have no time to lose! Jump in,
Washington!"

The boys clambered over the sides of the airship. Washington followed
their example. The anchor ropes were cut.

"Hi, there! Stop!" cried a voice from outside. "Don't you dare start
that ship!"

"Here we go!" shouted Professor Henderson in a joyful tone. "Now to see
if the _Monarch_ fulfills her promise!"

He hurried into the engine room. The noise of the gas generating machine
increased. The gasolene engine went faster, and the motors and dynamos
added to the noise. There was a loud hissing sound. The professor had
opened a valve admitting the full force of gas into the oiled silk bag.
Then came a snapping sound as several anchoring ropes that had not been
cut, broke.

Up rose the _Monarch_ like some immense bird, through the opened shed
roof. Out into the air went the big yellow bag. And then a strange thing
happened.

Andy Sudds, the hunter, and Bill Jones and Tom Smith, the two farm
hands, who had been peering over the edge of the shed down at the
airship, leaned over too far in their anxiety to observe everything. As
the gas bag brushed past them they were startled. They lost their
balances and the next instant all three toppled right into the bow of
the _Monarch_ as she arose, and were lifted up into the air with her.

"Hold on, there! Stop!" cried Taggert, who by this time had come close
to the shed.

"It's too late!" shouted back the professor, poking his head from a
window in the engine room.

"Hey, there! You're carrying me off in your ship!" yelled Andy Sudds as
he scrambled to his feet after his tumble into the bow of the _Monarch_.

"And me!" ejaculated Bill Jones.

"And me!" exclaimed Tom Smith. "I didn't figure on coming with you."

"It's too late!" the old inventor cried. He turned some wheels and
levers and the airship arose faster. Then he switched on the electric
machinery. The big propeller began to revolve. Swifter and swifter it
went. The _Monarch_, which had risen several hundred feet, started
forward at a swift pace. "We are off for the north pole!" shouted the
inventor. "Hurrah! The ship works! I knew it would!"

"Here!" roared Andy Sudds. "I don't want to go to the north pole. I want
to hunt muskrats down by the creek."

"You can hunt seals and whales up north," the professor called to him.

"But I've lost my gun!" the hunter exclaimed, soberly, yet a little
appeased at the prospect of big game.

"I'll give you a better one," pr