Part 25 (2/2)
It stopped snowing about half an hour after the _Monarch_ had found lodgement on the edge of a bank of ice. From the deck and windows of the craft nothing could be seen but a big expanse of white. It was a cold, lifeless world to which the s.h.i.+p had brought what remained of her crew and owner.
The engine room of the _Monarch_ was once more a sorry sight, and Was.h.i.+ngton and the inventor worked like a dozen men in restoring order.
They soon had things in s.h.i.+p-shape, but one of the motors would require considerable repairing before it would run again. However, it was not the most important one, and the craft could run without it, though only at half speed.
Suddenly, there came from without a chorus of shouts.
”What's that?” cried the professor.
”Sounded like some one calling,” ventured Andy.
”It am de boys and Tom and Bill come back to overjoy us,” said Was.h.i.+ngton.
The shouts grew louder. Andy glanced from a cabin window.
”The Esquimaux! The Esquimaux!” he exclaimed. ”Here they are after us again! They'll carry us back to the ice cave and eat us alive this time!”
”These are not the same ones!” cried the professor. ”We are hundreds of miles from the ice cave.”
”Then these are the ones the mysterious message was about,” said Andy, ”and we had better be on our guard!”
”Perhaps these are Dirola's friends,” ventured Amos Henderson. ”If they are I wish we had her here to intercede for us.”
There came a rattling against the sides of the airs.h.i.+p. It sounded like a storm of hail.
”They are firing arrows at us!” yelled Andy. ”That doesn't look very friendly.”
”Wait until I go out and speak to them,” suggested the professor. ”They will respect my gray, hairs.”
He went outside. The s.h.i.+p was surrounded by hundreds of little men, all dressed in thick furs. At the sight of the s.h.i.+p's commander they gave a loud yell.
”I wisht I'd neber done come to de north pole!” groaned Was.h.i.+ngton. He grabbed up a rifle and followed Andy outside. At the sight of them the Esquimaux set up louder yells, and shot another shower of arrows.
Fortunately none of the missiles struck the white men.
”Stop firing!” said the professor, raising his hand. ”We mean you no harm!”
His answer was a wilder burst of yells.
”Fire over their heads! Maybe that will teach them a little respect,”
spoke Andy.
He and Was.h.i.+ngton discharged their guns several times in rapid succession. With frightened yells the men in furs fell flat on their faces.
”We've scared them!” cried Andy.
But he reckoned without his host, for in an instant the Esquimaux had leaped to their feet and were rus.h.i.+ng toward the s.h.i.+p.
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