Part 21 (1/2)
”The airs.h.i.+p--Andy's--two of the main wings have collapsed!”
Tom looked. It was but too true. The strain under which the ANTHONY had been put when the machinists increased the speed, had been too much for the frame. Two wings broke, and now hung uselessly down, one on either side. The ANTHONY shot toward the snow-covered earth!
”They're falling!” cried Mr. Parker.
”Yes,” added Tom, grimly, ”the race is over as far as they are concerned.”
”Bless my soul! Won't they be killed?” cried Mr. Damon.
”There's not much danger,” replied the young inventor. ”They can vol-plane back to earth. That's what they're doing,” he added a moment later, as he witnessed the maneuver of the crippled craft.
”They're in no danger, but I don't believe they'll get to the valley of gold this trip!”
Tom was soon to learn how easily he could be mistaken.
CHAPTER XVII
HITTING THE ICE MOUNTAIN
Onward sped the RED CLOUD. For a moment after the accident to Andy's s.h.i.+p, Tom had slowed up his craft, but he soon went on again, after he had satisfied himself that his enemies were in no danger.
”Don't you think--that is to say--I know they can't expect anything from us,” spoke Mr. Damon, ”but for humanity's sake, hadn't we better stop and help them, Tom?”
”I hardly think so,” replied the young inventor. ”In the first place they would hardly thank us for doing so, and, in the second, I don't believe they need help. They are almost safely down now.”
”I don't just mean that,” went on the odd man. ”But they may starve to death. This is a very desolate country over which we are sailing.”
”They must have a supply of food in their s.h.i.+p,” declared Tom, ”and they have brought their plight on themselves.”
”They're in no great danger,” put in Abe.
”There are plenty of natives around here, an' if the Fogers need food or aid they can git it by payin' for it. Why, for the sake of th' parts of their damaged airs.h.i.+p, th' Eskimos would take th' whole party back t' Sitka and feed 'em well on th' trip. Oh, they're all right.”
”Very well, if you say so,” a.s.sented Mr. Damon. He looked back to watch the ANTHONY slowly settling to earth. It came gently down, proving that Tom knew whereof he spoke, when he had said they could vol-plane down. Before the RED CLOUD was out of sight Tom and his companions saw Andy and his father leave their wrecked craft and venture out on the snow-covered ground. The Fogers gazed enviously after the airs.h.i.+p of our hero as they saw him still forging toward the goal.
”I guess Andy's stolen map won't be of much use to him,” mused Tom.
”Now we can put on all the speed we like,” and with that he s.h.i.+fted the gears and levers until the airs.h.i.+p was making exceedingly good time toward the valley of gold.
The remainder of that day saw our adventurers pursuing their way eagerly. At times they were flying high, and again, when Abe suggested that they go down to observe the character of the country over which they were pa.s.sing, they skimmed along, just above the big mountains, which seemed almost like icebergs, so covered were they with frost and snow.
They were indeed in a wild and desolate country. Below them stretched a seemingly endless waste of snow and ice--great forests interspersed with treeless patches, while now and then they sailed over a frozen lake.
Once in a while they had glimpses of bands of Indians, dressed in furs, hunting. At such times the natives would look up, on hearing the noise made by the motor of the airs.h.i.+p, and catching a glimpse of what must have seemed to them like some supernatural object, they would fall down prostrate in amazement and fear.
”Airs.h.i.+ps are pretty much of a novelty up here,” remarked Abe with a grim smile.
The weather was now very cold, and the gold-seekers had to get out their heavy fur garments, of which they had brought along a goodly supply. True, it was warm in the cabin of the airs.h.i.+p, but at times, they wanted to venture out on the deck to get fresh air, or to make some adjustments to the wing planes, and, on such occasions the keen, frosty air, as it was driven past them by the motion of the craft, made even the thickest garments seem none too warm. Then, too, it was colder at the elevation at which they flew than down on the ground.
Another day found them in a still wilder and more desolate part of Alaska. There were scarcely any signs of habitation now, and the snow and ice seemed so thick that even a long summer of suns.h.i.+ne could hardly have melted it. The hours of daylight, too, were growing less and less the farther north they went.