"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 lose the ship then we are lost indeed. If we go out to them, they may be afraid to venture in alone. Come, we must hurry!"
Obeying the captain"s advice, they all donned their fur garments, and each took a revolver and several rounds of ammunition. These small weapons could be concealed about them without much trouble.
Then the whole party emerged from the cabins out on the forward deck of the _Monarch_. It was high time, for several of the Esquimaux, with their big stone axes, were advancing to batter in the doors. At the sight of the adventurers, who had only been dimly observed through the windows, there arose a great shout among the savages.
Rapidly the air-travelers climbed over the ship"s rail, down on to the ice, and walked boldly among the Esquimaux.
"Show a brave front!" exclaimed the captain, in a low voice. "Perhaps they mean no harm after all."
But this idea was soon dismissed. With a shout the foremost of the natives rushed on the party of whites, surrounded them, and, before any one had a chance to draw his revolver, had he desired to do so, each member of the _Monarch"s_ crew was seized and bound with strong thongs of walrus hide.
"Well, they"ve got us," groaned old Andy. "I wish I"d taken a few shots at them first!"
The old inventor watched narrowly every move the Esquimaux made. At first several of the natives showed a desire to penetrate the interior of the _Monarch_. But the commands of one big man, evidently the chief, who was clad entirely in white furs, deterred them. Scores crawled up the ice hummock and looked the strange craft over with wondering eyes, but none molested it.
Suddenly the man in the white furs uttered a loud cry. It was answered from a dozen throats, and then great activity was manifested. Big sledges, made of bone for a framework, with laced thongs for a body, were brought up, and dogs were harnessed to the vehicles. While some natives were attending to this, others scattered in different directions, returning presently with large supplies of dead fish, seals, and a large polar bear.
"This is evidently a hunting party," said Mr. Henderson. "They have been away from their main town or camp for several days, and were on their way back when they saw our airship. I wonder what they will do with us."
He was not long left in doubt. The chief of the Esquimaux approached the adventurers, who, bound with thongs, were sitting on the ice. He addressed Washington in a strange language, but Washington, with a motion of his head nodded toward Captain Henderson, to indicate that he was the commander of the party. To the old inventor, therefore, did the native in the white furs speak next.
He made a motion of a person reclining on a sledge and indicated that the captives were to be taken away in that fashion. Then the chief motioned to his mouth and pretended to chew.
"He seems to want us to take a sleigh ride and get something to eat,"
said Mr. Henderson. "I suppose we might as well go along."
He nodded an a.s.sent to the Esquimaux chief, thinking the sign for that would be understood. It was, evidently, for the chief nodded back and smiled.
The rude sleds were brought close to the party from the _Monarch_. Then the captives were bundled on the vehicles like so many logs of wood, and bound to the runners with hide thongs. Next a fur robe was thrown over each one, a hole being left for them to breathe, and a dog driver took his position at the front of each sled.
With cracks of the whips and wild shouts the natives started off at a rapid speed. Then it was the prisoners appreciated the extra fur coverings, for when the vehicles were in motion the keen wind cut like a knife on the little portion of the face left exposed.
A sharp pang of regret struck the professor"s heart as he realized that he was being carried away from his beloved airship, which was left in the hands of the enemy. They might wreck it he realized, to get the valuable wood and metal in the different parts. If they did, it would mean that the adventurers would be doomed to remain in the land of perpetual ice and snow forever.
For several hours the journey was continued. The dogs drawing the sleds never seemed to slacken their speed, but, urged by voice and whip, sped on over ice and snow.
Suddenly a loud cry sounded. The sleds, as if in obedience to a command, came to a halt. The captives raised their heads and saw that the whole party had come to a stop. Several of the Esquimaux began opening bundles and took out pieces of frozen fat meat. With this they went from team to team among the dogs, and fed the brutes that seemed ravenous from hunger.
The animals provided with a meal, the Esquimaux fed themselves. It was a primitive feast. The men simply bit off chunks of fat and blubber and swallowed them almost whole.
"I"m pretty hungry, but I don"t believe I could eat that," observed Jack.
"Wait until you get a chance," advised Mark. "Maybe they are not going to offer us any. As for me, I am starved enough to tackle most anything."
Presently the Esquimaux chief approached the captives, who had been drawn close together on their sleds. The leader of the natives had in his hands some queer looking stuff. At a sign from him several of the other Esquimaux loosened the bonds that bound the prisoners.
"Um!" grunted the chief. "Um! Um!" At least his words sounded like that.
"I guess he wants us to eat," said the professor.
He took some of the food the Esquimaux chief held out. The stuff did not look very inviting, about as much like cold fat as anything. The professor bit into it.
"It"s good!" he exclaimed. "It"s chopped up meat and suet, and it"s cooked! Eat it!"
They all did, for they were very hungry and cold. Then the captives were bound again, the dogs were harnessed, and the journey was resumed. The sun still shone, though it was getting late, but the prisoners were all sleepy, for, by the run of hours, it was now night.
On and on went the sleds. Jack had dozed off, when he was aroused by a shout. He raised his head to look about him, and was filled with terror at what he saw.
The sled he was on, as well as all the others, was coasting down a great hill of ice at fearful speed! The dogs were gone, and the fleet of sleighs, under their own weight, were dashing down the Mountainous side of a great glacier!
CHAPTER XVI
THE STRANGE WOMAN AIDS
"Professor! Professor!" cried Jack. He saw the sled on which the old inventor was lashed close to him.
"Eh! Yes! What is it?" asked the old man, sticking his head out from under the fur robe.
"They have set us adrift down the mountain and we"ll be killed!"
The boy struggled to free himself from his bonds. The professor, raising his head and realizing the danger, did likewise.
But the tough walrus hide was too tightly drawn. The captives, if they went to their deaths, would go bound and unable to help themselves. In terror Jack glanced on either side of him. To his surprise he noticed that not only were the sleds of himself and his comrades going down the hill, but the vehicles of all the Esquimaux as well.
"Can an accident have happened?" he asked himself. "Or have they all gone crazy? This beats me."
Faster and faster went the sleighs. Showers of ice splinters flew up on either side of the bone runners. The wind whistled past Jack"s face.
Then, as a sled of one of the natives shot near to Jack"s, the boy noticed that the Esquimaux"s face was calm, and he was smiling a bit.
"This doesn"t look as if he was going to be killed," reasoned the boy.
But the speed of the sleds never slackened and Jack was much afraid, as were the other prisoners.