ther.

The professor limped to the engine room. A glance confirmed his fears.
The gas was escaping from the bag in large quantities.

"I am afraid the patch we put on has come loose," he said. "The tornado
must have unfastened it. Are we over land or sea?" he asked anxiously.

Jack hurried to where the sheet of thick glass was set into the floor of
the cabin. He peered down toward the ground.

"We are over land, or, at least, a big ice field," he said, looking up."
We must have crossed some arm of the sea, or, perhaps, a bay." Then, as
he looked down through the window again, he gave a frightened start.
"There are people below us!" he cried. "I can see hundreds of them! They
are waiting for us to land!"

The ship was fast settling, and, because of that fact, and for the
reason that the propeller was sending it ahead, the _Monarch_ was
approaching the ice at a sharp angle.

"Stop the engines!" commanded the professor. "Our only hope is in coming
down easily. If we strike the ice hard we are lost!"

Lower and lower sank the _Monarch_, like a bird with a broken wing. In a
few minutes there came a sudden jar that told the ship had struck the
ice. Then, with a swish and rustle the silk bag, emptied of gas fell on
the roof of the cabins. The _Monarch_ had come down between two big
hummocks of ice, and rested almost in a level position.

The adventurers peered from the windows. At first they could see nothing
but a vast expanse of frozen whiteness. Then the ship, in an instant,
seemed to be surrounded by men, women and children, all dressed in furs,
only their faces showing.

"Here they come!" cried Andy.

The Esquimaux showed no fear of the airship nor the strange beings that
inhabited it. They advanced boldly, many of them bearing rude weapons,
spears, stone axes, and bows and arrows of bone. They were a fierce
looking crowd.

"I can't have them come inside the ship," spoke the professor, "they
will tear the machinery apart."

"Shall I fire on them?" asked Andy, getting his rifle ready.

"Not for the world!" cried the captain. "They are ten to our one, and
probably this is but a small part of the tribe. Our only safety lies in
peaceful means. Come, we must put on our fur garments and go outside.
That may induce them to let the ship alone."

"They may take us prisoners," objected Jack.

"Better be prisoners with the airship safe than with it all broken so we
can never use it," said the old inventor. "If we l