treat
with the ignorant horde.
It was folly to think of such a thing. Murder was in their hearts and
the only way to wipe it out was to give them battle.
So the young inventor cried:
“Look out, friends! Stand by and don’t let them get to close quarters!”
The barbarians hurled their javelins with vengeful aim.
Some of them went true to the mark. But the points being only of flint
or fish bone were easily turned against the armor of the white men.
So that the white men in this respect held a great advantage.
They fired almost point blank with their Winchesters. Several of the
natives dropped dead.
But this did not deter them. Charging with such blind fury the battle
could not help but be brought to close quarters.
And here it seemed for a moment as if the barbarians would win.
With their heavy battle clubs, which they swung above their heads with
fearful force, they dealt terrible blows.
The armor resisted the point of the axe, but the concussion was
something likely to prove almost as fatal. The guns of the white men
were but frail guards.
The only way to do was to keep up a running fire and retreat before the
terrible blows. This scattered the fighters, and at the same time made
the outlook bad for the white men.
Indeed, for a time it began to look serious enough for them.
But at this moment Frank Reade, Jr., chanced to glance upward.
He saw that the airship had drifted over the peaks and was now above the
valley. Even as he looked he saw Pomp, at the rail.
Instantly Frank signaled to him.
The astute darky was not long in grasping the situation. Professor
Gaston was now on board with him, having been picked up by Pomp.
“Golly!” gasped the darky, “I done fink dat Marse Frank am in a bad
scrape. Jes’ yo’ hol’ on dar, Marse Gaston. I’se gwine to fix dem chaps
pretty quick!”
“Mercy on us!” cried the professor, “our men are in great danger.”
“Dat dey are, sir!”
Pomp rushed into the cabin and brought out a dynamite bomb, an invention
of Frank Reade, Jr.’s. This he dropped right in the midst of the
barbarians.
Instantly there was a terrific explosion. Fully a dozen of the wretches
were blown into eternity.
Then the airship began to descend.
The barbarians seemed to have acquired a fearful terror of the airship.
At sight of it now they beat an inglorious retreat.
Up the valley they rushed, in headlong haste. The Dart descended until
within one hundred feet of the ground.
“All right, Pomp!” cried Frank, “hold right where you are. We are going
to invade that big, stone building. Be ready to give us help!”
“A’right, Marse Frank!” replied Pomp, readily.
The victorious explorers now charged the barbarians’ settlement. They
deserted their houses and fled incontinently.
Reaching the massive stone structure they dashed through a high arched
doorway and found themselves in a long passage.
This proved to be a perfect labyrinth, but finally the rescuers came out
in a high walled room in the centre of the structure.
And here, sitting upon the stone floor and bound hand and foot, were the
three prisoners.
Lucille was pale but brave, and at sight of the rescuers gave a great
cry of joy.
The next moment her bonds were cut and she was in her father’s arms,
unharmed.
It was a joyful reunion, and among the happy ones was Jack Wallis.
The looks given each other by the young lovers were of the warmest
description.
The airship had descended now, and Professor Gaston was exploring the
huts of the barbarians.
“A strange race!” he declared. “Unlike any other on the face of the
earth.”
He collected much valuable data and many specimens. Then all returned to
the deck of the airship.
The gratitude of the Albatross’ people to Frank Reade, Jr., was of the
most intense description.
“We can never forget your kindness!” they declared. “But for your aid we
would never have effected the rescue, and we should all have met death.”
“But what are your plans now?” asked Frank, with interest.
“We must return to the Albatross.”
“And then——”
“Winter here and with the first thaw in the spring sail for home.”
“But you have no crew!”
“That is true,” replied Captain Hardy. “We shall be short handed. Yet if
none of us die in the meanwhile the four of us could sail the ship
home.”
“Yet it will be a terrible experience for you to pass the winter upon
the scene of that fearful massacre,” said Frank. “Don’t you think the
ice pack could be broken up?”
“Ah!” cried Captain Hardy, eagerly. “If we could have made headway
against the wind for only two miles more we should have been in the open
sea!”
“So I thought,” said Frank. “You are right in the edge of the pack. It
should not be difficult to get a channel through.”
But Captain Hardy shook his head.
“Too much ice!”
“If you could reach the open sea you could get north, couldn’t you?”
“Oh, yes! the current has already set northward,” replied the captain.
“Then have courage,” cried Frank, “for I will pull you out of the hole!”
The captain was amazed.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“But—how?”
“Wait and you shall see.”
The airship took its flight from the volcanic valley, leaving the
terrified barbarians to themselves.
As straight as the birds could fly the Dart returned to the spot, where
the Albatross was nipped in the ice.
Then a descent was made.
The first move was to reverently bury the victims of the massacre and
restore things to order aboard the ship.
Then Frank took a quick and comprehensive survey of the ice pack.
He saw that the Albatross lay between two ridges of block ice. It would
take a century to dig a channel through with pick and shovel.
But this was not what Frank proposed to do.
He carefully obtained the lay of the ice pack. Then Barney and Pomp
began drilling holes four feet deep in the ice.
A line of these holes were drilled at intervals of ten feet, the whole
distance of two miles to the open sea.
Then dynamite bombs were placed in them and connected with a wire aboard
the airship.
Frank pressed the electric key, and a terrific explosion followed. Tons
of ice rose in the air and was hurled aside.
A literal channel was made the entire distance of two miles to the open
sea. It now only remained to clear this of ice.
The crew of the Albatross cheered with delight at the prospect. The ship
lay in the channel freed of ice.
But now to the gratification of every one the ice began to move out of
the channel of its own accord.
The reason for this was that the Antarctic current had set to the
northward and was carrying it along.
In a very few hours the channel was wholly clear.
It now only remained to get the ship out of it and into the open sea.
As there was not seaway in the channel, sail could not be made. But
Frank solved the problem.
A line was carried from the ship’s bow a mile ahead and the airship was
lowered and anchored firmly. Then the electric engines were set to work
and one of the propellers was utilized as a drum to wind the line up on.
The engines of the airship, though delicate, were powerful, and in a
very short time the ship had been towed to the end of the channel.
Here sail was made and the Albatross stood away to the northward.
Captain Hardy, Jack Wallis and Lucille stood upon the quarter deck and
waved a farewell to the aerial voyagers.
“I am so glad that we were enabled to render them such a service,” said
Frank. “It well repays me for my Antarctic trip.”
“Certainly. You have done a good deed,” declared Professor Gaston,
warmly.
“Now for the South Pole!”
“Hurrah!”
Barney and Pomp set about their duties with a vim.
They were bosom friends and yet each was engaged in constant nagging at
the other. Many were the practical jokes they played upon each other.
“Hi, dar, yo’ big I’ishman!” cried Pomp, in an imperious way, “why don’
yo’ shine up dat brasswo’k in de engine-room?”
“Begorra, an’ phwy don’t yez make us some bread we kin ate?” retorted
Barney, facetiously. “Shure, the last I got hold of was that hard that I
cudn’t break it wid a sledgehammer.”
“Huh! I done fink yo’ am pooty sassy, I’ish. Jes’ s’pose yo’ makes yo’
own bread fo’ awhile.”
“Bejabers, I’ll do it!”
“Yo’ will?”
“Yis, to be shure!”
“How am yo’ gwine to do it?”
“I’ll show yez!”
But Pomp blocked the galley door.
“No, yo’ don’ do anyfing ob de kin’! I done reckon I know wha’ yo’ want
in here. Yo’ jest mix my fings all up an’ den Marse Frank gib me a
jawing.”
“But yez wanted me to make me own bread. Now, gimme a chance.”!
“I’ll gib yo’ a chaince to see stars, honey, if yo’ don’t go on about
yo’ own biz!”
This excited Barney’s ire.
The mere allusion to a fight was enough for him. He was more than ready
and willing.
In an instant he bristled up.
“Oh, it’s fight yez want!” he cried, spitting on his hands. “Shure, I’m
jist the lad that kin accomodate yez. Whurroo!”
“Look yer, I’ish,” said Pomp, solemnly, “does yo’ see de color ob my
eye?”
“Begorra, it’ll be blacker than it is now afore I get through wid it!”
spluttered Barney.
“Does yo’ mean to hit me, chile?”
“If yez don’t apologize!”
“Wha’ fo’?”
“Fer insultin’ me, bejabers!”
“Gwan away. I neber ’sulted yo’.”
“Bejabers, that’s a loie! Here’s wan fer luck!”
With this Barney made a swoop at the darky. Pomp easily dodged it,
however, and retreated a step.
Barney came at him again, hammer and tongs. At once Africa’s blood
arose.
“G’way now, yo’ sassy I’ishman, if yo’ knows what’s good fo’ yo’se’f.
Whoop dar! Look out fo’ yo’se’f!”
With this down went Pomp’s woolly head. Forward he shot like a battering
ram. The result was comical enough.