e 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 le