ON A TORN-AWAY WORLD

Or

The Captives of the Great Earthquake

BY ROY ROCKWOOD

Other titles by ROY ROCKWOOD

THE GREAT MARVEL SERIES

THROUGH THE AIR TO THE NORTH POLE

UNDER THE OCEAN TO THE SOUTH POLE

FIVE THOUSAND MILES UNDERGROUND

THROUGH SPACE TO MARS

LOST ON THE MOON

ON A TORN-AWAY WORLD

DAVE DASHAWAY, THE YOUNG AVIATOR

DAVE DASHAWAY AND HIS HYDROPLANE

DAVE DASHAWAY AND HIS GIANT AIRSHIP

DAVE DASHAWAY AROUND THE WORLD

THE SPEEDWELL BOYS ON MOTOR CYCLES

THE SPEEDWELL BOYS AND THEIR RACING AUTO

THE SPEEDWELL BOYS AND THEIR POWER LAUNCH

THE SPEEDWELL BOYS IN A SUBMARINE

CONTENTS

I. SHOT INTO THE AIR!

II. MARK HANGS ON

III. THIS FLIGHT OF THE "SNOWBIRD"IV. "WHO GOES THERE?"

V. BETWEEN TWO PERILS

VI. ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND

VII. DROPPED FROM THE SKY

VIII. PHINEAS ROEBACH, OIL HUNTER

IX. THE EARTHQUAKE

X. THE BLACK DAY

XI. THE WONDERFUL LEAP

XII. THE GEYSER

XIII. NATURE GONE MAD

XIV. ON THE WING AGAIN

XV. A PLUNGE TO THE ICE

XVI. PROFESSOR HENDERSON REVEALS THE TRUTH

XVII. ON AN ISLAND IN THE AIR

XVIII. IMPRISONED IN THE ICE

XIX. A NIGHT ATTACK

XX. THE HEROISM OF THE SHANGHAI ROOSTER

XXI. MARK ON GUARD

XXII. THE WOLF TRAIL

XXIII. THE FIGHT AT ALEUKAN

XXIV. THE FLIGHT TOWARD THE COAST

XXV. THE HERD of KADIAKS

XXVI. THE ABANDONED CITY

XXVII. THE WHALE HUNT ASHORE

XXVIII. ON THE WHALING BARK

XXIX. WHEN THE SEA ROLLED BACK

XXX. AN ENDURING MONUMENT--CONCLUSION

CHAPTER I

SHOT INTO THE AIR

"Hurrah!" shouted Jack Darrow, flicking the final drops of lacquerfrom the paintbrush he had been using. "That's the last stroke. She'sfinished!"

"I guess we've done all we can to her before her trial trip, " admittedhis chum, Mark Sampson, but in a less confident tone. 

"You don't see anything wrong with her, old croaker; do you?" demandedJack, laughing as usual. 

"'The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof; not in chewingthe pudding bag string', " quoted Mark, still with a serious countenance. 

But like Jack he stood off from the great body of the wonderful airship, and looked the completed task over with some satisfaction. Havingemergency wings, she was also a plane. She was white all over and hername was the _Snowbird_. Jack and Mark had spent most of their timeduring this vacation from their college in building this flying machine, which was veritably an up-to-the-minute aerial vehicle, built for bothspeed and carrying capacity. 

The hangar in which the machine had been built was connected withProfessor Amos Henderson's laboratory and workshop, hidden away on alonely point on the seacoast, about ten miles from the town of Easton, Maine. At this spot had been built many wonderful things--mainly theinventions of the boys' friend and protector, Professor Henderson; butthe _Snowbird_, upon which Jack and Mark now gazed so proudly, wasaltogether the boys' own work. 

The sliding door of the hangar opened just behind the two boys and ablack face appeared. 

"Is eeder ob you boys seen ma Shanghai rooster?" queried the blackman, plaintively. "I suah can't fin' him nowhars. "

"What did you let him out of his coop for?" demanded Mark. "You'realways bothering us about that rooster, Washington. He is as elusiveas the Fourth Dimension. "

"I dunno wot dat fourth condension is, Massa Mark; but dat rooster issuah some conclusive. When I lets him out fo' an airin' he hikes rightstraight fo' some farmer's hen-yard, an' den I haster hunt fo' him. "

"When you see him starting on his rambles, Wash, why don't you callhim back?" demanded Jack Darrow, chuckling. "If I did, Massa Jack, I'spect he wouldn't know I was a-hollerin' fo' him. "

"How's that? Doesn't he know his name?"

"I don't fo' suah know wedder he does or not, " returned the darkey, scratching his head "Ye see, it's a suah 'nuff longitudinous name, an'I dunno wedder he remembers it all, or not. "

"He's got a bad memory; has he?" said Mark, turning to smile atWashington White, too, for Professor Henderson's old servant usuallyafforded the boys much amusement. 

"Dunno 'bout his memory, " grunted Wash; "he's gotter good forgettery, suah 'nuff. Leastways, when he starts off on one o' deseperambulationaries ob his, he fergits ter come back. "

"Let's see, " said Jack, nudging his chum, "what _is_ thatlongitudinous' name which has been hitched onto that wonderful bird, Wash? I know it begins with the discovery of America and wanders downthrough the ages to the present day; but a part of it has slipped mymemory--or, perhaps I should say, 'forgettery'. "

With a perfectly serious face the darkey declaimed:

 "Christopher Columbus Amerigo Vespucci George Washington Abraham Lincoln Ulysses Grant Garibaldi Thomas Edison Guglielmo Marconi Butts. "

"For goodness sake! Will you listen to that!" gasped Mark, while Jackwent off into a roar of laughter. 

"Don't--don't it make your jaw ache to say it, Wash?" cried the olderlad when he could speak. 

"Not a-tall! not a-tall!" rejoined the darkey, shaking his woolly head. "I has practised all ma life speakin' de berry longest words in deEnglish language--"

"And mispronouncing them, " giggled Jack. 

"Mebbe, Massa Jack, mebbe!" agreed Washington, briskly. "But de copybook say dat it is better to have tried an' failed dan nebber to havetried at all. "

"And did you ever try calling the rooster back, when he starts to playtruant, with all that mouthful of words?" queried the amused Mark. 

"Yes, indeedy, " said Washington, seriously. 

"Don't he mind, then?"

"I should think he'd be struck motionless in his tracks, " chuckledJack. 

"No, sah, " said Washington. "Dat's de only fault I kin fin' with datname--it don't 'pear to stop him. An' befo' I kin git it all out he'sginerally out ob sight!"

That sent both boys off into another paroxysm of laughter. Meanwhilethe darkey had come into the great shed and was slowly walking aroundthe flying machine. "What do you think of her, Wash, now that she'sfinished?" asked Mark. 

"Is she done done?" queried the darkey, wonderingly. 

"She certainly is, " agreed Jack. 

"De chile is bawn and done named Nebbercudsneezer, heh? Well! well!"

"No; it's named the _Snowbird_, " Mark retorted. "And to-morrowmorning, bright and early, we shall sail on its trial trip. Theprofessor is going with us, Washington. Of course, you will come, too?"

"Lawsy me! don't see how I kin!" stammered Washington White, who alwayswished to be considered very brave, but who was really as timid as ahare. "Yo' see, Massa Mark, I'spect I shall be right busy. "

"What will you be busy at?" demanded Jack. 

"Well--well, sah, " said Wash, "if dat Shanghai don't come back befo', I shall hab ter go snoopin' aroun' de kentry a-huntin' fo' him. He'llbe crowin' 'bout sun-up, an' he suah can't disguise his crow. "

"If Andy was here, he would surely want to go with us, " declared Jackto Mark. "Andy Sudds isn't afraid of anything. "

"My! my!" cried Washington. "Yo' don't fo' one moment suppose, MassaJack, dat I's afeared; does yo'?" "No, you're not afraid, Wash, "returned Jack, chuckling. "You're only scared to death. But you goahead and hunt your rooster. See that you keep him from flying toohigh, however, or we'll run him down in the _Snowbird_. "

"Pshaw!" said Mark. "That rooster is so fat he couldn't flyhigh, anyway. "

"And perhaps the _Snowbird_ won't fly very high; eh?" retorted Jack, letting a little anxiety creep into his voice. 

"But dat rooster suah _kin_ fly high, " said Washington White, eagerly. "Yo' gemmens knows dat he's flowed as high as de moon--he, he!"

"And 'flowed' is a mighty good word, Wash, " chuckled Jack. "Ah! hereis the professor, Mark. "

Professor Henderson was an aged man with snow white hair and beard. Although he was not physically as strong as he once was, his brain andenergy were not in the least impaired by advancing years. He had takenthe two lads, Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson, both orphans, under hiscare some years before, and under his tuition and by his aid they weremuch farther advanced in knowledge of the practical sciences than otherboys of their age. 

The professor welcomed them cordially and at their request gave athorough scrutiny to the various mechanical contrivances that went tothe make-up of the flying machine. He pronounced it, as far as couldbe known before a practical test, a perfect mechanism. 

"And we will try it to-morrow morning, boys, " he said, with almost asmuch enthusiasm as Jack and Mark themselves displayed. "You havecompleted the machine in excellent time, and I "un likewise ready tomake the experiment. "

"What experiment, Professor?" asked the boys in chorus. 

"Haven't you noticed what I was tinkering on at the other end of theshop?" queried Professor Henderson, in surprise. 

"Why, I see that you have a long steel plank there, with some kind ofa compressed air contrivance at one end, " said Jack. 

"Is that what you mean, Professor?" queried Mark. 

"That, boys, " said the scientist, with some pride, "is a moderncatapult--an up-to-the-minute catapult which, had it been known to theancients, would have enabled the hosts of Joshua, for instance, tobatter down the walls of Jericho without the trouble of marching somany times around the city. "

"And what has a compressed air catapult got to do with the_Snowbird_?" queried Jack. "You propose launching your flying machine inthe usual way, " said the professor. "I see you have wheel trucks allready to slip under her. We will not use those wheels, boys. I have abetter plan. We will launch the _Snowbird_ into the air from mycatapult. "

"Great goodness, Professor!" cried Mark. "Is that practicable?"

"We'll know after we have tried it, " retorted Professor Henderson, drily. 

"How did you happen to start working on this catapult idea?" askedJack. 

"Well, I can't tell you everything, " replied the inventor, "for it ispartly a secret. "

"Huh, " laughed Mark. "You're mysterious. You haven't joined forceswith some department of our government, or with another country?"

The professor smiled, thinking how keen this young man always provedhimself to be. 

"You've guessed it, " he replied. "And I'm sorry I can't explain moreto you. "

"We understand, " said Jack. "And no doubt this machine is asuper-catapult. "

"True, " was the answer. "Of untold use to the scientific world. Forthe present I shall confine testing its efficiency right in this place. Now is my chance. "

"But of what advantage will it be to our flying machine to start itin this way?" "Stop and think, my boy, " said the professor. "Just asan aeroplane can literally be shot into the air within a very shortspace, so can your airship. Of course, this is not necessary, but wewill be able to start the ship much faster that way than we couldwithjust the motors. "

"You'll make history, Professor, " added Jack. "Exciting headlines forthe papers. "

"Sure enough, " said Mark enthusiastically. 

"The publicity doesn't interest me, " replied the scientist. "Moreover, my super-catapult must remain a secret, as I told you a while ago. "

"So you really propose to launch the _Snowbird_ in this way?" askedJack. 

"We will be shot into the air. If you are sure of your machine, I amsure of my catapult, and we will try the two contrivances together. "

In the morning all rose bright and early and prepared the _Snowbird_ forher trial flight. Washington White had indeed disappeared--possibly insearch of his Shanghai rooster--and Andy Sudds was off on a hunt. Therefore the professor and his two young comrades essayed the tripalone. 

Jack and Mark tossed a coin to see who should first guide the greatair machine, and Mark won the preference. He, as well as his chum andthe professor, had already donned their aeronautic uniforms, and henow strapped himself into the pilot's seat. The steering apparatus, the levers that controlled the planes, and the motor switch were allunder his hand. While in flight the _Snowbird_ need be under thecontrol of but one person at a time. 

The professor had rigged his catapult so that he could release thetrigger from the flying machine. Mark said he was ready; the professorreached for the cord which would release the trigger. 

"Start your motor, Mark, a fraction of a second before I release thecompressed air, " commanded Mr. Henderson. "Now!"

The motor of the flying machine buzzed faintly. Jack's eyes were onthe speed indicator. He suddenly felt the great, quivering flyingmachine, which had been run out of the hangar on to the steel plankof the catapult, lurch forward. The feeling affected him just as thesudden dropping of an elevator from a great height affects itspassengers. 

The finger of the speed indicator whirled and marked forty miles anhour ere the flying machine left the steel plank, and shot into theair with the fearful force of the compressed air behind it. 

Both Mark and Jack were well used to guiding aeroplanes and other airmachines. But this start from the ground was much different from theeasy, swooping flight of an airship as usually begun. Like an arrowthe _Snowbird_ was shot upward on a long slant. It was a momentere Mark got the controls to working. The propellers were, of course, started with the first stroke of the motor. 

But Mark Sampson was nervous; there was no denying that. At the instantwhen the nose of the airship should have been raised, so as to clearthe tops of the forest trees and every building on the Henderson place, Mark instead guided the rapidly flying _Snowbird_ far to the left. 

It skimmed the corner of the stable by a fraction of a foot, and Jackyelled:

"Look out!"

His cry made Mark even more nervous. The tall water-tank and windmillwere right in line. Before the young aviator could swerve the flyingmachine to escape the vane upon the roof of the tower, and the longarms of the mill, they were right upon these things!

The fast-shooting _Snowbird_ was jarred through all her members; but shetore loose. And then, in erratic leaps and bounds, she kept on acrossthe fields and woods towards Easton, never rising very high, butoccasionally sinking so that she trailed across the treetops, threatening the whole party with death and the flying machine itselfwith destruction, at every jump. 

CHAPTER II

MARK HANGS ON

Professor Henderson and his adopted sons--Jack Darrow and MarkSampson--had been in many perilous situations together. Neither onenor the other was likely to display panic at the present juncture, although the flying _Snowbird_ was playing a gigantic game of"leap-frog" through the air. 

The professor had himself constructed many wonderful machines fortransportation through the air, under the ground, and both on andbeneath the sea; and in them he and his young comrades had voyagedafar. 

Narrated in the first volume of this series, entitled, "Through theAir to the North Pole, " was the bringing together of the two boys andthe professor, --how the scientist and Washington White rescued Jackand Mark after a train wreck, took them to the professor's workshop, and made the lads his special care. In that workshop was built the_Electric Monarch_, in which flying ship the party actually passedover that point far beyond the Arctic Circle where the needle of thecompass indicates the North Pole. 

Later, in the submarine boat, the _Porpoise, _ the professor, withhis young assistants and others, voyaged under the sea to the SouthPole, the details of which voyage are related in the second volume ofthe series, entitled "Under the Ocean to the South Pole. "

In the third volume, "Five Thousand Miles Underground, " is related thebuilding of that strange craft, the _Flying Mermaid_, and how thevoyagers journeyed to the center of the earth. The perils connectedwith this experience satisfied all of them, as far as adventure went, for some time. Jack and Mark prepared for, and entered, the UniversalElectrical and Chemical College. 

Before the first year of their college course was completed, however, Professor Henderson, in partnership with a brother scientist, ProfessorSantell Roumann, projected and carried through a marvelous campaignwith the aid of Jack and Mark, which is narrated in our fourth volume, entitled, "Through Space to Mars. " In this book is told how theprojectile, _Annihilator_, was built and, the projectile being driven bythe Etherium motor, the party was transported to the planet Mars. 

Later, because of some knowledge obtained from a Martian newspaper byJack, they all made a trip to the moon in search of a field of diamonds, and their adventures as related in "Lost on the Moon" were of the mostthrilling kind. The projectile brought them safely home again and theyhad now, for some months, been quietly pursuing their usual avocations. 

The knowledge Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson had gained from textbooks, and much from observation and the teachings of Professor Henderson, had aided the lads in the building of the _Snowbird_. It was the firstmechanism of importance that Jack and Mark had ever completed, and theyhad been quite confident, before the flying machine was shot from Mr. Henderson's catapult, that it was as near perfect as an untriedaeroplane could be. 

"Hang on, Mark!" yelled Jack, as the great machine soared and pitchedover the forest. 

Her leaps were huge, and the shock each time she descended and roseagain threatened to shake the 'plane to bits. Mark swayed in his seat, clutching first one lever and then another, while Professor Hendersonand Jack could only cling with both hands to the guys and stay-wires. 

The sensation of being so high above the earth, and in imminent dangerof being dashed headlong to it, gripped Mark Sampson like a gianthand. He felt difficulty in breathing, although it was not the heightthat gave him that choking sensation. There was a mist before his eyes, still the sun was shining brightly. The startling gyrations of theflying machine for some time shook the lad to the core. 

But Jack's cheerful cry of "Hang on!" spurred Mark to a new activity--anactivity of hand as well as brain. He knew that something had fouledand that this accident was the cause of the machine making suchsickening bounds in the air. She was overbalanced in some way. 

With Jack's encouraging shout ringing in his ears, Mark came to himself. He _would_ hang on! His friends depended upon him to control the machineand to save them from destruction, and he would not be found wanting. 

One lever after another he gripped and tried. It was one controllingthe rising power that was fouled. He learned this in a moment. Hesought to move it to and fro in its socket and could not do so. He hadoverlooked this lever before. 

Again the _Snowbird_ dashed herself from a height of five hundred feettoward the earth. 

They still flew over the forest. The tops of the trees intervened, andMark managed to counteract the plunge before the prow of the machineburst through the treetops. She rose again, and using both hands, Markjerked the wheel stick into place. 

At once the flying machine responded to the change. She rode straighton, slightly rising as he had pointed her, and Mark dared touch themotor switch again. Instantly the machine speeded ahead. 

"Hurrah for Mark!" shrieked Jack. "He's pulled us through. "

"He has indeed, " agreed the professor, and they settled into theirseats and gave attention to the working of the apparatus. Mark now hadthe _Snowbird_ well under control. 

Jack changed places with his chum and managed the _Snowbird_ equallywell. At his touch she darted upward at a long slant until the altimeterregistered two thousand feet above the sea. And the sea was actuallybelow them, for Jack had guided the flying machine away out from theland. 

"Boys, " said Professor Henderson, quietly, "you have donewell--remarkably well. I am certainly proud of you. Some day the peopleof the United States will be proud of you. I am sure that the inventor'sinstinct and the scientist's indefatigable energy are characteristicsyou both possess. "

"That's praise indeed!" exclaimed Jack, smiling at his chum. "When theprofessor says we've won out, I don't care what anybody else says. "

"Do you think the _Snowbird_ is fit for long-distance travel?" askedMark of Professor Henderson, now displaying more eagerness than before. 

"I do indeed. I think you have a most excellent flying machine. I wouldnot hesitate to start for San Francisco in her. "

"Or farther?" asked Jack. 

"Certainly. "

"Across the ocean?" queried Mark, quickly. 

"I do not see why any one could not take a trip to the other side ofthe Atlantic in your 'plane, " replied the professor. "With properprecautions, of course. "

They reached the land and came safely to rest before the hangar withoutfurther accident. The professor was delighted with the working of hiscatapult and at once made ready to call the attention of the NavyDepartment to his improvement in the means of launching an airshipfrom the deck of a vessel. Ere he had written to the Department, however, he and his young friends were suddenly made interested in ascheme that was broached by letter to Professor Henderson from afellow-savant, Dr. Artemus Todd, of the West Baden University. 

Professor Henderson and Dr. Todd had often exchanged courtesies; butthe university doctor was mainly interested in medical subjects, whileMr. Henderson delved more in the mysteries of astronomy and practicalmechanics. 

The doctor's letter to Professor Henderson read as follows:

"Dear Professor:

"I am urged to write to you again because of something that has recentlycome to my knowledge regarding a subject we once discussed. As youknow, for some years past I have been investigating not the _cause_of aphasia and kindred mental troubles (for we know the condition isbrought about by a clot of blood upon the brain), but the means ofquickly and surely overcoming the condition and bringing the unfortunatevictim of this disorder back to his normal state. In our age, whenmental and nervous diseases are so rapidly increasing, aphasia victimsare becoming more common. Scarcely a hospital in the land that doesnot have its quota of such patients under treatment--patients who, inmany cases, have completely forgotten who and what they are and haveassumed a totally different identity from that they began life with. "

"We know that, in some cases, hypnotism has benefited the aphasia andamnesia victim. His condition is not like that of the mentally feeble;he has merely lost his memory of what and who he previously was. Believing that all disease, of whatsoever nature, can be safely treatedonly through the blood, _this_ ill to which human flesh is heirparticularly must be treated in that way, for we know that a stagnantstate of the blood in one spot, at least, is the cause of the patient'smalady. Therefore I have been experimenting botanically to discovera remedium for the state in question--something that will act swiftlyupon the blood, and directly dissipate such a clot as is spoken ofabove. "

"My dear Professor! I can announce with joy that this remedium isdiscovered. I obtained a specimen of a very rare plant brought backfrom Alaska by a miner who wandered into the fastnesses of the EndicottRange, far beyond the usual route of gold miners and in a districtwhich, I understand, is scarcely ever crossed by whites and which is, indeed, almost impassable, even in the summer months. With the aid ofthis herb--_Chrysothele-Byzantium_ (it was known to the ancients, but very rare)--I have brewed a remedium which, in one case at lest, instantly cleared the blood vessels of the patient and brought himback to a knowledge of his real self. "

"But my supply of the herb is gone. It reached me in its dry state, or I should have first tried to propagate it. It seeds but once inseven years and therefore is rare and hard to grow. But I must havea supply of the _Chrysothele-Byzantium_ seeds, plants, and all. I look to you, my dear Professor Henderson, for help. To you space andthe flight of time are merely words. You can overcome both if you try. I need somebody to go to the northern part of Alaska--that is, beyondthe Endicott Range--to obtain this rare plant for me. You have alreadyflown over the North Pole and a trip which carries one only three orfour degrees beyond the Arctic Circle is a mere bagatelle to you. "

"Yes! it is in you I place my hope, Professor. The hopes of many, manyafflicted people may be placed in you, too. I ask you to fly to thisdistant place and obtain for me the herb that will do humanity suchgreat good. Under another enclosure I send you drawings of the plantin its several states and a full and complete description of how itwas found. You can make no mistake in the _Chrysothele-Byzantium_. You know that I am a cripple, or I would offer to join with you inthis search. But at least I am prepared to pay for any expense you maybe under. Draw upon me for ten thousand dollars to-morrow if you sodesire, and more if you need before the start. The Massachusetts BayTrust Company, of Boston, will honor the draft. Make up the expeditionas you see fit. Take as many men with you as you think necessary. Makeall preparations which seem to you fit and needful. I limit you innothing--only bring back the herb. "

"Remember I shall impatiently await your return and look for yoursuccess--I expect nothing but unqualified success from your attempt. You who have achieved so much in the past surely cannot fail me inthis event. I await your agreement to attempt this voyage withconfidence. I must have the herb and you are the only person who canobtain it for me. "

"Your friend and co-worker for the betterment of humanity, ARTEMUS TODD, M. D. , Ph. D. "

Professor Henderson read this strange letter aloud in the evening ashe and his friends were sitting before the small, clear fire of hickorylogs in the big living room of the bungalow in the woods, built besidethe great workshops and laboratory. With the scientist and the twoboys was Andy Sudds, the old hunter, who sat cleaning his rifle, andWashington White was busy in and out of the room as he cleared awaythe supper and set the place in order. 

"Well! what do you know about that!" exclaimed Jack Darrow, alwaysready with a comment upon any subject. "Dr. Todd is certainly some inearnest; isn't he?" "But what a cheek he has to ask you to go on sucha journey!" cried Mark. "He talks as though he expected you to startimmediately for the Arctic Circle. "

"There would be good hunting up there in the mountains, " said AndySudds, succinctly. "I wouldn't mind that. "

"An'disher chrysomela-bypunktater plant he wants, " grunted Washington. "Hi, yi! ain't dat de beatenest thing? Who ebber heard of sech a plantbefo'?"

"Nobody but you, I guess, Washington, " said the professor, quietly. "_That_ seems to be a plant of your own invention. "

"But, sir!" cried Mark, "you have no idea of taking this trip hesuggests; have you?"

"Dr. Todd has done me many a favor in the past, " said ProfessorHenderson, thoughtfully. 

"Well, if you're going, count me in, " said Jack, quickly. "I don'tmind a summer trip to the Arctic. Say! it can't be much cooler up therethan it is here right now. This fire doesn't feel bad at all. "

"Humph!" muttered Mark, who never was as sanguine as his chum. "Thiscool spell will only last a day or two here; but I understand the topsof the Endicott Range are always white. "

"B-r-r!" shivered Washington, at this statement. "Dis chile don't t'inkmuch ob such a surreptitious pedestrianation as dat, den. Don't likeno cold wedder, nohow! And Buttsy don' like it, needer. "

"Who's Buttsy?" demanded Jack, grinning. 

"Why, fo' suah, " said the darkey, gravely, "you knows ChristopherColumbus Amerigo Vespucci George Washington Abraham Lin----"

"But you wouldn't expect to take Christopher Columbus And-so-forth toAlaska with us; would you?" asked Andy Suggs. 

"Why not?" demanded the darkey. "He flowed to de moon in deperjectilator; didn't he? Huh! In co'se if de perfessor goes afterdisher chrysomela-bypunktater, I gotter go, too; and in co'se if I go, Buttsy done gotter go. Dat's as plain as de nose on yo' face, Andy. "

The hunter rubbed his rather prominent nasal organ and was silenced. Jack and Mark had turned more eagerly to the professor as the latterbegan to speak:

"Yes, Dr. Todd is my good friend. He turns to me for help quiteproperly; who else should he turn to?"

"But, Professor!" ejaculated Mark, warmly. "Are you to be driven offto Alaska at your age to hunt for this herb--which is perhaps only thehallucination of a madman?" "Mark's hit the nail on the head, Professor!" declared Jack. "I believe this Todd must certainly be'touched' in his upper story. "

"Am _I_ touched, as you call it, Jack?" demanded Professor Henderson, insome indignation. 

"But you don't believe Todd is on the trail of any great discovery?"cried Mark. 

"Why not? Mind may yield to herbal treatment. Todd is an advancedbotanical adherent. He believes almost anything can be accomplishedby herbs. And he says he has successfully treated one case. "

"One swallow doesn't make a summer, " remarked Mark, doubtfully. 

"But it is enough that he wants us to find the herb, " said theprofessor, more vigorously. 

"'Us'!" repeated Jack. 

"And he will pay us any reasonable price for our work, " added theirmentor. 

"He really means to go!" cried Mark. 

"I certainly do. I think you and Jack will accompany me, " said theprofessor, quietly. "I know that Washington will, and of course Andywill not be left behind. "

"Not if there'll be a chance at big game, " declared the hunter. "I'mwith you, Professor Henderson. "

"Yo' suah can't git erlong widout me, I s'pose?" queried the darkey, in some uncertainty. "I'se mighty busy right yere jes' now. "

"And you'll be busy if we go to Alaska, Wash!" cried Jack. "Hurrah!I am willing to start to-morrow, Professor. "

"And you, Mark?" queried the old gentleman of his other adopted son. 

"How will we go, sir? We shall be until fall traveling to the ArcticCircle by any usual means. "

"True, " said the professor. "And haste is imperative. I cannot spendmuch time in this matter. We must take unusual means of getting to theEndicott Range. "

"What do you mean?" asked the boys in chorus. 

"Your _Snowbird_ is ready for flight. It can be provisioned andwill take us all quicker than by any other means. Therefore in the_Snowbird_ we will make the journey. "

CHAPTER III

THE FLIGHT OF THE SNOWBIRD

Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson were glad enough to be of the party aimingto reach northern Alaska and the Endicott Range, if Professor Hendersonreally intended going to find the strange herb for which Dr. Todd waswilling to pay so generously. 

Of discussion, pro and con, there was much. Indeed, they sat up untilafter midnight after the reading of Dr. Todd's letter, talking overthe contemplated journey, and gradually the details of the trip, including all preparations for it, were worked out. 

Jack and Mark put into the affair, once they were determined to aidthe professor, their characteristic energy. Professor Henderson wiredhis brother scientist that he would undertake the journey to Alaska, and accepted the ten thousand dollars to defray expenses. Andy Suddsmade characteristic preparations for hunting the big game of the Alaskanmountains. Washington White built a traveling coop of very light butstrong material for his pet Shanghai, and then announced himself asready to depart for the Arctic Circle. 

The instructions and map furnished by Dr. Todd, locating the very spotbeyond the Endicott Range where the rare herb had been plucked by theminer, showed it to be in a very wild region indeed. There was a nativesettlement named Aleukan within a hundred miles of the valley wherethe herb was supposed to grow in abundance. Professor Hendersondetermined to lay their course for this place. 

But the nearest white man's town was Coldfoot, on the other side ofthe mountains. There was a trail, however, passable in summer for adogtrain from Coldfoot to Aleukan; and a dogtrain could likewise passfrom the native village to the valley where the miner had found theherb. 

These facts the professor and his young associates discovered as soonas Dr. Todd's instructions arrived. They made their plans accordingly. 

By telegraph the professor ordered a trainload of supplies to be startedat once from Fort Yukon. First, these supplies would go by boat downthe Yukon Flats and up the Chandler River, past Chandler and Caro, beyond which latter town there was a good road over a small range ofhills to Coldfoot. This trail was open at all seasons and there wasa regular system of transportation into Coldfoot. 

From that town dogs and men would be hired to take the supplies on toAleukan. These arrangements were made through an express company, andin three days the professor received word that the supplies were alreadyaboard a small steam vessel which had left the Fort Yukon dock for thetrip to Caro. 

The trip by boat and overland for the supply train would consume abouta week or two, providing nothing untoward happened to delay it. Andthe season was favorable to a quick journey. 

But the professor and his young comrades figured that the _Snowbird_, following the shortest air-line to the far side of the Endicott Range, could make the trip in much shorter time. The distance "as the crowflies" was from 3, 700 to 3, 800 miles from their point of departure. Under favorable conditions the great flying machine should travel ninetymiles an hour on the average. Unless there was a breakdown, or they raninto a heavy storm, which would necessitate their descending to theearth, they could count upon the _Snowbird_ being in the vicinity ofAleukan within three or four days' time at the longest. 

In the flying machine itself they could carry a supply of concentratedfoods, medicines, necessities of many kinds, and their arms. It wasprobable that meat could be had for the killing in the valley to whichthey were bound, and the Indians at Aleukan could be hired to supplynecessary food for a time. But the professor did not propose to takehis friends into the wilderness without completely warding off disaster. 

Considerable space in the _Snowbird_ was occupied by ProfessorHenderson's scientific instruments. He was amply supplied with powerfulfield glasses, a wonderful telescope, partly of his own invention;instruments for the measuring of mountains heights, the recording ofseismic disturbances, and many other scientific paraphernalia of whichJack and Mark did not know even the uses. 

The boys were as well supplied with firearms as Andy Sudds himself. They knew that they would probably see and be obliged to kill dangerousbeasts; and although the several tribes of Indians inhabiting Alaskaare all supposed to be semi-civilized and at peace with the whites, they had had experience enough in wild countries before to warn themthat the temper of aboriginal man is never to be trusted too far. 

Their own readiness for departure in the _Snowbird_ had been gauged bythe telegraph dispatches from Fort Yukon. When the final message camethat the boat bearing the supplies had started, Professor Hendersonasked: "And now, boys, when can we leave by the air route?"

Jack and Mark glanced at each other and nodded. Jack said:

"All you have to do, Professor, is to put your bag aboard the ship andstep in. We are ready to start the _Snowbird_ at any moment. Andyhas his guns aboard, and plenty of ammunition. Mark and I are allready. At your word we will leave. "

"It is already dark, " said the professor, slowly. "Shall we wait untilmorning?"

"The moon will be up in an hour--and it is almost at its full, " Marksaid, quickly. "The quicker we are off the better, it seems to me. "

"Very well, " agreed Professor Henderson. "If you boys say the word, wewill start. Is Andy here?"

"He is already aboard--asleep in his bunk, " said Jack, "with his bestrifle cuddled in the hollow of his arm. He does not propose to be leftbehind, " and the young fellow chuckled. 

"And where is Washington White?"

"He's done yere, " answered the darkey for himself, and he appearedbearing the traveling coop of Christopher Columbus And-so-forth in hisarms. 

"Here, Wash!" ejaculated Jack. "Surely you are not going to clutterup the flying machine with that thing?"

"An' why fo' not?" sputtered the darkey. "Whatebber has Buttsy doneter yo', Massa Jack, dat yo' should be obfendicated at his 'pearancein de present state ob de obsequies?"

"Then the rooster accompanies the expedition, " chuckled Jack. "Onlyremember, if we have to throw out anything to lighten ship, Buttsygoes first--even before we are obliged to dispense with _your_ services, Wash!"

"Den we are ready to start, " declared the darkey, solemnly. "Nottin'will now disturb de continuity ob de ebenin's enj'yment. Forward, march, is our motter!"

And he marched away to the flying machine and got aboard with the coopand Buttsy in his arms. 

The professor had found the last of his possessions he wished to takewith him. He followed the negro aboard. The _Snowbird_ was alreadyoutside the hangar and on its wheels, ready for the start. This timethey dispensed with the professor's catapult, for it would be necessaryto have the trucks attached to the aeroplane to enable her to startproperly from any point on which they might land. The workshop andplant in general were left in charge of a watchman and caretaker, andonly this man was present when Jack took his place in the controller'sseat and Mark started the powerful motor and clambered aboard. 

The craft ran across the field, at first slowly and then more rapidlyas Jack increased the speed. The flying machine began to lift almostimmediately. 

"Hurrah!" shouted the irrepressible Jack. "We're off!"

"About nor-norwest is the course, Jack, " cried Mark Sampson, likewiseinspired by the flight of the _Snowbird_. 

As for Washington White, he gazed down to the dusky earth below themand his eyes rolled. 

"Gollyation!" he muttered. "If Buttsy should fall down dere, he'd suahjounce himself some; wouldn't he?"

CHAPTER IV

"WHO GOES THERE?"

With the moonlight lying like a benediction over the fields and forestsof Maine, the _Snowbird_, her motor humming like a huge bumble-bee, and her propellers and controls working in perfect order, swept on hercourse into the northwest. The lights of Easton, ten miles from theirhome, melted into the earth-shadow behind the sky-voyagers within thefirst hour of the sure-to-be eventful journey. 

Jack Darrow did not force the pace of the flying machine. They had along and trying flight before them. The machine as a whole had beentried out only two or three times during the few days that had elapsedsince she was completed and this present expedition had been planned. These short flights had served merely to put the parts in good workingtrim; but the lad knew better than to make the pace that of top-speedfrom the start. 

He wanted her to "warm up. " He knew that the _Snowbird_ could make onehundred twenty-five miles an hour. But such speed was likely to shakesomething loose and cripple the mechanism. 

A flight of seventy or eighty miles an hour would bring them well intoCanada by noon of the next day. They would have to there descend at, or near, some town, and report themselves and the nature of theirflight to the authorities. This was to be done as a precaution in casethey had a breakdown somewhere in crossing British possessions. Apassport would then aid them if they were obliged to call upon theauthorities in the heart of Canada for aid. 

But at present none of these things bothered the party much. Sudds andthe professor slept as though they were in their beds at home. The oldhunter could sleep anywhere, and awake instantly with all his facultiesabout him. And the scientist slept profoundly because his body wasexhausted. 

Under the brilliant moon the _Snowbird_ swung along the air-way like averitable bird. Jack increased the revolutions of the propellersa trifle and the ship responded like a spirited horse to the spur. Shedarted ahead at a ninety mile speed and Washington White emitted amournful groan. 

"What's the matter with you now, Wash?" shouted Mark, for they allwore ear-tabs and had to shout to make one another hear. 

"Oh, lawsy-massy on us!" groaned Wash. "I'se got sech a misery, MassaMark, I dunno but ma time has camed. "

"What time has come?" demanded Mark, without much sympathy. "It'll betime for you to hustle and get us something to eat before long. "

"For de goodness gracious Agnes' sake!" gasped the negro, "yo' suahlyain't a-gwine ter dribe me ter wo'k up in disher flyin' contraption?Dat would suah be cruelty ter animiles, boy--it. Suah would!"

"We've got to eat, Wash, " said Jack, chuckling, "and you are stewardand cook of this craft. "

"Gollyation! did I ship fo' sech wo'k? I nebber knowed it. It doesseem to me dat de consanguinity ob de 'casion done call fo' nottingbut de quietest kind o' verisimilitude. De qualmishness dat arises inde interiorness of ma diaphragm ev'ry time I circumnavigates erboutin disher flyin' ship makes me wanter express mahself in de mos'scatterin' kin' ob er way--I hopes you gits ma meanin' clear?"

Jack was laughing so that he could not speak, but Mark managed to say:

"You mean that the motion of the aeroplane gives you a feeling of _malde mer_?"

"Dat's wot I done said, " Wash replied, seriously. "I nebber in ma lifefelt so mal-der-merry as I do at dis present onauspicious 'casion; an'if dat mal don't stop merryin' purty quick, I suah shall be--ugh!--sickter ma stummick!"

This wail fairly convulsed Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson; but they knewthat if Wash paid more attention to his duties and thought less abouthis own situation he would be better off. Mark insisted on his goingat once into the tiny, covered "galley, " as the boys called it, hungamidships, in which were the means of heating water, making coffee, and cooking certain simple viands in their stores. 

Wash went to his duties grumblingly; but he was an ingenious andskillful cook and when he got to work he forgot his "feeling ofmal-de-merry. "

It was now approaching midnight and the flying machine had been steadilytraveling northward for some hours. Both Andy Sudds and the professorawoke and offered to relieve the boys in their work. But Mark had takenJack's place in the controller's seat and neither he nor his chum feltthat he wished to give over the guidance of the _Snowbird_ to anybodyelse. 

Now, some distance ahead, the peak of Mt. Katahdin, gloriously mantledin moonlight, rose before them. Their direct course lay over the summitof this eminence, and Mark decided that it would be better to rise toa higher strata and cross the mountain than to swing around it. Therefore Mark raised the bow of the flying machine and she dartedupward on a long slant, drawing ever nearer to the shining peak of thegreat mountain. The night air was chill--it had been cool when theyleft the earth--and as they rose to the rarer ether it was evidentthat they would find a degree of temperature far lower than the usualsummer heat. 

Mark kept the _Snowbird_ scaling swiftly upward, mile after mile; butthe long tangent at which he had started to clear the summit of Katahdindid not prove sufficient, and by and by they found themselves within avery few yards of the rocky side of the peak. 

Out of a dark glen a spark of light suddenly shot--almost like a rocketin swiftness. Jack saw it first and cried:

"See that! What is it? What do you make of it?"

"A shootin' star, I declare!" said Andy Sudds. 

"Nothing of the kind, " exclaimed Jack, quickly. "A star could not shootup from the earth. "

"Wot's dat says somebody's a-shootin' at us?" gasped Washington White. "If dey punctuates our tire, we'll suah go down wid a big ker-smash!"

The professor, however, watched the "shooting star" for some momentswithout speaking, and then rapidly made his way to Mark's side. 

"Send your 'plane up in spirals, boy I" he commanded. "Don't let thatlight rise over us. Be quick, now!"

"What is it, Professor?" asked young Sampson, as he obeyed thescientist's injunction. 

"I am sure it is a light in the bow of another airship--but what mannerof ship she is, or who drives her, I cannot guess, " declared ProfessorHenderson, gravely. 

"Another airship!" cried Jack, who overheard him. "What do you knowabout that?"

Mark handled the _Snowbird_ with great skill, and the powerful craftmounted much more swiftly than the distant spark of light. The spiralcourse the 'plane now followed carried it at times much farther from themountain side than it had been when first the strange light was noticed. That light followed the _Snowbird_ up and up in similar spirals, and theboys were soon convinced that Professor Henderson's discovery was afact. The lamp was in the bow of another air craft. 

"But why should we keep over them?" asked Jack. "There is no danger; isthere?"

"We do not know who they are, " said the professor, shortly. "The craftcame right out of a fastness in the mountain-side--a place difficultto reach, and which would not seem to attract aviators of the ordinaryclass. " "I know what he is thinking of, " cried Mark, suddenly. "I readin the paper that the Department of Justice officers are after somebig smugglers and that it is believed the criminals, in going back andforth into Canada, use some kind of an aerial craft. Isn't that so, Professor Henderson?"

"I had the fact in mind. The flying machine is being put already touses that are not commendable, to say the least. The Maine and Canadianborder has for years been used by bands of smugglers, and if one ofthese gangs have purchased and can use a flying craft, they may makethe revenue men a deal of trouble. "

"You're right, sir. And I read likewise that the government officersproposed using an aeroplane themselves to track the smugglers. Perhapsthe villains, if that is their ship below us, may take us for secretservice men. "

As he spoke the lamp so far below them darted up at a sudden and sharpangle, there sounded the sharp crack of some weapon, and WashingtonWhite jumped and screamed. 

"Gollyation!" he bawled. "Dem fellers is suah tryin' ter punctuate us!"

Through the blackness of the night a distant voice hailed the pilotof the _Snowbird_. 

"Ahoy! ahoy! Who goes there?" was the cry, and it was repeated twice. 

CHAPTER V

BETWEEN TWO PERILS

Mark Sampson, having all the mechanism of the flying machine under hisimmediate control, had it in his power to increase speed and seek toescape the second airship. And Jack wondered why his chum did notimmediately send the _Snowbird_ flying at increased speed over the topof Mt. Katahdin and so seek to escape the menace below. 

But the young fellow at the controls of the _Snowbird_ had an advantageover his companions that Jack had forgotten. He could hear sounds at amuch greater distance than they, and much clearer. 

This was because of an invention of Professor Henderson--a smallinstrument similar to part of the ordinary telephone. The sensitivedisk was a form of radio receiver which could be attached to anyaviator's helmet, and was being put into general use by pilots. Thetwo boys always adjusted this whenever they were strapped upon thepilot's seat. 

Thus, although the report of the gun had sounded but faintly to theother members of the party, to Mark it seemed as though the explosionwas within a hundred yards. The voice hailing them likewise seemed toring in his ears very plainly; and beyond the words somewhatdistinguished by his companions the young operator of the _Snowbird_could make out a further phrase spoken by the person who hailed from theother air-craft. 

"Halt in the name of the law!"

Those were the sharp words Mark had caught, and for that reason hehesitated to increase the _Snowbird's_ speed. 

In a strap hung near his left hand was a transmitter. Without takingthe advice of any of his companions in the flying machine, Mark seizedit, put it to his lips, and replied to the hail:

"Ahoy! what do you want?"

Instantly the voice rose from the black abyss below them:

"Heave to! Stop in the name of the law!"

That time the professor and Jack heard the words spoken by theirpursuer. 

"What do you know about that?" demanded Jack. "'In the name of the law', no less!"

Professor Henderson jumped to the same conclusion that Mark had, andthat instantly. "It may be the Secret Service men themselves, " he said. "Ah, Andrew! it is just as well to withhold your fire until we knowfor sure. "

For Andy Sudds had seized his rifle and stood ready to withstand anattack, should such an act become necessary. 

Up from the depths came the cry again:

"Hold your ship. I propose to come aboard and search her. In the nameof the United States Government!"

Mr. Henderson took the radio telephone out of Mark's hand and replied:

"We wish to know who and what you really are. We will not put ourselvesin your power without knowing. We are amply armed. "

"Don't you dare to fire upon a United States officer in the dischargeof his duty, " cried the voice from below, and now the strange airshipwas much nearer to them. "Who do you claim to be?"

"This is the _Snowbird_, from Easton, Maine, She is manned by herbuilders, Darrow and Sampson. She carries as passengers WashingtonWhite, Andrew Sudds and Amos Henderson, " declared the professor, inreply. "And she is bound for Alaska. "

"Well, well!" exclaimed the voice of their pursuer. "That may all beso. But I have my suspicions. I am Ford, special agent of the Departmentof Justice. Stand by. Now I am coming aboard. "

At a nod from the professor, Mark had already brought the _Snowbird_ toa halt. She lay floating, with all planes extended and without motion ofpropellers, poised over the summit of Mt. Katahdin. 

The descending moon threw its beams over the height and revealed tothe vaguely anxious occupants of the _Snowbird_, the other machinedarting up from below. 

This was a craft of much different aspect from their own. It was agreat deal smaller and apparently without half the power possessed bythe one built by Jack and Mark. 

She shot into the air above their heads at a swift pace, however, andimmediately poised over them. In this attitude Ford, as he calledhimself, had the occupants of the _Snowbird_ completely at hismercy. A bomb dropped upon the huge flying machine would have blownher to pieces. Or, with a gun, he could have picked off one afteranother of the five people below. 

"Stand out of the way, there!" commanded Ford. 

Instantly those upon the larger air-craft saw a figure swing down fromthe framework of the airship above their heads. A light rope ladderunrolled and fell upon the upper deck, or platform of the _Snowbird_, and the man came down this ladder, hand under hand, and in half a minutestood in their midst. 

He was a small, gray man--gray suit, gray hair and close-croppedmustache, and gray face, colorless and deeply lined. His age would behard to judge. 

"The _Snowbird_; eh?" he observed, looking sharply from one to the otherof the five passengers of the huge flying machine. "_You_ are AmosHenderson, sir?" he pursued, nodding to the professor. "I believe I haveheard your name before. Professor Henderson, whose scientificdiscoveries have made us all marvel of late?"

"I am Professor Henderson, " said the old gentleman, quietly. "And Ican vouch for my companions. These boys, my adopted sons, have builtthis flying machine, and we are bound for Alaska. "

"Indeed! Then I fear I have caused you some slight trouble, not to saydelay, " said Mr. Ford. "We revenue agents are extremely anxious tooverhaul and interview all aviators along the border. You understand?"

"I believe that you have cause to suspect certain flying machinesoperating between the Canadian towns and Maine settlements, " admittedProfessor Henderson. "Quite right. And if our suspicions are based onfact, innocent flying men like yourselves may well beware of the fellowswe are after. To be frank with you, " pursued Mr. Ford, "a band ofdesperate smugglers are operating by aid of one or more aeroplanes. And piracy in the air may soon became as frequent--and as grave a perilto innocent aviators--as was ever piracy on the Spanish Main. "

"It seems impossible!" said the professor. "Who are these desperatecriminals?"

"A man named Bainbridge is at their head. He was originally a diamonddealer and finally was caught smuggling gems into the port of New York. He had to pay a huge fine and served a term at Atlanta for that crimeand since then has sworn to be revenged upon the Government thatpunished him. 

"We learned of late that he was operating on the Mexicanborder--bringing into the States diamonds that had paid no duty--byaid of a flying machine. But the uprising in Chihuahua and along theborder made his work exceedingly dangerous, and he was driven awayfrom that part of the country. 

"Now we believe he has joined forces hereabout with ancient enemiesof the Federal officers. At least, there is a strange aeroplane reportedfrom both sides of the border, and some fine gems have appeared in thehands of certain suspected dealers in Maine, and as far south as Bostonand Providence. 

"Bainbridge is known to be a desperate man. Look out for him, Professor. If you are hailed by another machine, better keep away from it, " andthe secret service agent laughed. "Had I been in your place I wouldnot have halted on this occasion. You certainly can outsail any airshipI have ever seen operated. "

Mr. Ford seemed quite satisfied that our friends were law-abiding andhe ascended to his waiting craft in a few moments; and the _Snowbird_started onward again through the starlight. 

But the warning of the special agent had impressed the boys as wellas the professor. Andy Sudds refused to lie down again, although Jackand Mark continued to operate the flying machine. The old hunter satwith a rifle in his hand for the rest of the night. But the professorwent to bed. 

An hour after midnight a cloud from the west completely masked themoon and the whole heavens became misty. This cloud brought both windand rain, and low upon its edge the lightning played fitfully. 

"There will be a heavy tempest about dawn, " Andy promised the boys. "I have seen a thunderstorm gather like this before. " "But not whileyou were in a flying machine, " chuckled Jack. 

"No, sir. But on a mountain top a tempest looks much the same. "

Mark, while at the controls, had scaled the machine down the air-waysuntil they were not more than fifteen hundred feet from the earth. Butthe boys decided to let the storm gather beneath them, and so shot the_Snowbird_ up again until the indicator registered three thousand feet. 

Near the earth it must have been very warm and sultry; but up here itwas down to freezing, and the party were all warmly dressed. The cloudssoon hid the whole earth from them and the great flying machine traveledin space, with the star-lit heavens above and the rolling mass ofvapor, streaked now and then with lightning flashes, beneath. 

The deafening roll of the thunder awoke Washington White from a shortnap, and the darkey was not at all sure that he was safe from thelightning bolts. 

"How d'I know dem bolts won't fly disher way?" he demanded of the boyswhen they tried to reassure him. 

"Why, the earth attracts the electric bolt, and that attraction ismuch stronger than any the _Snowbird_ may have for the electricityin the clouds, " Mark told him. "I don't know erbout dat, " grumbledWash. "An' if jest one o' dem crazy lightning bolts should take itinto its haid ter segastuate eround disher flying merchine--biff! bang!dat would be erbout all. Dere would be a big bunch o' crape hung onWash White's do', suah as you is bawn, boy!"

But although the roar of the thunder and whining of the wind nearlydrowned other sounds in and about the flying machine, save for afreshening of the gale the _Snowbird_ was at first but littledisturbed by the tempest which raged with such fury a thousand feetbelow. 

Suddenly Mark caught sight of something moving across the red streakin the eastern sky--the light that warned them of the approach of thesun. 

"What is that--a huge bird?" he demanded of Andy Sudds, pointing thismoving figure out to the hunter. 

Andy's eyes were very keen, for he was used to sighting along a rifleand gazing over long distances in search of game. But he, too, thoughtthe object must be a bird. 

"I declare, I didn't know birds flew so high, " said Mark. "It must bean eagle. No other fowl could fly so high. "

"'Nless it were Buttsy, " remarked Washington, _sotto voce_. Theprofessor was still asleep and the boys paid little attention to theflying object for some time. It was coming up behind the _Snowbird_, andthey had no occasion to look behind. 

The sun arose, angry and red, while the thunder continued to roll belowthem, and the crackling of the electric flashes was like minute guns. The _Snowbird_ was winging its way along at about seventy-fivemiles per hour. Wash had gone into the covered galley to preparebreakfast. Jack was still in the operator's seat. 

Suddenly Andy Sudds uttered a loud shout. A huge shadow was thrownathwart the flying _Snowbird_. Some object was hovering over themand they cast their eyes upward, at Andy's cry, to see another aeroplaneswooping down directly upon them. 

It was not the machine manned by Secret Service Agent Ford and hiscompanion, but a much heavier and more rapid vehicle. And until itsshadow fell across the _Snowbird_, the boys had had no warning of itsapproach. 

At first glance it was apparent that the strange aircraft intendedmischief. It was shooting down from a higher level, its sharp bow aimeddirectly for the _Snowbird_. Jack pushed over the switch and raised thebow of their own ship. She leaped forward and began to slant upward, too. 

But instantly the course of the stranger was deflected to meet thischange in the movement of the _Snowbird_. She had the advantage of theboys' craft, too. She evidently proposed to retain her overheadposition, and as she shot in closer, Jack was constrained to descendagain to escape collision with her. 

"Keep away!" he shouted through the transmitter, and at his cry, andthe bustle about him, the professor was awakened. 

But no reply came from the strange aeroplane, although they could seeseveral figures moving upon her. It swooped down upon them, and Jackhad to deflect his planes again and slant downward toward thestorm-cloud. 

And then he saw the other peril. He was between two great dangers. Ifthe reckless aviator tried to ram him from above, his only escape wasby plunging through the tempest which raged just below them. 

Down came the stranger upon the _Snowbird_ again. She surely meantthem ill--she was bent on their destruction. And meanwhile the thunderroared below and the crackling of the lightning was almost incessant. 

Jack Darrow had to decide quickly--and he must determine which of thetwo risks to take. 

CHAPTER VI

ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND

Speedy as the _Snowbird_ was, she could not get out from under theshadow of the strange aeroplane. That was driven at a sharp angle downupon the boys' flying machine, and it seemed to all those in the lower'plane that a collision was imminent. 

The thunder fairly deafened them all. Around them rolled the mists andthe wind shrieked through the stays of the aeroplane and shook thestructure like a dog worrying a bone. 

Down they fell, and in an instant the rushing rain, emptied in a torrentfrom the clouds, swept about them, saturating their garments and beatingthe flying machine itself toward the distant earth. 

During the next few moments Jack Darrow, Mark Sampson, and theircompanions were in as grave peril as had ever threatened them in theireventful lives. 

The torrents of water all but beat the flying machine to the earth--andto be dashed down from such a height spelled death to all anddestruction to the aeroplane. 

Jack, however, had been taught to keep cool in moments of danger, andhe realized that their lives depended entirely upon his handling ofthe great machine. They had descended below the level of the storm-cloudat a most inopportune moment. They were caught in the midst of averitable cloudburst. 

Shaken desperately by the wind, and beaten upon by tons upon tons ofwater, it was a wonder that the great planes, or wings, of the flyingmachine were not torn away. All Jack could do was to guide her thebest he could, and all his companions could do was to cling to a slenderhope and endure the lashing of the gale. 

But Jack Darrow did not propose to be cast to the ground--and theflying machine and his friends with him--without some further attemptto avert such a catastrophe. 

After the first breath-taking rush of the storm he diverted the courseof the machine again upward. He could scarcely see, the driving rainwas so blinding; nor could he observe the indicators before him withany clearness. But he was quite sure that the enemy that had drivenhim down into the storm-cloud could see the _Snowbird_ no better than hecould see that strange aeroplane that had threatened to collide withthem. 

So he shot the _Snowbird_ upward again at a long slant, and put on allthe power of the engine to drive her onward. The flying machine shookand throbbed in every part. The power of the engines would have drivenher, under other and more favorable conditions, at more than one hundredmiles an hour--possibly a hundred and twenty-five. 

Jack himself was almost blinded and deafened. He was strapped to hisseat, so could give both hands to the work of manipulating the levers. He brought the _Snowbird_ through the cloud and--with startlingsuddenness--they shot out of the mass of rolling moisture and into thesunlight of the dawn. But they were far off their course. 

The change from the chaos of the storm-cloud to the almost perfectcalm of the upper ether was so great that it was almost stunning. Fora minute none of the five spoke a word. 

Then it was Mark who shouted:

"There's that 'plane again, Jack I Look out for her!"

The enemy had missed them. She was some miles away, and although stillon a level above, at the pace the _Snowbird_ was now traveling it wouldtake a fast flying machine indeed to overtake her. 

The pursuit of the enemy (which they all believed to be the smuggler, manned by Bainbridge and his friends) was not kept up for long. Byeight o'clock the _Snowbird_ had dropped the other machine belowthe horizon, and the swift pace at which they had driven the _Snowbird_was rapidly bringing them once more toward Canada. 

The storm had broken, but the clouds still hovered below them. Theydescended about noon, passing harmlessly through the vapor which hadso long hidden the earth from them, and so came to within a thousandfeet of the ground, where they swung along at fair speed for somehours. 

They crossed the line, but did not descend until near St. Thomas. Theywent out of their way a good bit to land near this town on the shoreof the St. Lawrence, for the flying machine had been so shaken in itsstruggle with the thunderstorm that some repairs were needed. 

They descended in a field on the edge of the town, gave the farmer whoowned the place a five-dollar bill to allow the machine to stand onhis land, and then engaged him to drive Professor Henderson and theboys into town. 

While the professor saw the authorities and obtained a legal documentrecommending the exploring party to the good offices of allBritish-Canadian officers whom they might meet, the boys went to amachine shop to have a rod repaired. The party took supper with thefarmer, and an hour later the flying machine being pronounced by bothMark and Jack in perfect order, they got off amid the cheers of theonlookers, whose numbers were by that time swelled to almost fivehundred persons. 

It was long after dark and the moon had not risen. It was a cloudlessnight, however, and as the flying machine soared heavenward the voyagerscould look deep into the seeming black-velvet of the skies, picked outby the innumerable sparkling stars, and thought they had never seenso wonderful or beautiful a sight. 

As they cast their gaze downward, too, they beheld the torches at theCanadian farm rapidly receding, and then, in a few minutes, they wereflying over St. Thomas, where the lights twinkled, too. Then they shotover the broad, island-dotted bosom of the St. Lawrence River, and soon across country and town toward the vast Canadian wilderness. 

The professor and Andy had the watch and Jack and Mark went to bed. The excitement of the previous twenty-four hours had kept the boys up;but once they closed their eyes, they slept like logs all night. AndySudds relieved the professor now and then in the operator's seat, andthey did not call the boys until Washington White made breakfast atdaybreak. By that time the _Snowbird_ had passed Lake St. John, far tothe north and east, and was heading for Hudson Bay. The earth below themwas a checker-board of forest and field, with here and there a ribbon ofriver, and occasionally a group of farmsteads, or a small town. Suddenlythey were forced down, and had to remain many hours for repair workbefore ascending again. 

The ranges of hills--some of them dignified enough to be termed"mountains"--which they crossed necessitated their flying high. Theywere generally at an altitude of two thousand feet and the rarefiedatmosphere so far above the earth was cool, anyway. Since leaving St. Thomas, on the bank of the St. Lawrence, they had averaged eighty milesan hour, and before moonrise they were cognizant of the fact that theywere approaching a great sheet of water. 

"St. James Bay, the lower part of Hudson Bay, " Professor Hendersonexplained. 

Soon the moonlight shimmered upon the waves beneath them. Jack, whowas guiding the craft, deflected the wings and they slid down theairways toward the water. They traveled all night over this greatinland sea, at times so close to the surface that the leaping wavessprinkled them with their spray--for there was a stiff breeze. 

A gale broke in earnest over the Hudson Bay territory that day, anddespite the efforts of the voyagers they could not rise in the_Snowbird_ above the tempest. Had there been solid ground beneaththem they could easily have descended and remained upon terra firmauntil the storm was past. 

This gale was favorable to their course, but it gripped them in itsgiant grasp and hurled them on into the northwest at a speed thatimperiled the safety of the flying machine each moment. There was nosleep for any of the party now, and Washington White came pretty near(as Jack said) "making good his name in his face"--for if ever a darkeyof Wash's ebony complexion turned pale, the professor's servant didso at this juncture. 

On and on they were driven hour after hour. Scarcely a word was spokenthe entire time. There was no cessation of the gale. The great bodyof water was passed and they knew that there was land beneath themagain. But each time they tried to descend they found the storm nearthe earth-crust far heavier than at the upper levels. 

To descend through the belt of the storm might partially wreck theirflying machine and the professor knew, by the study of his recordinginstruments, that they were passing over an utter wilderness in whichno help could be obtained and from which, should they be wrecked, theycould not escape before the rigorous Arctic winter set in. 

Hour after hour they drove on. The speed of the _Snowbird_ at times, when driven by the full force of the gale, had mounted to one hundredthirty miles an hour. 

Great Slave Lake was far south of their route; yet the professor toldthem that, had it been clear, at the altitude they traveled, they couldhave seen and marked this great body of water. 

They actually crossed the Great Bear Lake and the Mackenzie River, however, and saw the ragged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, which herealmost touch the shores of the Arctic Sea. Blown on and on, with littlediminution of speed, it was not many hours before the _Snowbird_ wasflying over Alaskan wilds. The flying machine had kept closely to thecourse the professor had laid out for her when they left Maine. Theywere still headed for the slopes of the Endicott Range and the nativetown of Aleukan. 

The question paramount in all their minds, however, was this: Wouldthey reach their destination in safety?

CHAPTER VII

DROPPED FROM THE SKY

A thick mantle of fog masked the heavens; but beneath this thewind--traveling at great velocity--drove the ragged clouds likefrightened sheep across the pastures of the firmament. 

The moon and stars gave so little light that the earth seemed but avague and shadowy mass--nothing more. The wind shrieked in many voices, as though a troop of goblins raced through the air, or rode thestrangely formed and hurrying clouds. 

Driven on with the tumbling banks of vapor, as vaguely outlined in thegloom as the clouds themselves, was the great flying machine, whichthe wind buffeted and harried about as though against it Old Boreashad some special spite. 

Jack was in the operator's seat; but there was little to do but hangon to the steering wheel. The wind blew them as it listed. 

"I don't well see how anybody can sleep in this horrid storm, "complained Mark Sampson. "And the machine rocks so--ugh! I'm as sickas though we were at sea. " "And we are pretty completely 'at sea, '"chuckled the more volatile Jack. "I hope the professor knows where weare. _I_ don't!"

"And I don't see how he can tell, " grumbled his chum. 

"Pluck up your spirits, old man!" returned the older lad, but Markinterrupted him, still crossly:

"I hope I am as courageous as the next. We've done some funny stuntstogether, Jack Darrow--you and I and the old professor. But this capsthem all, I declare. It's a mystery to me how Mr. Henderson and AndySudds can remain asleep. "

"Well, they are both tired out, I reckon. They had a long watch--and_we_ slept, you know. "

"That was a long time ago, " grunted Mark, "It's pretty tough, I admit, " said Jack, when Washington White brokein with:

"Hi, yi! Whuffo' you boys be sech cowards? Is _I_ skeert? Huh!"

"You bet you're scared, " returned Jack, emphatically. "When we gotcaught in that flaw yesterday afternoon he wanted to jump out; didn'the, Mark?"

"Wash certainly tried to climb out, " rejoined Mark. "Well, den! dat showed I warn't no coward, " crowed the black man, though in a very shaky voice. "If I'd been scart', would I really havewanted ter jump? It was a might long way to de groun' right den, Iguess. "

Suddenly the Shanghai crowed loudly. "Tell yo' what!" cried the black man, scratching his head. "Dat roosterdone crow fo' company. "

"Company!" gasped Mark. "What does he think he hears up here--angels'wings? We're about as near being in the company of the celestial hostsas we'll ever be and remain alive, I reckon. "

"No, sah!" retorted Washington. "Dat Shanghai done know dat we is nearsome oder fow-el----"

"Up here in the air, Wash?" cried Jack. 

"Dunno whar dey is, " said the darkey, doggedly. "Dar he crows ergin!Dar is suttenly critters ob his kind nearby--yes--sah!"

It may have been the Shanghai's raucous tone that aroused Andy. Theold hunter suddenly appeared on the platform behind the operator'sseat, where the boys and Wash were clinging, and Andy brought his riflewith him. 

"Hullo!" he said. "Is the watch called?"

"I'm sorry if we awoke you, Andy, " Jack said. "There is nothing for youto do. "

"Nothing to shoot at; eh?" said the old hunter. "I reckon I ain't ofmuch use in a flying machine, anyway. Sort of 'up in the air'; ain'tI?"

"That's where we all are, " complained Mark. "And I, for one, wish wewere down again. "

"Guess we're all with you in that wish, old man, " agreed Jack. 

As he spoke, the wind-blown figure of the professor hove into viewfrom the small, sheltered cabin. He glanced at the various indicatorsand the compass in front of Jack. 

"We are all in safety yet; are we, boys?" he queried. 

"If you can call being driven helplessly before such a gale and abouta mile above the earth _safe_, " retorted Mark. 

"Surely not as high as that, " exclaimed Professor Henderson. He examinedthe instruments again, and said, quickly: "We are descending! How isthat, Jack?"

"Not with my knowledge, sir, " returned the boy aviator. "I think wehave remained on the thousand-foot level since crossing the RockyMountains. "

"I believe you have been faithful, my boy, " returned the professor, quickly. "But the earth is certainly less than three hundred feet belowus--ah! see that? The indicator registers 250 feet. Now 240!" "We arefalling!" cried Mark. 

"No!" said the professor. "The earth is rising. We are being blownagainst the mountainside. We must be within a few hundred miles, atleast, of our destination. Those are the Endicott Mountains yonder, "and he waved a hand at the darkness to the south of them. 

"Hark!" cried Andy Sudds, suddenly. 

There was a momentary lull in the wind. From below came the brokencrowing of a cock in answer to the Shanghai's challenge. Then a dogbarked. 

"There's a farmhouse down there, " said the hunter. 

"What did I tell yo'?" cried Washington White. "Dat Buttsy knows hisbusiness, all right!"

"We must descend, " commanded the professor. "Deflect the planes, Jack. Watch the indicator. Reduce the speed. Let us float down as easily aspossible. "

But, wrestling as the flying machine was with the wind, she could notdescend easily. She scaled earthward with fearful velocity. Theirrepressible Jack yelled:

"Go-ing down! We're going to bump hard in a minute!"

The aged professor and Andy Sudds showed no perturbation. Jack andMark had been through so many wonderful experiences with the professor, Andy, and the negro, that they were not likely to be panic-stricken. Yetall realized that death was imminent. 

The finger on the dial showed a hundred feet from earth, and stillthey descended. Fifty feet!

"Hold hard!" commanded the professor. "We'll be down in a minute. "

There seemed to be a break in the hurrying clouds. There was light inthe sky--the twilight of the Long Day, for they were far beyond theArctic Circle. 

Looking down they could dimly see objects on the earth--trees, a houseof some kind--several houses, in fact. 

And then suddenly there was added to their perils an unlooked-fordanger. Out of the murk which covered the earth below the flying machinesprang a point of light and the explosion of a gun echoed in theaviators' ears. 

A rifle bullet tore right through to the inside and passed between theprofessor and Andy Sudds. There were men with firearms below, and theywere firing point blank at the flying machine. 

CHAPTER VIII

PHINEAS ROEBACH, OIL HUNTER

As has been said, the boys and their older companions had been in manyperilous situations; but no adventure promised to end more tragicallythan this flight of the huge airship. The descent of the _Snowbird_, punctuated by the rifle shot below, seemed likely to be fatal to themall. 

"What kind of people can they be?" gasped Mark. "They are trying toshoot us. "

"Give me my rifle! I'll show 'em!" exclaimed the old hunter. 

"You'll do nothing of the kind, Andy, " commanded Professor Henderson. "Do not make a bad matter worse by yielding to your passions. "

A second shot was fired by those upon the ground; but the bullet wentwide of the mark. Jack shouted:

"We are drawing away from them. Look out! we all but hit that tree!"

"Steady, Jack, " admonished the professor. "We'll be down in a minute, my lads. Cling to anything handy. She will bounce some, but I believewe shall not be injured. " The calmness of the aged scientist wouldhave shamed the others into some semblance of order, were it needed;but both the boys were courageous, Andy Sudds did not know fear, andif Washington White was in a panic of terror, he did not get in theway of the others to hamper their movements. 

The _Snowbird_ was fluttering over the ground like a wounded bird, while so black were their surroundings that none of the party coulddistinguish anything of nearby objects. The clouds had broken butlittle, and only for a moment. 

"She's down!" suddenly shouted Mark Sampson, and the flying machinejounced on its rubber-tired wheels, and then struck the ground againalmost immediately. 

Mark leaped down on one side and Andy Sudds on the other. Instantly, relieved of their weight, the flying machine was carried on again andMark and Andy were thrown to the ground. 

Perhaps that was well, for several rifles were again fired behind themand they heard the bullets whistle above their heads. 

"Low bridge, Mark!" cried the old hunter, meaning for the boy to keepclose to the earth. "I've got my gun. "

"Don't fire on them, Andy, " responded young Sampson, remembering theprofessor's warning. "We don't know who they are or what they mean bytheir actions. "

"We don't want to be shot down without making any fight; do we?" criedAndy. 

"Let us escape without a fight if possible, " urged the cautious youth, feeling sure that Professor Henderson would approve of this advice. 

But the pounding of many feet approaching over the risingground--evidently, as Mr. Henderson had said, the foothills of themountain range--warned Mark and the hunter to keep still. In the partiallight they saw a group of tall men, all armed, running past them inthe direction the wounded _Snowbird_ had been blown. 

"Hush!" whispered Andy. "Indians!"

Mark had seen their long hair and beardless faces, and believed thehunter was right. The enemy were dressed in clothing of skins and werewithout hats. Yet Mark knew that the Indians of Alaska were muchdifferent from the savages of the western territories of the UnitedStates. He did not believe these Alaskan aborigines would attack whitemen. 

It was growing lighter about them every moment. The lad and the tallhunter arose and stood listening for a further alarm--or for some cryfrom their comrades in the flying machine. 

As the light increased they saw that they were in a grove of hugetrees. Somehow the _Snowbird_ had fluttered away through these forestmonarchs and was now out of sight. 

"I wonder what's happened to them?" gasped Mark. 

"Them Indians haven't attacked yet, " growled Andy Sudds. "If they beginto shoot we'll know which way to go, and we'll foller them. "

But the first sound they heard came from behind them. There was thecrash of heavy footsteps and a big man suddenly came panting up theslope. Cold as it was, his shirt was open at the neck, he wasbare-headed, and he had not stopped to pull on his boots when he arosefrom his bed. In his right hand he carried a battered "fish-horn, " andwithout seeing Mark and Andy he stopped and put this instrument to hislips, blowing a blast that made his eyes bulge and his cheeks turnpurple. 

"Hold on, Mister!" ejaculated the hunter. "What you got to sell? Orbe you callin' the cows?"

"Mercy on me!" cried the fat man, and in a high, squeaky voice thatseemed to be a misfit for his huge body. "I am sure I'm glad to meetyou. You must have just arrived, " and he squinted at the strangelyclad hunter and his boy companion, for Mark wore a helmet with ear-tabs. 

"We just landed, that's sure, " admitted Andy. "From an airship, Ifancy, " exclaimed the other. "That is what is the matter with my Aleuts, then. They never have seen such a thing as an airship, I'll be bound. Have they hurt any of your party?"

"I don't know, " Mark said, hastily. "If you are in command of thoseIndians, call them off, please. There are three of our party somewherewith the flying machine, and the Indians have been shooting at them. "

"I'll try it, " declared the man, instantly. "I can usually call themtogether with this horn, " and he raised it to his lips again and blewanother mighty blast. 

"I have had this bunch of Aleuts six months, " he explained, when hegot his breath again. "They are good workers, but as superstitious asyou can imagine. They are particularly shaky just now, for a numberof queer things have happened lately in these parts. There is a volcanosomewhere in action--we had a storm of ashes a week ago. And nightbefore last there was a positive earth-shock. "

"You seem like a pretty intelligent man, " grunted Andy Sudds, in hisblunt way. "What are you doing up here in this heaven-forsaken country?"

"Why, I am an oil hunter, " said the fat man, simply. "A _what_?"repeated Andy and Mark together. 

"Oil hunter. My name is Phineas Roebach, and I am in the employ of theUniversal Oil Company. I am here--as I have been in many lands--boringfor petroleum. You understand that my mission is semi-secret. If wefind oil here we shall obtain a grant from the Government, or somethinglike that. "

Just at that moment Mark Sampson was not particularly interested inthe odd-looking Mr. Roebach or his business. 

"Blow your horn again, sir, " he begged. "Call off your Indians. Theymay shoot our friends. "

"If your party is all dressed as peculiarly as yourself, young sir, "said Phineas Roebach, "my Aleuts could scarcely be blamed for takinga pot shot at them. "

Then he blew the horn mightily for the third time. 

CHAPTER IX

THE EARTHQUAKE

The long twilight which preceded full day had now grown so strong asto reveal matters more plainly about the spot where Mark and Andy Suddshad disembarked from the flying machine. They soon saw several objectsrunning through the grove toward them, and these objects proved to bethe returning Indians. 

There were half a dozen of them, and they were all armed with rifles. The moment they beheld the old hunter and the youth, with PhineasRoebach, they gave every indication of shooting, for they stopped andraised their rifles, pointing them at Mark and Andy. 

Mr. Roebach sprang between his Aleuts and his visitors and began toharangue them angrily in their own harsh dialect. However, his hugebody so entirely sheltered Mark and Andy that neither was much terrifiedby the Indians. Besides, the Maine hunter advanced his own rifle andcalculated he could do considerable execution with it while the redmen were hesitating. 

"They believed you all spirits of the air, " said the oil man, turningfinally to speak to his new friends. "They were much frightened. "

"Ask them for news of Professor Henderson and the others, " begged theanxious Mark. 

"They chased the crippled flying machine for some distance, but didnot find it. My horn bade them return, " replied Mr. Roebach. 

Even as they started to walk with the oil man and his sullen Indianstoward various shacks which they saw through the trees, and lower onthe mountain side, they heard a hail and looked up to see ProfessorHenderson, Jack Darrow, and the negro, Washington White, descendingthe mountain in their rear. 

"This is your party; is it?" demanded Mr. Roebach. 

"Yes, sir, " said Mark. 

"Bring them directly to my cabin. The Aleuts will not hurt you, nowthat they know we are friends. "

He hurried away, but Andy handled his rifle very suggestively and keptboth eyes on the red men. The latter, however, kept to themselves andonly stared at the crew of the _Snowbird_ with great curiosity. 

"Hurrah!" quoth Jack, when in earshot. "Here they are, safe and sound, Professor!"

"We have been just as afraid that something bad was happening to you, "Mark said, quickly. "Where's the machine?" "Your beautiful 'plane isbadly wrecked, Mark, my boy, " said Professor Henderson. "But I believewe shall be able to repair it in time. We are not, however, I feelsure, far from Aleukan. Do those men speak English?"

"Not much of it, I reckon, Professor, " said Andy Sudds. "But they havegot mighty nasty dispositions. If it wasn't for the fat man I reckonthey would jump on us. "

"He told us to follow along to his cabin, " Mark proposed. "I do notthink these Indians will touch us. "

"They'd better think twice about it, " said the belligerent Andy, pushingin between the professor and the Aleuts, as the whole party descendedthe mountain side toward the place where the oil man had pitched hiscamp. 

As they proceeded the light grew and the newcomers to Alaska identifiedobjects about them more clearly. Near at hand was the framework of aboring machine, or derrick. The professor began to notice a depositof ash that lay thickly on the ground in sheltered places. 

"How remarkable--how very remarkable!" he ejaculated. "One would thinkthere was a volcano in action very near here. "

Mark repeated what Phineas Roebach had said about the 'quake and thestorm of ashes. The professor began to rub his hands together and hiseyes twinkled. "I declare! I declare!" he repeated. "A seismicdisturbance in this locality? Ah! our visit to Alaska for Dr. Todd mayrepay us nobly indeed. "

Washington White's eyes opened very wide and he demanded:

"What's disher t'ing yo' calls 'sezmik', Professor Henderson? I suahdon't understand no sech langwidge. "

"He means an earthquake, Wash, " said Jack, as the professor paid noattention to the darkey's question. 

"Gollyation! is we goin' ter collek a _nearthquake_ along wid datchrisomela-bypunktater plant? And what good's a nearthquake w'en yougot him?"

This unanswerable question of the darkey's fell flat, for the partyjust then reached the huge, two-roomed log cabin in which PhineasRoebach made his headquarters. The "oil hunter, " as he called himself, appeared in a costume more fitted to the rigor of the weather. 

"Come right in, gentlemen, " was his cordial cry. "I have an Indianwoman here who can cook almost as well as white folks. At any rate, she can make coffee and fry bacon. This is Professor Henderson? Gladto meet you, sir, " and so went on, being introduced to the whole party. 

The professor immediately began to question the oil hunter regardingthe exact situation of his camp and learned that they were but a hundredand fifty miles from Aleukan. Phineas Roebach had a plentiful supplyof dogs and sleds, too, with a goodly store of provisions. If worsecame to worst and the flying machine could not be at once prepared, Mr. Roebach could supply the party with transportation to the Indiansettlement where Professor Henderson would meet his own supplies fromColdfoot and there could obtain other dogs and sleds to go on to thevalley where the _Chrysothele-Byzantium_ was supposed to flourish. 

"And the road from here to Aleukan is a good one at this season of theyear. More than half the way you travel over a glacier, and as theicefield has not been in motion for ages, it makes a fine highroad, "the oil hunter declared. 

They were discussing these matters during breakfast, and everybody wasfeeling particularly thankful over the safe descent of the aeroplane, when they were startled by a sudden, jarring shock. The cabin rockedand the boys, at least, felt a qualmishness in the pit of the stomachthat forbade further eating. 

"What's that?" demanded Andy Sudds. 

Washington White dropped the plate he was carrying to the table andran to the door. Before he could open it, the door was broken in bythe Indians, who came pouring in, loudly jabbering in their nativetongue. 

"A 'quake, sure enough!" ejaculated Phineas Roebach, getting quickly onhis feet. 

As he spoke, there was a repetition of the shock, only greatlyincreased. The oil hunter was thrown to the floor, as was everybodyelse in the house who was not seated. The roof of the cabin creakedand threatened to descend upon their heads. 

The Indians, uttering cries of alarm, scrambled out of the cabin fasterthan they came in. But they had nothing on Washington White _there_. Hewas the first person to get through the door. 

The white people followed the others in quick time. Jack and Mark feltthat if the cabin was going to fall, the open air was the safer place. Here, however, it seemed that they could not keep their feet. Theyreeled about like drunken men, and the forest trees bent and writhedas though an invisible wind tore at them, whereas the fact was thatthe wind had fallen and it was a dead calm. 

The air about them seemed to rock with the shock, there was a dullroaring sound which hummed continually in their ears, and the vibrationsof the earth continued. They were indeed experiencing a most seriousearthquake. 

CHAPTER X

THE BLACK DAY

The 'quake was over in a very few moments; the Indians and WashingtonWhite, however, cowered upon the ground for some time, crying out theirfear of what they considered supernatural phenomena. Jack Darrow andMark Sampson were not frightened in the same way as the darkey and theAleuts; nevertheless they were much shaken. 

Professor Henderson, however, displayed naught but the keenest interestin the scientific side of the happening. He clambered to his feet themoment he could stand, and observed:

"A most pronounced seismic disturbance--I should say earthquake. "

"I should say it was pronounced!" grunted Phineas Roebach. Being a fatman, he had fallen heavily. He was now rubbing himself tenderly wherehe had been bruised upon the hard ground. "This shock beats the onewe had the other day. "

"Not a shock, my dear sir, " said Professor Henderson, quickly. "Anearthquake is not, strictly speaking, a shock at all. Within the pasttwenty years science has learned to measure and to study earthquakes. If we have learned nothing else, we have learned that an earthquakeis _not_ a shock. "

"It tumbled us about a whole lot, then, Professor, " said Jack Darrow. "What would you call it, if not a shock?"

The phenomena being over for the time--as all could see--they returnedto the cabin to complete their meal. Roebach had said something soothingto his Indians, but they, like Washington White, preferred remainingin the open. Wash sat down beside the cage of his pet rooster, anddeclared to the boys when they urged him to come in again:

"No, sah! I ain't hongry, nohow. An' w'edder de professor am right datdese yer earthquakes ain't shockin', I kin tell yo' right now dat itshocked _me_! Nor I ain't gwine ter gib it no secon' chance ter tumbledat ruff down on ma haid--no, sah!"

Once more at the breakfast table, with the affrighted Indian squawwaiting upon them, the professor took up the topic of earthquakesagain, in answer to Jack's observation. 

"From the time of the ancients to the middle of the last century thephenomena of earthquakes were observed and described upon countlessoccasions, " he said. "Yet even Humboldt's 'Cosmos', published as lateas 1844, which summarized the then existing knowledge on the subject, did not suggest that earthquakes should be studied like other mechanicalmotions. 

"The effects of the great Neapolitan earthquake of 1857 were so studiedby Mr. Robert Mallet, " continued the professor. "He disabused his mindof all superstition, threw away all the past mysteries, and attackedthe problem from its mechanical side only. He believed that anearthquake was a series of shocks, or blows; but what he learned ledother and later students to the discovery that an earthquake is notmade up of blows at all. "

"That's all very well to say, " grumbled Mr. Roebach. "I'm pretty solidon my feet; but what was it but a shock that threw me down? Tell methat, sir!"

"Very easily explained, " said the scientist, smiling. "Which will thequicker take you off your feet--a blow from, say, Jack's fist, or yourstepping inadvertently upon a piece of glare ice? The ice, because itaffords you so insecure a footing, is likely to throw you easier thana pretty solid blow; eh?"

"True enough, " admitted the oil hunter, smiling at Jack. "AlthoughDarrow looks to be a pretty husky youngster. " "My point is this, "pursued the professor. "An earthquake is a continuous series ofintricate twistings and oscillations in all possible directions, upand down, east and west, north and south, of the greatest irregularityboth in intensity and direction. This writhing of the earth--of thevery foundations of the ground we walk on--caused our recent overthrow, "concluded Mr. Henderson. 

But the two boys were much more interested in the possibility of therebeing an active volcano in the neighborhood. The volcanic ash whichcovered the leaves and grass like road-dust assured them all that somehuge "blow-hole" of the earth was near. 

"I wasn't looking for no such things as volcanoes, " said Andy Sudds, seriously, "when I shipped for this voyage. I reckoned volcanoes blowedmostly in the tropics. "

"Alaska is a mighty field of active volcanoes, " declared ProfessorHenderson. "But they have been mostly active on the Pacific coast, andamong the islands which form a barrier between that ocean and BeringSea. Islands have been thrown up, while others have sunk there becauseof volcanic disturbances, within the last few years. "

"And I presume the earthquake and the volcanic eruption are closelyconnected?" suggested Mark. 

"We may safely believe that, " agreed the professor. "I am sorry myinstruments are not at hand. I sincerely hope none was damaged whenthe _Snowbird_ made such a bad landing. "

"And I'd like to give the machine an overhauling at once to see justhow badly she's damaged, " Jack Darrow said, hastily. "What do you say, Mark?"

"I'm with you, " returned his chum. "Can't we take Andy and Wash, Mr. Henderson, and go right up to that hollow and see what needs to bedone to the flying machine? Perhaps we can get off for Aleukan byto-morrow if we hustle. "

"If you boys think you can repair the damage done the machine in soshort a time, " agreed the professor, doubtfully. "But you know we mustat least arrive at Aleukan in time to meet the train from Coldfoot. If the _Snowbird_ cannot be launched again, we will have to seeif our good friend here, Mr. Roebach, can fit us out with dogs andmen. "

"That I'll do to the best of my ability, " said the oil man, rising. "But I'd better get out now and set my men to work. I am boring in anew place this week, and it looks promising. We are down a hundred andtwenty feet already. " They put on their outer garments and left thecabin. Although this was summer weather, there was a sting of frostin the air even as it neared mid-forenoon. But the sun was strangelyovercast, and that might account for the drop in temperature. 

"Disher day fo'git ter grow, " complained Washington, rolling his eyesuntil, as Jack suggested, they could see only the whites of them inthe dark, and the gleam of his teeth. "'Nstead o' bein' as sunshinyas it doughter be arter dat storm, it's suah growin' night fast! 'Tainta full-grown day, nohow!"

"Sort of stunted; is it, Wash?" chuckled Jack. 

Andy Sudds here spoke decisively:

"I been tryin' to make out what it was, like feathers, a-touchin' myface. But it ain't snow. _It's ashes_!"

"Volcanic dust!" cried Mark. 

"That volcano must be active again. That's what brought about theearthquake, " said Jack. "And the darkness. What we thought was a fogover the sun must be a cloud of ashes. "

"This ain't no place for us, " declared Andy. "I wish we were back atthat man's house. "

"Or could find the _Snowbird_ pretty soon, " added Mark. 

"We're going right for it--I'm sure of that, " said Jack, cheerfully. And scarcely had he spoken when the four suddenly clung to each other, rocking on their feet! Washington White shrieked aloud, fell upon hisknees, and it took but little to drag the boys and Andy Sudds with him. 

"The whole world is done rockin' ergain!" wailed the darkey. "Dis isde end ob de finish!"

The vibrations of the ground grew in strength. The air about themseemed to shake. The darkness was so intense that Jack, holding ashaking hand before his face, could not distinguish its outline. Andall the time the volcanic ash drifted down through the writhingtree-tops, while the boys and their companions were unable to standerect. 

CHAPTER XI

THE WONDERFUL LEAP

Unlike the former trembling of the earth, this experience gave noimmediate promise of cessation. The world rocked on in awful throes--asthough it really was, as the black man feared, the end of all materialthings. Jack and Mark rolled upon the ground in the grove of hugetrees, clinging to each other's hands, but unable to rise, or to findtheir two comrades. 

A rising thunder of sound accompanied this manifestation, too. And, after some stricken minutes, the boys realized that it was thunder. 

With the earthquake and the storm of volcanic ashes, came an electricdisturbance of the atmosphere, the like of which neither of the boyshad ever dreamed. They had felt the "itch" of the electric currentjust before the 'quake. Now the hair on their heads rose stiffly likethat on the back of an angry cat, and when Jack and Mark chanced toseparate for a moment, and each put out their hands to seize the other, the darkness under the trees was vividly shot through for an instantwith the sparks which flew from their fingers. 

Washington White began to bawl terrifically at this display of"fireworks, " as he called it. 

His lamentations were well nigh drowned by the rolling thunder. Thislatter did not sound in ordinary explosions, or "claps, " but traveledin rapidly repeated echoes across the skies. The thick cloud of asheswhich obscured the sun and the whole sky was cut through occasionallyby a sword of lightning; but mostly the electricity showed itself ina recurrent, throbbing glow upon the northern horizon, not unlike somemanifestations of the Aurora Borealis. 

But even this uncertain--almost terrifying--light was of aid to theboys; Jack, at least, remembered very clearly the way to the wreckedflying machine, and of course the old hunter was not likely to losehis way in as black a night as ever was made. 

They struggled on between the intervals of pitch darkness, for thetrembling of the earth had again ceased. The visitation had been muchheavier than they had previously suffered. 

"The best thing we can do, " muttered Mark in Jack's ear, "is to fixup the _Snowbird_ and beat it away from here just as fast as wecan. This is altogether too strenuous a place for us, believe me!" "Ifwe only _can_!" responded Jack, secretly as worried as his chum. "This is a pretty fierce proposition, Mark. Just think of our bonny_Snowbird_ wrecked on her first voyage! It's mighty hard; eh, chum?"

But the duty before the two boys just then was to find the wrecked'plane and see what could be done with it. The thunder continued tomutter and the intermittent flashes of electricity helped them somewhatin finding the way to the spot where the _Snowbird_ had made herfinal landing. But the fall of volcanic ash continued and the darkness, between the lightning flashes, remained as smothering as before. 

They reached the spot, however--seemingly a small plateau on which thehuge trees did not encroach, giving them plenty of space for a flightif they were fortunate enough to get the _Snowbird_ in conditionfor such an attempt. 

There were both electric lamps and lanterns in the machine and Marksent Washington White to light every one while he and Jack went overthe wrenched mechanism. Andy Sudds stood guard with his rifle, or readyto lend a hand should the boys need him. 

The storm in the clutch of which the flying machine had traveled somany hundred miles had wrenched her not a little. And the two landingsshe had made on the mountainside had done her no particular good. Therewas a broken plane, any number of wires to splice, and bent rodsinnumerable. 

These were the more apparent injuries. But the more delicate machineryof the _Snowbird_ required a thorough overhauling. It was absolutelynecessary for them to have the use of a forge, and Jack had alreadylearned that such an article was among the oil hunter's possessions athis camp. 

They were a solid three hours putting to rights the machine andcorrecting the damage done to her smaller parts. Then, with severalrods to be straightened and the light framework of the broken plane, that must be put in the fire for a bit, the party started down themountain to Phineas Roebach's camp. 

The four had left the plateau where the _Snowbird_ lay and were justdescending into the forest, carrying two storage battery lamps withwhich the easier to find their way. 

There was no preliminary trembling of the earth or the air. There wasan unheralded clap of sound--a sharp detonation that almost burst theirear-drums. 

They did not fall to the ground; the earth, instead, seemed actuallyto rise and smite them!

A cataract of sound followed, that completely overwhelmed them. Theyrealized that the huge trees were swaying and writhing as though asudden storm-breath had blown upon them. Had a tornado swept throughthis wood no greater danger could have menaced them. Trees about themwere uprooted; many bent to the earth; some snapped off short at theground--great boles two and three feet through!

Jack and Mark, with Andy Sudds and the terrified Wash, would have beendestroyed within the first few seconds of this awful upheaval had itnot been for a single fortunate circumstance. When the cataclysm wasinaugurated the first shock drove the four into a sort of hollow walledabout with solid rock. Upon this hollow fell the first huge tree trunkof the flying forest--and it sheltered them instead of crushing themto death. 

The four had but small appreciation of this--of either their temporarysafety, or the perils that menaced them. Suddenly the thick air seemedto stifle them. They could neither breathe nor see. The lamps had beenlost when they were flung--like dice in a box--into the rock-shelteredhollow. 

As the huge tree fell across their harbor of refuge, they all lostconsciousness. 

What happened during the next few minutes--perhaps it was a quarterof an hour--none of the little party of adventurers ever knew. It wasJack who first aroused. 

The whole world seemed still shrouded in pitch darkness. But he couldbreathe without difficulty and he sprang to his feet with a peculiarfeeling of lightness as he did so. 

But then he stumbled over Mark, and his chum came up, too, ejaculating:

"What is it, Jack? What is the matter now?"

"You can search me!" responded the other boy. "If this sort of businesskeeps on I shall wish, with Wash, that we'd never come to Alaska. "

"You can wish it with me!" grumbled Mark. "Washington doesn't want toget back to Maine any more than I do right now, Jack. "

"We must complete the repairing of the _Snowbird_, " gasped Jack. 

"And where are the rods--and the plane frame? And where are the lights?"

They held on to each other in the darkness of this over-shadowed hollowand neither boy was willing to speak for a moment. Then Andy Suddsstaggered to them. 

"I've lost my gun!" he ejaculated, with a quaver in his voice that wasquite surprising. 

"And we've lost our lamps; but we'll find 'em, Andy, " said Jack Darrow, curiously enough becoming leader of the expedition right then, insteadof the man. It wasn't that the old hunter was frightened; merely, hedid not know what to do in this emergency. 

"Do you notice--?" began Jack, seriously, and then stopped. 

"Do I notice what, son?" responded Andy. 

"I don't see how you can notice anything without a light, " interruptedMark querulously. 

This statement seemed to arouse Jack's faculties completely. He didnot continue his remark, but said:

"That's our first job; isn't it?"

"What's our first job?" asked the hunter. 

"To get a light. We can't find the flying machine, nor get back toRoebach's camp, without light. Why, it can't be more than mid-afternoon, yet it's as dark as a stack of black cats in a coal-chute. "

"And that's where I feel as though I'd been, " declared Mark. 

"Where?"

"Fighting the cats in the coal-hole. Ouch! I'm lame and sore all over. "

"We're sure up against it, " repeated Andy. "But there must be some wayout, boys. "

"Light is the first requisite, " agreed Jack, more cheerfully. "Got anymatches, Andy?"

"Plenty of 'em in a corked flask. I don't ever travel without matches, son, " returned the old hunter. 

"But matches won't show us the way to Roebach's camp, " complained Mark. 

"Don't croak, old boy, " advised Jack. "Let's have that bottle ofcosmolene I saw you tuck in your pocket there at the _Snowbird_. "

"I was taking that to the professor. He said he would want it, " saidMark. "What's it good for?"

"You'll come pretty near seeing in a minute, Mark, " returned thequick-thinking Jack. "Here, Andy! let me have that woolen scarf youwear. You'll have to say good-bye to it--bid it a fond farewell. "

"I'm sort of friendly to that scarf, youngster, " said the hunter. "What's to be done to it?"

"It's going to become a lamp wick right here and now, " declared youngDarrow, promptly. "So! I've got the cosmolene smeared on it already. There! that's the last of it. Now a match, Andy. "

"Joshua!" grumbled the hunter. "It _is_ good-bye, I guess!" The matchflared up. Jack touched it to the greasy woolen cloth. It began to burnbrightly and steadily at once. 

"Now, you all hunt around for the things we dropped. If we can findthem we'll push out right away for the camp and the professor. Youknow he'll be worried about us, just as we are worried about him!"

With the light of the improvised torch flaring about them they sawwhat manner of place they were in. The huge trunk of the fallen treehad not entirely shut them in the hole. Mark got in position to climbout beside the tree-trunk. 

There was a small, tough root sticking out of the bank above his head. He leaped to catch it with one hand, intending to scramble out by itsaid. 

And then the very queerest thing happened to him that could be imagined. The spring he took shot him up through the hole like an arrow takingflight. 

He never touched the root, but over-shot the mark and disappeared witha loud scream of amazement and alarm into the outer world. 

CHAPTER XII

THE GEYSER

"Somebody grabbed him!" shouted Andy Sudds. 

"Oh, lawsy-massy-gollyation!" yelped the frightened darkey. "MassaMark done been kerried up, suah 'nuff! I tole youse disher was de endob de worl'. "

But Jack, followed by the old hunter, sprang to the opening. How lightthey were upon their feet! The experience of moving shot this surprisingthought through Jack Darrow's mind:

"I'm as light as a feather. I have lost half my weight, I declare IHow can that be possible?"

Andy Sudds was evidently disturbed by the same thought. He cried:

"Somebody holt onto me! I'm going up!"

He did actually bump his head upon the tree trunk above them. But thenext moment Jack scrambled through the opening, light and all, andcame out upon the open ground. 

"I'm here, Jack! I'm here!" cried Mark. "But what's happened to me?""Whatever it is, it has happened to us all, " returned his chum. "Iseem to have overcome a good bit of the law of gravitation. Never feltso light in my heels in all my life before. "

"What can it mean?" whispered Mark in his chum's ear. "It's magic!"

"You've got me, " admitted Jack. "I'm not trying to explain it. But Iknow that the air pressure on me isn't as great as it was. I feel likewe did when we were on the moon. "

"Something awful has happened, " suggested Mark, his tone still worried. 

"We can be sure of that, " Andy Sudds said. "What shall we do?"

"Find that stuff we were carrying and get back to the professor withit, " said Jack, briefly. "Here! I see the storage battery lamp--or, one of them at least. "

Mark at the same time stooped to pick up two of the lost rods. Jackfound the lamp to be in good order and gave it to Andy. The torch wasrapidly becoming exhausted. 

"Come, Washington, " urged Jack, "you hunt around, too. We must findthe parts of the airship we dropped. If we don't find them we'll_never_ get away from this place. "

"And is we gotter go in de _Snowbird_, Massa Jack?" queried the darkey. "Has we jest _gotter_ go in dat flyin' contraption? Gollyation! dischile hoped de walkin' would be good out oh Alaska. He an' Buttsy jesterbout made up deir minds dat dey wouldn't fly no mo'. Fac' is, I hadsome idea ob clippin' Buttsy's wings so dat he couldn't fly no mo'!"

"You can walk if you want to, " said Mark, crossly; "but I want to getaway from this part of the country just as soon as ever I can. If theflying machine was ready I'd only wait long enough to get the professorand then we'd start. "

"Guess we're with you there, Mark, " agreed his chum, emphatically. 

Meanwhile they were all scrambling about for the parts of the machinethat had escaped them when the awful blast had knocked them into thehole and deprived them of consciousness. Fortunately none of the missingparts was very small and in twenty minutes of close scrutiny everypiece was assembled. They did not find the second hand lamp, however. 

"Now we must hurry back to the professor, " Jack urged. "I know he willbe dreadfully worried. "

"Do you notice that it's getting lighter, boys?" remarked Andy Sudds. 

"I believe you!" cried Mark. "The ash has stopped falling, too. "

"I know that the air is a whole lot clearer, " rejoined his chum. "Andit's colder--or is it rare? Doesn't it seem like mountain air, Mark?"

"We've been half-stifled for so long I reckon the change to purer airis what makes it seem so peculiar, " returned his friend. 

Yet Mark was puzzled--indeed they all were more or less disturbed bythe strange feeling that possessed them. Unless Washington White wasan exception. The darkey went along blithely despite his expresseddistaste for their surroundings, and as they came to the lower end ofthe grove of big trees, he began to run. 

It had grown lighter all the time as they advanced. The cloud that hadhidden the sun seemed to be rolled away like a scroll. The party couldsee all about them. The ashes lay from two to eight inches deep on theground. Plants and shrubs were covered with the volcanic dust, and itwas shaken from the trees as they passed. 

Washington White bounded along like a rubber ball. He came to theplateau that overlooked the sheltered camp of the oil hunter. As thedarkness retreated across the valley, the derrick and the shantiesbelonging to Phineas Roebach's outfit appeared. 

Suddenly several gunshots rang out in succession, and the soundsstartled the boys and Andy. Wild cries likewise arose from the valley. The commotion was at the camp. 

"The professor is in danger!" cried Andy Sudds, and began to run. 

His first leap carried him twenty feet; his second took him over afallen tree-trunk six feet through. 

"By Joshua!" ejaculated the startled hunter. "I've got springs in myshoes; ain't I?"

"What can it mean, Jack?" panted Mark, as the boys hurried on, sideby side. 

Jack Darrow had no answer to make. He was as amazed as his companions, and perhaps a little frightened as well. 

They hurried after Andy and Wash; but the latter was far ahead. Therewas a second volley of gunshots and at that moment Wash came to theverge of the steep descent to the camp. 

He beheld some half dozen Indians--all swart, lank, fierce-lookingbucks--just at the point of rushing the oil borer's hut. 

It was no time for explanations, nor for hesitancy. Wash, like theothers behind him, believed that the Indians were making an attackupon their master, and the first thought of all was that ProfessorHenderson was with the oil man, and in peril. 

"Gollyation! Git erway from dat dar door!" bawled Washington. The blackman was as timid as a fawn as a usual thing; but he was devoted to theold professor and he had that feeling of gratitude for Mr. Hendersonthat overcame his natural cowardice. When the Indians, without givinghim a glance, rushed at the door, and a single shot from the half-openedwindow missed them by ten feet, Wash uttered another yell and sprangto reach the descending path. 

But this strange lightness of body that had overtaken them all duringthe past hour, played Wash a strange trick. Instead of landing a fewfeet down the steep way, he cast himself fairly into the air, twentyfeet out from the hillside, and sailed down upon the startled Indianslike some huge black buzzard. 

The red men glanced up over their shoulders and beheld the flying man. The sight seemed to terrify them. With loud cries they started to run;but two of them could not escape the flying black man. 

Wash landed sprawling upon their shoulders bearing both Aleuts to theground. The door of the cabin was dashed open and Phineas Roebach ranout and seized the two red men before they could scramble up. Theothers were streaking it for the woods as fast as they could travel. 

"Gollyation!" quoth Washington White. "Has dem rapscallawags doneharmed de ole perfesser?"

"I am perfectly safe, Washington, " said Professor Henderson, appearingat the door of the cabin. "And here are the boys and Andy. I am relievedto see you all alive again--I really am. "

"Ain't this been a gee-whizzer of a storm?" queried the oil man, holdingthe two Aleuts at arm's length. 

Already the boys and Andy were tearing down the steep path. Theytraveled like goats--as surefooted and as light upon their feet. Professor Henderson watched their career in evident interest. Then, gingerly, trying the feat curiously, the old gentleman sprang for asmall boulder beside the cabin. He leaped entirely over it. 

"Light! Light as air!" he murmured. "This is a most puzzlingcircumstance. "

"Now, you fellows, " growled Phineas, urging the two Indians along tothe boring machine. "You'll get to work. I don't care if your friendshave run off and left you to do it all alone. I tell you we've nearstruck oil. I know the signs. " Then he gabbled at them a bit in theirown language and the Aleuts took hold of the heavy bar by which theearth-auger was turned. "They left the job--the whole of them--whenthat last clap came, " he explained to the boys. 

But Jack and Mark were not much interested in the oil hunter's affairs. Only Jack remarked that he thought the fat man had been foolish to armthe Aleuts, or allow them to be armed. The Indians had evidently quitegone off their heads. 

"They believe that we are spirits of the air, " Professor Hendersontold his friends. "That we are evil spirits. And I guess that Washingtonflying down upon them as he did will clinch that belief in their minds. "

"Did you ever hear of anything like it before in all your days, Professor?" cried Jack. "Why, we can all jump like deer. I never sawanything like it. "

Before the professor could reply there came a shout from the directionof the oil man's derrick. The two Aleuts, with their driver, had beenworking only a few moments at the auger. But perhaps the tool, so fardown in the earth, had been ready to bite into the gas-chamber. Therewas a rumble from beneath that suggested to all that another 'quakewas at hand. Then the Indians and the fat man started away from thederrick on the run. 

The auger and piping shot out of the hole like stones driven by acatapult. Following the broken tools was a column of gas, gravel, waterand mud that rose two hundred feet in the air. The earth trembled, andsquawking like frightened geese, the Aleuts took to the tall timber, following the trail of their more fortunate comrades who had gottenaway before. And they were not alone in their fright. The white menwere likewise amazed and troubled by the marvelous geyser. It was asthough the oil man had bored down to the regions infernal. 

CHAPTER XIII

NATURE GONE MAD

The fat man came panting to the group surrounding Professor Henderson, just as fast as he could move his feet. And never before had the boys, or the professor, or Andy, or the black man beheld such an apparentlyheavy man get over the ground at such speed. 

"A very mysterious thing, " the professor was saying again--and he didnot mean the roaring, spouting geyser that was shooting gas and debrisa couple of hundred feet into the air. 

Nor did he have time then to explain what seemed so mysterious to him. The descending debris threatened them all, and although they retiredin a more dignified way than had the Indians from the vicinity of thespouting monster, they were all more or less disturbed by this newphenomenon. 

Stones weighing from ten to twenty pounds were projected into the air, some of them crashing through the roof of the cabin when they descended. The mud and water grew into a pool, then a lake, completely surroundingthe spot where the derrick had stood and where the geyser continuedto spout. 

"We surely must move out, " the oil man said, in much perturbation. "Myshop yonder seems to be a target for those rocks. There goes another!"

"And we have got to use a forge to weld and straighten these damagedrods!" Mark cried, worriedly. 

"Sorry, boy. I don't believe any of us will be able to get at my forgetill this shower of missiles stops, " said Phineas Roebach. 

"What needs to be done to the flying machine?" asked the professor, briskly. "Are you sure it can be repaired, Mark?"

"Very sure, sir, " replied the boy. 

"And you, Jack?" repeated Professor Henderson. 

"We could fix it up all right before midnight, " declared the other. "But we must have a forge. "

"This geyser will stop playing after a bit, we will hope, " said theprofessor, encouragingly. "If the flying machine is not past repairwe need not worry. Nor need you, Mr. Roebach. We can all get away fromthis region if it becomes necessary. "

"Ma goodness!" gasped Washington White, who had listened to this speechwith his mouth ajar. "Don't you consider, Perfesser, dat dere haserbout 'nuff happened yere fo' ter make it seem quite necessarious datwe evacuate de premises sorter promscuous an' soon like? Why, I donewas sure de end ob He finish was at hand when dat las' big eart'quakehit us--I suah did!"

"I must say I don't care to linger around here myself, " muttered Andy. 

"We must not lose our courage, " said the professor. "Never before haveI been in a position to study seismic disturbances so closely. I onlyregret I have not with me here the instruments I brought in the_Snowbird_. And we must somehow learn the location of that volcanowhich is in eruption. "

"It's all right to learn the location of it, " whispered Mark to Jack. "But if we learn that we'll be pretty sure to fly in the oppositedirection--what do you think?"

"Believe me, " said Jack, "I've got enough. The old professor is allright, but he doesn't think about danger when his interest in anynatural phenomena is aroused. "

The roaring of the geyser was a most unpleasant sound and the upheavalof the stones was more than unpleasant--it threatened danger to them. The vicinity of the oil-boring had been exceptionally free from smallstones; but in half an hour one might have picked up a two-horsecartload weighing from ten to twenty pounds each. 

Washington had run in and saved Buttsy in his cage, and they had allretired now to the little plateau from the verge of which Washingtonhad made his famous leap to the backs of the two Indians. PhineasRoebach had released the dogs from the shed where they had beenconfined. There were twenty of the animals--three or four teams--fierceand intractable brutes as a usual thing, unless under the sharp controlof their Indian drivers. But now they came whining and crouching tothe feet of the human beings grouped together on the plateau. 

The evening was growing clear; but the geyser continued to roar likethe exhaust of some mighty engine and to throw off filth andevil-smelling gas. Professor Henderson stood there, wrapped in hisfurs, and penciled notes in his book with a grave enjoyment of thescene that made his companions wonder. 

But Andy Sudds read signs other than those of which the professor madenotes. Jack saw the old hunter watching the sledge dogs with a puzzledfrown wrinkling his brow. 

"What's the matter with you, Andy?" queried the youth. 

"Them dogs, " declaimed the hunter. 

"What about them?" "They're plumb scart. All this disturbance andmystery has got in on them. They act just like they were seeing spooks. "

"Spooks!" repeated Jack in surprise. "Do you mean to say dogs can seeghosts?"

"All dogs can smell out when things is going to happen, " declared AndySudds. "They're better prophets than old women, you bet you! And thesedogs act to me as though we hadn't come by the worst of our troubleyet. "

Oddly enough it was Professor Henderson himself who took up thesuggestion that more trouble was in the offing. 

"It is my opinion, Mr. Roebach, " he said, to the oil man, "that youhad better remove such possessions as you can from this valley at once. And put your dogs somewhere so that they cannot run away like yourIndians. If we are balked in attempting to repair the flying machine, these dogs and sleds are what we must depend upon. "

"To escape from this country, you mean, sir?" asked Mark. 

"To reach Aleukan and the valley where the _Chrysothele-Byzantium_ is tobe found, " replied the professor, promptly. 

But it was to run the chance of a rain of death to go down into thebasin where the shop and cabin were situated. Further up the hillsidethe dogs' quarters had been built, and the sleds were there, too. Theoil man and Andy Sudds looked at one another. 

"All the stores are in the far end of the cabin, " grunted Roebach. "And you can see what that geyser is doing to the shed where the toolsare. There goes another stone through the roof!"

"If we could only get hold of that portable forge, " said Mark. 

"And that is what we _must_ get, " exclaimed Jack. "Is the door of thatshanty locked, Mr. Roebach?"

"It's nothing but a skin door, " replied the oil man. "But it's at thefar side--fronting that old mud-slinger. Did you ever see the beat ofthat? _That_ stone must have weighed fifty pounds. "

But Jack Darrow noticed a certain fact. That was that the debris fromthe spouter was not shot so high as at first. Therefore, it was notbeing spread abroad so far. 

Only small stones, now, were dropping around the tool shed. And therear wall of the shanty was made of the most flimsy material. 

Suddenly he slipped down to one side and got upon the level of thevalley. Nobody but Mark noticed his movements for a minute, and to himJack had given a warning glance. 

The boy had crossed to the back of the tool-shed before the men of theparty noticed his absence from the knoll. 

"Look at that reckless fellow!" ejaculated the professor. "Come backhere, Jack!"

But Master Jack was already at the shed. He tore away a part of therear wall in a moment. The mud rained down upon him, but fortunatelyno rock came his way. 

There was light enough yet for him to see inside the hut. Andy Suddshad already started after Jack, and when the latter dragged the smallforge out of the shelter, the old hunter picked it up, flung it uponhis shoulder, and trotted back to the highland. 

"Come away! Come away, Jack!" cried the professor again. 

But the youth stopped long enough to obtain a sledge hammer and othertools that he knew they should need. As he ran from the hut two stonesshot out by the geyser crashed through the roof; but he escaped allinjury. 

He was plastered with mud from head to foot, however, when he regainedthe high land. 

"It was worth it, " Jack declared, laughing, when he was safe. "I wantto get away from this neighborhood just as quick as we can. And ifwe can fix the _Snowbird_ let us do it this very night and take ourflight for other climes. We don't know when another earthquake orvolcanic eruption will occur. "

"Very true, my boy, " admitted the professor, with a sigh. "At least, we will endeavor to repair the damage done to your flying machine atonce. But there is much going on here that interests me. "

Andy and Jack set up the forge and in a few minutes they had a glowingfire in it. Then the boys set to work welding the broken rods andstraightening those that had become bent. 

Meanwhile Mr. Roebach hauled out his sled and whipped the dogs intoline so that he could gear them up. The canines acted badly becausethey were more used to their Indian masters. When the boys had donetheir work, however, the oil man was ready to transport them all upthe mountainside to the plateau where the _Snowbird_ lay. 

His cabin was by this time riddled by the flying stones and everythingin and about it was plastered with mud. It would have been foolhardyindeed to attempt to get at the provisions. 

"You see, " Mark said, "we are forced to get away in the _Snowbird_at once, or to escape to some town where we can get food. There isn'tmuch left of our stores on the flying machine. " "And what will Mr. Roebach do about his dogs? They must be fed, " said Jack. 

"He'll have to abandon them if he goes with us on the _Snowbird_, "returned his chum. 

It was now the long twilight of the Arctic evening. None of the partyhad eaten since breakfast and they felt the need of sustenance. Ifnothing else, this need of food would have hurried the party on totheir destination farther up the mountainside. 

As they advanced the roaring of the mud geyser diminished. The professorcontinued to be much interested in the condition of Nature about themas they climbed the hill. The uprooted trees, and the huge trunksbroken off by the final upheaval of the earth, made the old gentlemanlook very serious indeed. 

"There has been a mighty change in the face of Nature, " he saidthoughtfully. "You boys were saved from death by a miracle, I have nodoubt. "

"We were all knocked senseless for a time, " Mark told him. 

"Indeed? And so were we at the camp. All of us lost consciousness. Dear, dear! what happened during those minutes that we were allunconscious? Something of the greatest importance--some great changetook place that now we can scarcely understand. " "And what do you makeof that over yonder?" queried Jack, suddenly pointing toward thenorthern horizon. 

A deepening glow had appeared in that direction. Rapidly it increaseduntil there appeared above the horizon the edge of a huge disk. Itslight was mellow like the moon's; but whoever heard of the moon risingin the North?

"What can that possibly be, Professor?" cried Mark as they all gazedin wonder at the rapidly increasing body rising into complete view. 

Professor Henderson shook his head slowly. For once he was surely ata loss to explain a scientific phenomenon. The huge globe, evidentlyreflecting palely the sun's light, mounted upward more rapidly thanthe moon ever crossed the heavens. 

"All nature has gone mad!" gasped Professor Henderson at length. "Havewe discovered a new celestial body? I never heard of such a thing--sonear to us, too! Come, hurry on, boys. Let me get and mount thetelescope. This new mystery must be solved. "

CHAPTER XIV

ON THE WING AGAIN

There was no member of the party who was not amazed and disturbed bythe strange happenings of the last few hours. The earthquake andvolcanic disturbances, followed by the outburst of the geyser, and nowcapped by the appearance of a new and wondrous planet on the northernhorizon, were happenings calculated to make more than Washington Whiteshake with terror. 

What Professor Amos Henderson really thought about this new celestialbody it would be hard to tell. While the others chattered in theiramazement--after his first statement--he remained strangely quiet. 

But the moment the party reached the spot where the flying machinerested he went at once to the locker where he had stowed the verypowerful telescope that he had insisted upon bringing with them fromhome. With Washington's help he was an hour in setting up the telescopeand properly adjusting it, while the boys and Andy worked steadilyupon the repairing of the flying machine. Roebach had loosed his dogsagain and threw them the last bits of fish he had for them, and theywere fighting over the putrid flesh at one side. The oil man watchedthe repairs with interest. He had agreed to travel as far as Aleukanwith the party and there hire fresh Indians and sleds, hoping to findthese dogs on his return. He had to have assistants and provisionsbefore he could go on with his work for the Universal Oil Company. 

"Merely that yonder oil-shoot turned into a mud-bath doesn't feazehim, " chuckled Jack to Mark. "Earthquakes and volcanoes don't seem tobother that chap any more than they do the professor. "

"Just watch him now, " suggested Mark, suddenly. 

"Watch who--Roebach?"

"The professor, " explained Mark. 

The old gentleman was certainly deeply interested at that moment inhis study of the great pale globe that was rising toward the zenithso much more quickly than any moon that the boys had previously seen. The professor was crouched at the mirror of the telescope gazing intoit through the powerful lens. Suddenly he threw up his hands andstaggered back from the instrument, turning a pallid face upon hiscompanions. "What done happened yo', Perfesser?" cried WashingtonWhite. "What done skeer yo' now? Dis suah am de startlin'est place datwe ebber got into. Gollyation! Ain't dat moon risin', dough?"

"It is no moon!" declared the professor. 

"A most mysterious thing, " Mark said. "Is it some great planet out ofits orbit, sir?"

"It is a planet--of course it is a planet, " admitted the professor, going back to his telescope with eagerness. 

"And how light it is getting--almost like day, " said Jack. "No moonlightwas ever like this. "

"Why, we're not as far away from that planet as the moon is from theearth, " said Mark. "Suppose it bumps us?"

"All the more reason for our getting the _Snowbird_ into flyingshape, " responded Jack. "Maybe we'll be able to escape the bump!"

"You can laugh, " grumbled Mark. "But I don't like the look of thatthing. "

"Evidently the professor does not like it, either, " agreed Jack. "Seehim now. "

Professor Henderson was gazing first into the telescope and then drawingupon a paper before him. For several minutes he was thus engaged. Finally he beckoned the boys to him. 

"What do your eyes tell you that looks like?" he demanded of Jack andMark, pointing to the outline he had drawn upon the paper. 

The boys gazed on his drawing in surprise. It was Jack who exclaimed:

"Why, Professor, that looks a whole lot like an outline map of theHudson Bay Territory, Canada, and Newfoundland. There's the mouth ofthe St. Lawrence, sure! What are you doing?"

"I have been drawing, " said the gentleman, solemnly, "an outline ofwhat I see upon that luminous body floating there in space, " and hepointed a trembling finger at the strange planet. 

"Impossible!" cried Mark. 

"I do not think I am losing my mind, " said the professor, testily. "Itremains, however, that the outline of certain bodies of water and ofland upon that luminous globe seem to be the exact counterpart ofland-bodies and water-bodies on the Earth. "

"But what does it mean?" questioned Jack. 

"If I knew that, " grumbled the professor, returning to his instrument, "I should feel better satisfied. "

That some strange--some really wonderful--change had taken place intheir physical surroundings, too, there could be no doubt. But whatit was the boys could not imagine. Of one thing they were sure, however:The law of gravitation had been partly overcome. And a second fact wasdiscernible: There was a surprising rarity to the air they breathed, and had been since the fall of volcanic ashes had ceased. 

In lifting the heavier tools they handled it was noticeable that theyseemed lighter. And Andy Sudds surprised them all, when it becamenecessary to roll a log out of the way of the flying machine, by seizingthe heavy timber and lifting it with the ease with which one mightlift a small sapling. 

"We've all become strong men--professional strong men, " gasped Jack. "Wash is the champion jumper and Andy beats old Samson, I declare!What do you make of it, Mark?"

"If the professor cannot explain it, don't expect me to do so, " returnedhis chum. 

"It am de seriousest question dat has ebber come befo' us, " declaredWashington, looking wondrous wise. "Disher jumpin' has always been inma fambly, howebber. We had some great jumpers down Souf befo' de War. "

The boys hurried to finish the repairs. It was some time after midnightwhen they pronounced the _Snowbird_ again ready for flight. 

The professor had to be urged more than once to leave his telescope, however; and then he insisted upon setting it up on the deck of theflying machine. He would not discuss the situation at all; but hisserious visage and his anxious manner betrayed to them all that hewas disturbed indeed by the strange, pale planet he had so closelyexamined. 

Mr. Roebach turned loose his dogs again and climbed gingerly aboardthe flying machine. 

"I've never been up in the air, " he said, "and I must admit that I amsomewhat more afraid of a flying machine than I am of an earthquake. "

"No more earthquakes in mine, thank you!" cried Jack. "I'd rather sailon a kite than go through what we did yesterday. "

They had studied the chart and laid the course for Aleukan without anydifficulty. Now Jack strapped himself into the operator's seat and theothers took their places, Washington White stowing his rooster carefullyamidships as he had before. 

Jack started the motor and the _Snowbird_ began to quiver throughout herframe. He touched the lever by which the propellers were started. With awhir and a bound the flying machine left the earth. 

Never had it sprung into the air so quickly before. It shot up at asharp incline and was over the tree-tops in a breath. The indicatorregistered eighty miles an hour before the plateau was behind them. Then the pointer whirled to ninety--to a hundred--to a hundred fifteenmiles an hour, and both Jack, in the pilot's seat, and the othersgasped for breath. 

Faster than when shot out of Professor Henderson's catapult the_Snowbird_ winged her way into the northwest. Jack managed to keep heron an even keel. But he had the same feeling that he would have had, hadhe been hanging to the bit of a runaway horse. 

Indeed, the _Snowbird_ was practically out of his control. 

CHAPTER XV

A PLUNGE TO THE ICE

Jack Darrow was a youth less likely to be panic-stricken than his chum;but just as Mark Sampson had lost his head for a few minutes on theoccasion when the _Snowbird_ was tried out, so Jack was flustered now. 

The flying machine shot up at such a tangent, and so swiftly, that hewas both amazed and frightened. The speed indicator showed a terrificpace within a few seconds, and when Jack first tried to reduce thespeed he learned that the mechanism acted in a manner entirely differentthan ever before. 

The motor made more revolutions a minute than she was supposed to makewhen pressed to the very highest speed. When he had raised the bow ofthe flying machine at the start she had shot up almost perpendicularlyinto the air. He was afraid she was going to turn a back somersault. 

As he depressed the planes he found that it took much more depressionto bring the _Snowbird_ down to even keel. And the rapidity withwhich they left the ground and soared upward was in itself enough toshake Jack's coolness. Suddenly (being furnished with the professor'spatented ear-tabs) he heard that gentleman calling to him from below:

"Get back to the five-hundred-foot level--quick!"

Light as his head had become, and confused as he was, Jack realizedwhat these words meant, and he knew enough to obey without question. He brought the _Snowbird_ down the air-ways on a long slant andat a swift pace. He realized that, as they descended, he was able tobreathe more easily and his head stopped ringing. For some moments hehad felt like an intoxicated person in the vastly rarified plane ofthe upper ether. 

The professor staggered to the young operator's side. 

"Danger! Danger above, boy!" he gasped. "We cannot cross these mountainswhile--while the air is so thin. "

"But we need not cross them to reach Aleukan?" suggested Jack, speakingwith some difficulty himself. There was a pain in the region of hislungs and he saw that Professor Henderson was very pale. 

"That is a fact, " panted the professor. "Descend, Jack. Make it twohundred feet. Be careful!"

For as the youth depressed the planes again the ground beneath seemedto fairly leap up to meet them. 

"What do you know about that?" gasped the young aviator. "She--shedoesn't work at all like she used to. "

"Less attraction, " declared the scientist. 

"What do you mean, sir?" cried Jack. "Has the law of gravitation lostits power over us--and over the flying machine?"

"There is a difference--a great difference, " proclaimed ProfessorHenderson. "The power of attraction is lessened mightily. "

"What does it mean? What _can_ it mean?" murmured the disturbed youth. 

"I suspect--I fear--"

What the professor would have said was not spoken then. Mark interruptedby shouting:

"Look ahead! Look ahead! What is that--a river?"

"There is no river of size in this locality, " declared the professor, quickly, training his glasses on the white streak that appeared on theground ahead. 

Phineas Roebach struggled forward to the operator's bench. He gasped:

"This is worse than I ever thought flying could be. Do you have to goso fast? I cannot get my breath. Hullo! That's the glacier ahead. Thedog trail to Aleukan follows the ice for more than fifty miles. "

"A glacier it is, " agreed Professor Henderson. "It seems pretty smooth, Jack. You can descend still farther. "

That they were all suffering from the rarity of the atmosphere wasplain. It seemed as though the envelope of breathable air surroundingthe earth had suddenly become vastly rarified. If the. Atmosphere hadbeen so changed all over the globe it would be a catastropheunspeakable. 

"We certainly _can't_ cross these mountains--nor the Rockies, " groanedJack. "How are we ever going to get home again?"

"If the air remains as it is now?" asked Mark. "You're right! We'reimprisoned in this part of Alaska just as fast as though we were cagedbehind iron bars. "

"If we only had some of those torches we used on the moon, " said Jack. 

"What will we do, Professor?" begged Mark. 

"Let us not lose hope, " responded the old scientist. "First we willget to Aleukan and see if our provisions have been brought over fromColdfoot. "

"I'll bet they haven't been brought across the range, " said thepessimistic Mark. "If the air everywhere is so rarified the men woulddie crossing the mountains. " "Think of the people living on Mt. Washington--and other heights!" cried Jack, suddenly. "Why, they willbe snuffed out like candles. It is an awful thought. "

"We will hope, at least, that this fearful catastrophe is local, " saidthe professor, seriously. "Have a care, Jack! Don't dip like that. Wedo not want to descend here. "

It was extremely difficult to manage the _Snowbird_, for she answered tothe levers so much more quickly than before. The air pressure on thecraft was so slight that at the least touch she mounted upward like ascared quail! The speed of the aeroplane had to be reduced, too; theytraveled scarcely forty miles an hour. 

On either hand as they winged their way over the great river of ice(it was quite four miles broad) sharp cliffs arose, guarding theglacier. These cliffs ranged from two hundred to a thousand feet high. 

The professor, at once interested in such a marvel of nature, beggedJack to reduce the speed even more. They merely floated above thecracked expanse of whitish-green ice for some minutes. 

"That's what the earthquakes did for it, " said Phineas Roebach. "Yousee those crevasses--and some of 'em mighty deep? Well, they weren'there the last time I came this way. " "She is in motion again, perhaps, "suggested Professor Henderson. 

"It ain't been in motion for ages--or, so the Aleuts say, " respondedthe oil hunter. 

"But there looks now to be some sagging forward. There is a crevassesplitting the glacier from wall to wall, " proclaimed the scientist. 

"We'd never be able to sled over this trail in the world!" cried Mark. "How would you pass such a yawning gulf as that?"

"It beats me what's happened here since I was across last, " mutteredRoebach, scratching his head in bewilderment. 

The yawning ice was right beneath the flying machine. It was a hundredyards across at the surface. They seemed to be looking down for fivehundred feet, or more, into its greenish depths. 

Jack had turned the _Snowbird's_ prow and they were drifting toward thewestern cliffs which guarded the glacier. Here the rocky heights were atleast seven hundred feet above the ice. 

Out of a crack in the high wall--from its eyrie without doubt--a hugefemale eagle suddenly shot down toward the drifting aeroplane. Theflying machine seemed not to startle the great bird at all; it onlyangered her. Perhaps she had young up there in the cliff and she fearedher hereditary enemy, Man, was coming on wings to deprive her of them. 

With a scream of rage the eagle dashed herself directly into the faceof Jack, strapped to the operator's seat. For once Andy Sudds had nothis rifle at hand; and, the attack was so unexpected, it is doubtfulif he could have come to the rescue in season. 

With beak and claws the bird endeavored to tear at the youth's face. Jack jerked loose the transmitter and beat it to pieces over the bird, but without making her desist. 

Again and again the feathered creature darted in, claws expanded andbeak snapping. With one talon she raked Jack's right arm and shreddedthe heavy coatsleeve, the sleeve beneath, and scratched his arm. Thenext instant her iron beak snapped upon his left hand. 

Jack Darrow was plucky, but the pain of the wound brought a scream tohis lips. It was answered by the wild shrieks of the eagle. 

And then, ere any of his friends could reach him (for the professorhad gone back to the cabin), the boy, fighting for his sight--indeed, for his very life--by some unfortunate movement depressed the planes. Like an arrow from the bow the _Snowbird_ shot downward into the yawningcrevasse which split the glacier from wall to wall. With a yell ofterror Mark Sampson sprang forward to the operator's bench. But he wastoo late--if he could have done any good at all. 

The _Snowbird_ swung to one side. Her right forward plane crashedagainst the wall of ice, shattering some of the hard crystal. But onthe rebound the fluttering flying machine sank lower. Jack tried tomake her rise. She refused to obey the lever. 

And then, with a suddenness that made them all catch their breath, the_Snowbird_ plunged down into the ice-gulf and ended her dive witha terrific crash on a narrow shelf at least two hundred feet below thesurface of the glacier. 

CHAPTER XVI

PROFESSOR HENDERSON REVEALS THE TRUTH

The force with which the flying machine had plunged into the chasm inthe ice was sufficient to smash her keel-fin to bits. There was otherdamage done, too--how great this damage was the boys and the professorcould not immediately discover. 

They were all alive--that was one thing to be thankful for. AndWashington White's Shanghai, aroused from sleep by the disturbance, began to crow vociferously. 

The _Snowbird_ was wedged into a very small space upon the ledgeof ice. At first view it was quite certain that she could not belaunched again from this position by any ordinary means. And thesteering gear was practically a wreck, so that she positively must berepaired before attempting another flight. 

Jack's wounds were dressed by Andy first of all. Mark and the professormade some attempt to look over the wreckage. The disaster was so greatthat Mark gave up hope. 

"We're done for now!" he cried. "The poor _Snowbird_ is a wreck. And howare we ever going to get out of this hole?"

"Hush, my boy!" admonished the professor. "Don't lose your grip. Thisis truly a serious predicament; but we have been in tight placesbefore. "

"Nothing worse than this, " grumbled Mark. "Nor half so bad. How arewe going to get out of this chasm? Why, just as Washington says, we'vebeen swallowed up like a duck gobbling a June bug. "

"This is certainly a bad situation, " Phineas Roebach remarked. "But, as the professor says, it isn't the worst that might happen. "

"What worse could happen?" demanded Mark. 

"Hold on! Don't you step too near the edge of this shelf, " warned theoil man. "If you step off and fall clear to the bottom of this crevasseyou'll probably find _that_ a good deal worse than our present position. B-r-r! Isn't it cold?"

Two hundred feet below the surface of the ice river was indeed a coldspot. Washington produced all the warm clothing there was aboard theflying machine and all hands were glad to bundle up. Then the professorsuggested that the black man prepare some hot drink and a ration oftheir food, while all gathered in the cabin for a discussion as totheir future course. "Our perilous situation is apparent, " saidProfessor Henderson, quietly. "But there is always more than one wayout of a serious predicament--sometimes there are a dozen ways. "

"I'd like to hear of a dozen ways of getting out of this hole, " murmuredMark Sampson. 

"Mr. Roebach, " said the professor, ignoring the youth, "what do yousay? What is your advice?"

"The sun will be up in an hour, or thereabout. It's pretty dim downhere. Let us wait and see what daylight shows us, " was the oil man'sreply. 

"The moon--the _other_ moon--is just appearing, " Jack said. "We'llhave light enough in a few minutes. "

"Two moons! what do you think of that?" cried Mark. 

"Are you sure, Jack?" queried the professor, eagerly. 

"I just saw it peeking over the eastern cliffs while Andy was patchingme up. " He carried one arm in a sling, and his other hand was bandaged. 

"Then I must take an observation, " ejaculated the professor, and seizingsome instruments he had arranged on the table he went out to where thepowerful telescope was adjusted. 

"He's forgotten all about gittin' out of this hole in the ice, " saidAndy. "I, for one, think we'd ought to take axes and begin to cut stepsup the wall. How else will we escape from the place?"

"The poor old _Snowbird_ cannot be repaired in a hurry, that is sure, "muttered Mark. 

"And this is no place to remain for fun, " agreed Jack. "Suppose thewalls of the crack should shut together--where would we be?"

"Just about here, for fair!" said Phineas Roebach, grimly, whileWashington uttered a most mournful wail. 

"Gollyation! Is we gotter be squeeged ter deaf in disher awfulcavernarious hole? Dis is suah a time ob trouble an' tribbilation. "

They heard an exclamation from the professor and Jack led the way tothe open deck of the crippled flying machine. By chance the _Snowbird_in landing had remained upright, her decks on a level. They found theprofessor bending over some further calculations on a great sheet ofpaper. Here, two hundred feet below the surface of the ice, the heavenlybodies all looked brighter and more distinct than they had while theaeroplane was in flight above the ground. 

The strange new planet had not yet gone out of sight. From the eastthe old moon was soaring steadily. There could be no mistaking the twoorbs, now that both were visible in the sky at once. The new planetor moon was much larger than the real moon. 

"What do you suppose that great planet is?" queried Jack. 

The professor looked up from his calculations. His face was very pale;his eyes glowed with excitement. The boys had seldom seen the oldgentleman so moved. 

"You are right, my boy. A planet it surely is, " he said to Jack. 

"But why have we never seen it before?" demanded Mark. 

"For a very good reason, " returned the professor, solemnly. "We werenever in a position before to behold that planet, save on twooccasions. "

"Then we have seen it twice before?" asked the puzzled Jack. 

"On two occasions we have been enabled to stand off, as it were, andlook at that planet as though we were inhabitants of another world--whenwe went to the moon, and when we went to Mars. "

"What do you mean, Professor?" cried Mark. 

"It's the earth!" exclaimed Jack Darrow. "It's the earth! We have leftthe earth--is that it, Professor?"

The old scientist nodded. Phineas Roebach snorted his disbelief, whileWashington White gave vent to his trouble of mind mostcharacteristically:

"Goodness gracious gollyation! De fat am suah in de fiah now! We'sedone los' de earf an' Buttsy an' me will nebber see our happy home nomo'. "

"Oh, Professor! how could we have left the earth?" demanded Mark. "See!we are standing upon it now; at least, this glacier is an ice-riverof Alaska, and Alaska has not been wiped off the map!"

"But that is exactly what has happened to it, " said the professor, earnestly. "At least, a part of Alaska--we do not know how much ofthat territory, or how much other territory with it--is no longer apart of the sphere called the earth. "

Phineas Roebach looked at the old scientist as though he thought thelatter had taken leave of his senses. But Jack Darrow leaped to theright conclusion. 

"You mean, sir, that the earthquake and the volcanic eruption havetorn away some great fragment of the world, and we are on it?"

"That is what I mean. "

"We are floating in space, then--an entirely new world? And _that_ isthe old world shining there in the sky?"

"That is what has happened, Jack, " declared Professor Henderson, withsolemnity. "I suspected it when we first felt the lightness of theatmosphere. I was convinced when I found the ether envelope of thisnew world--this island in the air, as it were--was so thin. Mycalculations regarding the rising of the moon, and the outlines ofobjects upon the great globe hanging yonder, prove to my mindconclusively that the awful cataclysm we endured, when we all completelylost consciousness, was the time when the eruption occurred, and we, with this great fragment of the earth, were blown out into space. "

"It can't be! it can't be!" shouted Phineas Roebach. "We've lost ourheads, perhaps; but we haven't lost our hold on the earth. It'snonsense!"

"I sincerely wish I could feel that same confidence, Mr. Roebach, "said Professor Henderson, drily. "These instruments of mine, however, cannot lie. It is a simple calculation to figure that the moon, nowjust risen, is thousands of miles out of her course, if we are stillon the earth. No, Mr. Roebach, I am stating the exact truth when I saythat we have been blown off the earth by that awful volcanic eruption, and that we are now floating on a torn-away world, or a new planet, in space, doubtless hanging between the earth and the sun. We are asunsafe as though we were on a wandering star, or meteor--only thisisland is not afire. But in time we shall fall into one or the othergreater bodies of our system--of that end there can be no possibledoubt. "

CHAPTER XVII

ON AN ISLAND IN THE AIR

The stern and uncompromising statement of Professor Henderson relatingto the awful fate that had overtaken his friends and Phineas Roebachwas so uncompromising--almost brutal--that not a word was spoken forseveral minutes. 

Even Washington White was dumb. The fact that the fragment of the earthon which they were imprisoned was floating miles above the globe, inthe rarified atmosphere of the outer universe, and that they were atthat moment able to look up and see the great, calm, palely glowingsphere which had been their home, rolling across the arch abovethem--all this was too awful a mystery to be grasped immediately bythe professor's companions. 

Jack Darrow, whose mind was the keenest of any, was the first to breakthe depressing silence. And he spoke in an awed tone that showed howfully he realized the horror of their situation, if nothing more. 

"Then, Professor, we are at the mercy of Chance--at any moment thisfragment of the earth may fall again--or be propelled into the sun?"

"We are in the hands of Providence, my boy, " replied ProfessorHenderson, reverently. 

"The fact remains that we are totally unable to help ourselves, " saidJack, firmly. "Even could we repair the _Snowbird_, and get her out ofthis crack in the ice, we could not fly to the earth. Between us and theearth lies a portion of the universe that has no atmosphere--nobreathable air--like that envelope which surrounds the moon. Am Iright?"

"Practically correct, I believe, Jack, " responded the aged scientist. 

"But, " cried Mark, at last getting _his_ speech, "how can such a thingbe possible? Blown off the earth! Why, we'd simply go up in the air andcome down again. "

"Now you're talking sense, young fellow, " muttered Roebach, stillrubbing his head as though stunned. 

"Not if we were blown far enough to get beyond the earth'sattraction--or to get so far away from that body that the sun'sattraction counterbalances that of the earth, " replied the professor, calmly. 

"And why do we not fall off?" asked Mark. 

"We do come pretty near falling off, " returned Professor Henderson, grimly. "I should think you could see that, Mark. "

"Our lightness!" Jack cried. "Washington's jumping and the lightnessof all objects! I see. This fragment of the earth--this island in theair, as you call it, Professor--is large enough to possess some powersof attraction of its own; but not as much as the earth. I wonder howlarge it really is?"

"That is a matter for future discovery, " returned the scientist, withsome eagerness. 

"My goodness me!" groaned Mark. "He really enjoys the situation. "

"No man has ever been in such a position before--I am convinced ofthat, " declared the professor. "Were it not that you are all in asperilous a situation as myself, I would not worry about this condition. It is marvelous, and the situation affords me opportunity to learnmany things that science has only guessed at before. "

"Don't talk that way!" wailed the oil man, suddenly. "You'll make_me_ believe in this island in the air business, and I _know_ it'scraziness!"

Nor could anything the professor say convince the oil man that therewas any common sense in the plain statement of their situation. It wasbeyond Phineas Roebach's powers of imagination. 

As for Washington White, he could not understand the affair anyway. But he always accepted the professor's words as Bible truth and he hadno doubt of the surprising fact. 

"We was bound ter git inter trouble, Buttsy an' me, w'en we agreed terstart on any sech foolish journey. And de consanguinuity ob dis 'casionassuages me ob de fac' dat we'se only got our come-upance fo' bein'so reckless. Now we is nebber gwine ter see de State o' Maine again, 'ceptin' it is froo de perfesser's telescope. "

His complaint received little attention from Jack Darrow or MarkSampson; they were too deeply interested in the explanation of thecatastrophe that had overtaken them. 

"How big a slice of Alaska do you suppose has been blown off the earth, Professor?" asked Jack. 

"It may be much more than a part of Alaska, " replied Mr. Henderson. "Until we have a chance to explore the region more thoroughly I cannoteven guess the answer to your question. "

"And how can we explore it?" demanded Mark, quickly. "If there is noatmosphere on these mountain tops which we see--or, which we saw beforewe fell into this crevasse--we cannot get off this plane. We areimprisoned on the low ground. The lack of air will keep us from climbingthe mountains. "

"Or from flying over them if we can get the _Snowbird_ into commissionagain, " added Jack. "Every necessity brings its own invention, " said theprofessor. "Let us not despair. We may yet find some means of travelingall about this floating island. "

"And what will you do if you get to the edge--fall off?" exclaimedAndy. 

He likewise accepted the professor's words at their face value. Henever thought of doubting either the aged scientist's honesty or hislearning. 

"If the attraction of this fragment holds good here, it will hold goodall over its surface, " proclaimed the professor. "We have no means yetof weighing this torn-away world we are on--this new planet. But itmust be of considerable size. Otherwise it would not hang here in spaceas it does. "

"And without movement?" cried Jack. 

"I believe it is circling the earth as the earth circles the sun. Weare practically on a second moon--only the fires in the heart of ouryoung planet are not dead. "

"I should say they were not dead, if that geyser Mr. Roebach opened upis any sign of life, " remarked Mark. 

"You are quite right, my boy, " said the professor, cheerfully. "Thevolcanic disturbance brought about great earthquakes. These, however, were merely warning symptoms. We did not know it, however. Finally thegreat mass of gas formed beneath the earth's crust somewhere about theAlaskan coast of the Arctic Ocean, we will say, exploded and forcedan enormous portion of the crust into the air. 

"No wonder we lost consciousness, " he continued, with enthusiasm. "Wewere probably traveling faster than human beings ever traveled before. The entire nature of the portion of the earth we stood upon waschanging. Our atmosphere was changing. We were shot into the sky andin a flash were beyond the common influence of what we call the lawof gravitation. "

"But what a hole we must have left in that part of the world!" gaspedJack. "Think of it! The seas must have run right into the chasm andmade the bottoms of the old seas dry land. "

"Not at all! Not at all!" returned the professor. "Think what a mightyglobe the earth is. Remember that there are valleys milesdeep--mountains miles high! There are holes in the ocean which haveremained unfathomed to this day! The surface of the earth is very, very rough. What keeps the oceans from overflowing the land and fillingall those sinks and valleys that are deeper than the ocean bed? Merelythe power of attraction which the earth exercises. 

"Suppose explorers hurry to the scene of the great earthquake--to theedge of the vast crater which the blowing-out of this portion of theearth has left. What will they find--a hole filled with the waters ofthe Arctic Ocean?"

"And why not?" demanded Jack, stoutly. 

"Because the evidence of our own eyes assures us that such is not thecase, " declared the professor, pointing again to the rolling planetthey had so strangely left. "The earth is not overbalanced. She stillrolls on her proper course, I have no doubt. The breaking away of thisisland is not a serious matter to the earth as a whole. The contourof the hemispheres is not changed. I showed you how I had traced theoutlines of the continent before, even, that I was confident we hadbeen blown off the earth. 

"No. Those who explore the region which we have left will find hillsand valleys as before--awful crevasses, perhaps, and steaming cauldronsof water and mud. No vegetation, of course, but snow has perhaps fallenon some parts of the raw scar, and those explorers may be able totravel through a region that was--a week ago--the bowels of the earth!

"The foundation rocks of the earth are left raw and exposed, as theymay be after some terrific land-slip. But nothing more. We sail herehigh above the earth----"

"Looks like we were _below_ it now, " muttered Mark. 

"But if we have been observed from the earth--and of course thosegreat telescopes at the Lick Observatory have found us out ere this--wewill appear above her, " said the professor. "Many things about thisstrange happening we may only guess at. Of one thing we are sure--wehave air to breathe, water to drink, there are wild animals to killfor food, vegetation exists; we are, in fact, upon a miniature worldwhich is not much different from that we have left--as yet, at least. "

"All that sounds mighty fine, " interrupted Phineas Roebach. "And Iexpect you believe it all, Professor Henderson. But there's just onething that _I_ believe: We're down here, two hundred feet or morefrom the top of this ice wall, and the game, or the vegetation, oranything else, isn't going to help us much while we're here. What Iwant to know is: How are we going to get out of this crevasse?"

CHAPTER XVIII

IMPRISONED IN THE ICE

The oil hunter's demand was like a bomb thrown in their midst. Theboys had been so deeply interested in the professor's relation offacts, and in the scientific phase of their situation, that the morepractical questions of their mere existence on this island in the airhad not before held their attention for long. 

"We've got to find some way of climbing out, I reckon, " Mark said, slowly. 

"Well, find it!" snapped Phineas Roebach. "Let's talk of somethingpractical. We'll freeze to death down here very soon, if we don'tstarve first. "

"Very true, " said the professor. "Mr. Roebach is eminently practical. We must give our attention to the immediate peril that menaces us. "

At this moment Andy came forward with two hatchets and an axe. 

"These are the things we want, I guess, " he said, quietly. "We've gotto chop steps in the wall, and climb up in that way. " "And abandon allour instruments--and the telescope?" exclaimed Professor Henderson. 

"And the _Snowbird_?" added Mark. 

"We can hoist all the small things up to the top of this wall--if wecan get up there ourselves, " said the old hunter. 

"Right you are, Mr. Sudds, " declared Phineas Roebach, with vigor. 

"But the flying machine?" queried Jack. "It seems too bad to let itgo. "

"We won't let it go, Jack, " declared Mark. 

"Andy is right, boys, " said the professor. "Let us first make our ownescape sure. Then, if it be possible, we will hoist the flying machineas well as the instruments and our remaining provisions out of thischasm. "

"I'm afraid we'll never be able to hoist the _Snowbird_, " said Jack, sadly. "I reckon we'll have to say good-bye to it. "

"Don't lose heart, " repeated Professor Henderson. "Lead the way, Andy. Let us try chipping the ice away. "

Cold it indeed was down there in the maw of the ice-field; but Washmade some more hot drink and the hunter and the oil man went at theice-wall with vigor. They chipped out good, wide steps, two feet apart, two working together, and mounting upward steadily. The lightness oftheir bodies aided not a little in the speed at which they worked. Before an hour had passed they were forty feet above the shelf on whichthe crippled flying machine rested. 

By that time the earth had rolled out of sight and the moon itself hadpaled into insignificance. There was a bright glow in the sky and theparty knew that the sun had risen into view. Deep down as they werein the cavity, they soon felt the difference in the temperature. Forseveral days it had been cold on the earth; but now the sun's heatseemed to strike more directly upon the island in the air. 

The wall of ice on the other side of the crevasse began to glisten, and soon streams of water were trickling down it, falling with a gentlemurmur into the abyss. The workers threw off some of their heavyclothing. The sun's rays began to creep down the other wall, and theice melted rapidly. 

Jack and Mark took the places of Andy Sudds and Mr. Roebach with thehatchets. The ice on this side of the chasm was still cold and brittle, but the sun was mounting very rapidly toward the zenith and thetrickling rills upon the opposite wall of the crevasse became torrents. 

"We are in serious danger, " Professor Henderson warned them. "Sincebeing shot off the world, we have begun a course around our parentplanet which brings this portion of the island, at least, in muchcloser juxtaposition to the sun than Alaska ever was before. I fearthat the heat will become tropical in due season. "

"And this whole glacier will melt?" cried Mark, jumping to thatconclusion instantly. 

"Not all at once, we will hope, " said the professor. "If the lengthof the day on this island in the air was as long as the earth's day, the sun might melt the ice so rapidly that we would be washed off thiswall and drowned in the abyss. "

"Gollyation! We's done for den, fo' suah!" groaned Washington White. 

"But the island will doubtless circle the world in such a way that thesun will only strike upon us directly for a few hours at a time--theentire circuit we make around the world may be of considerable duration;but the sun will shine directly upon us--at the rate those rays aretraveling down that opposite wall--for only a short time. Do you see?"

The boys had resigned their turn at the chopping and returned to theshelf by now. Again Andy and Mr. Roebach were high above their heads, clinging to the slippery wall. 

For the ice on this side, while it was in the shade still, was becomingmoist. The heat of the day was intense. Down the opposite wall of thecrevasse tumbled a sheet of water which fairly hid the ice itself. Occasionally huge blocks of the melting crystal were broken off by theaction of the water and fell into the chasm with thunderous crashes. There was good reason for the party being worried over their situation. 

The heat increased and over the edge of the wall they sought to climbthe water began to pour. Andy Sudds and the oil man were driven downfrom their perch. The sun appeared, blazing directly down into thecrevasse and the melted ice rained in torrents about them, fallingupon the _Snowbird_ as though a heavy rainstorm was in progress. 

They fled to the roofed cabin to escape this downpour. But they werefearful that at any moment the flying machine, resting so insecurelyupon the shelf of ice, would be washed into the depths. 

A terrible hour followed. The heat became torrid. The splashing of thewater and thunder of huge pieces of ice falling into the crack almostdeafened them. 

Just as the sun had crossed the narrow arc above the crevasse therecame a thunderous roar. Used as they had been for some hours toexplosions of sound, this one made all tremble. The ice-wall seemedto crack and stagger from base to summit. The flying machine shook asthough it were about to take flight. But they all knew that the onlyflight it could take was to the bottom of the abyss. 

The thunder of falling ice continued for some minutes. A mightyavalanche had fallen into the depths. But whether it had fallen fromtheir side of the crevasse or from the other, they could not at themoment tell. 

The sun was out of sight. Its rays, however, still played upon thewall above their heads, while from the lower part of the gulf thererose a steam, or fog, which wrapped the flying machine around andsmothered all in its embrace. 

The light disappeared from above. The heat of the torrid sun departed. The chill of the fog bit in like a knife. They were glad in an hourto get into their furs, and there remained shivering in the damp, coldfog, while the streams of water which had poured down the ice-wallcongealed again into the hardest of crystal. 

Roebach and Andy possessed themselves of two storage battery lamps andwent cautiously to examine the wall up which they had climbed for morethan a hundred feet. 

It was now as smooth as glass!

The wash of the falling water had worn away the ice so that the stepsof their ladder had disappeared. The work they had done toward escapehad gone for naught. 

They were just as much prisoners of the ice now as they had been whenfirst the _Snowbird_ had settled upon this ledge in the crevasse. And now they lost hope. There seemed no possibility of their escapingfrom the gulf by cutting their way out. 

CHAPTER XIX

A NIGHT ATTACK

It was the aged scientist who again put heart in the party when AndySudds and Phineas Roebach brought back the report of this catastrophe. 

"We must not give up hope, " declared Professor Henderson, cheerfully. "We have lost what work has been done on the ice-wall, it is true. Butwe can begin again. "

"And of what use will that be?" demanded Mark Sampson. "The sun willmelt away the ladder again. "

"We have many more hours of night here than we have of daylight--youcan all see that, eh?" said the professor. 

"The sun seemed to shine on us not more than six hours, " admitted Jack. 

"Less than that, I believe. The rays were not hot more than four anda half hours. If we begin our work of cutting steps the moment theheat of the short day departs, we will be able, I am convinced, to getto the top of the ice cliff. "

"You're wrong, Professor, " said Roebach. "This ice is spongy evennow--at least, a good deal of it is. We can't make secure footholdsin that wall. We're beaten, I tell you--beaten!"

"No. Only balked in one way. There are other means of escape, " declaredProfessor Henderson. 

"I'd be glad to have you tell us what those means are, " cried the oilman. "I've racked my brains to think of some other way of getting out. I'm beaten, I tell you!"

"We will not give up so easily, " insisted Professor Henderson. "Thereis no sense in that. We must struggle on. Wait until this fog isdissipated. It will soon rise, for the air is becoming extremely coldand the fog cannot long endure the frost. "

They were indeed suffering much from the increasing cold. Thechange--and so sudden a change--from the tropical heat of the shortday to the bitter cold of this ice-gulf was hard to bear. 

The fog thinned perceptibly three hours after the sun had set. Meanwhileall but Jack and Washington White had piled up in the cabin for somemuch-needed sleep. Jack's wounded hand would not let him rest, so heoffered to keep watch, while the black man had been reposing most ofthe time in which Andy and the oil man had dug so strenuously at thecliff. 

"Disher proves, Massa Jack, how contrariwise disher world do go, " Washgrunted. "Here we starts out ter hunt fo' dat Dr. Todd's chrysomelabypunktater plant, an' we don't find it, but nothin' buttrouble--lashin's ob trouble! I'se nigh erbout descouraged ober deperfesser. He suah do lead us all inter sech tribbilations. I donelose heart 'bout him. "

"Oh, I wouldn't, " said Jack. "The professor can't help it if an oldvolcano comes along and blows us off the earth. You can't really blamehim for that, Wash. "

"Well, now, " said the darkey, "if he hadn't taken us so far away fromhome, it wouldn't have happened. We don't nebber have no earfquakes, nor no volcanoes in Maine. It's against de law, I reckon--like sellin'gin. No, sah I disher awful catastriferous conglomeration obfortituitous happenings dat's put us where we is right now would nebberhab got at us if we'd minded our own business an' stayed to home. No, sah!"

"There may be some truth in what you say--barring your use of the bigwords, Wash, " admitted Jack Darrow. "But we certainly can't blame theold professor for any freaks of Nature that may happen. "

"No. But I hasn't gotter encourage him in disher foolishness ob runnin'up an' down de world, huntin' fo' new t'ings. I don't like new t'ings, "declared Wash. "Looked disher now! Whoeber said Washington White wantedter transmogrify hissef to a new planet? Nobody, not dat I hears on. "

"I reckon we none of us had much choice in the matter, " returned Jack, with a sigh. 

"Glory! Dar's dat moon again!" cried Wash, suddenly. 

"No; it's the earth in sight, " returned his youthful companion. "Themist is being dissipated, just as the professor said. Let's go out andlook about. "

"We done wanter be mighty careful walkin' on dis ice, " admonished thedarkey. "It jest as slippery as it kin be. "

Which was true enough, as Jack found the moment he stepped down uponthe shelf from the flying machine frame. Where the ice had melted andthen its surface had congealed again, it was as smooth as a mirror. The reflected light from the huge globe that now began to traverse thesmall arc of their heaven gave them plenty of light. They could seedown into the green depths of the crevasse, but not far along the shelfon which the _Snowbird_ rested, in either the one direction or theother. 

"Whar you goin', Massa Jack?" demanded Wash, as the boy started awayfrom the flying machine toward the nearest wall of rock that shut inthe glacier. "I want to see what lies beyond that turn, " replied theyouth. "Perhaps we may learn something to our advantage by exploringa bit. "

Washington White followed him very cautiously. Before he came to theturn himself, Jack had rounded it. The next moment the darkey wasstartled by a yell from Jack. 

"Fo' de goodness gracious gollyation sakes!" bawled Wash. "What donegone an' disturbed de continuity ob your sagastuations? Yo' donefrighten me inter a conniption fit if yo' hollers dat way. "

Here he rounded the turn himself and almost bumped into Jack. Even thedarkey's volubility was stilled at the sight before them. 

A great part of the wall of the crevasse--the wall which they had hopedto climb, had broken off and fallen into the gulf. A wide crack, orgully, was opened in this side of the chasm, leading in an easy slopeto the surface of the glacier. 

Although their attempt to reach the surface had been foiled, here wasa way which the sun, melting the ice and causing a great avalanche, had made for them. It was plain that all could easily mount to the topby this sloping gulch. 

Jack dashed back to announce the discovery and Wash came after him, intent upon seeing that Buttsy was carried, in his well wrapped-upcoop, out of the crevasse. The youth awoke his friends instantly andin ten minutes all had taken a look at the way of escape andpreparations were at once made for departure from the flying machine. 

Everybody save the professor was laden with stores or instruments, orextra clothing and blankets, as they filed away from the crippled_Snowbird_. The two youthful inventors and builders of the flyingmachine bade good-bye to her with full hearts. It was not a certaintythat they could recover the flying machine, and Jack and Mark feltpretty bad about it. 

The first thought of all, however, was centered in standing once moreupon the surface of the glacier. The fact that the upper part of theice field might move at any time, and the crevasse be closed whilethey were held in it, had troubled them all. 

In half an hour, however, all that danger was past. Other perils mightimmediately face them; but the chance of being snapped between thejaws of ice was no more to be feared. 

The golden ball of the earth, around which the island in the air wasfollowing its orbit, gave them plenty of light as yet, for the sun wasstill in such a position that its light was reflected from the earthupon the fast-traveling island in the sky. 

The party, shaking with cold now, for the night was really arctic intemperature, made for the nearest morainial deposit where trees grew, under the shelter of the cliff which rose so high above the face ofthe glacier. As the river of ice had pushed its way downward duringthe past ages, it had scraped earth and stones from the walls of itsbed, and this deposit, falling on the ice, had given root to trees andshrubs, while grass had sprung up and birds had doubtless nested there. 

"They are like the oases in the desert, " Mark said. 

"They will afford us shelter and firewood, " the professor added. 

And in short order they were encamped in a clump of fir trees with ahuge fire of dry branches burning before them, its warmth diffusedover the whole party. 

This grove of sturdy trees was backed close against the base of thecliff, and the rocky wall was sheer, mounting at least eight hundredfeet above their heads. 

"I suppose no life could exist higher than this cliff, eh, Professor?"Jack Darrow asked, as they became comfortable in the fire's warmth andthrew back their fur wraps. 

"I am not sure of that, Jack, " returned the scientist. "From ourexperience in the _Snowbird_, since the eruption that threw us off intospace, and while on the higher levels of air, we cannot doubt that at athousand feet above this ice, at least, animal life would becomeextinct. "

"I reckon there isn't much animal life left in these parts now, at anyrate, " Andy Sudds said. "I don't see what we're going to do if somethingdoesn't turn up for food. We're going to be on short commons. "

Wash had set his "bird cage, " as the oil man called the Shanghai'scoop, within the warmth of the fire, and the rooster evidently feltthe grateful glow of the flames. He had been picking up some corn thatWash flung him, grain by grain. Now he suddenly stopped, raised hishead, and uttered a loud and apparently frightened squawk. 

"What dat?" demanded the darkey, his eyes rolling. "Buttsy hearsumpin'--he suah do. "

"What do you reckon he hears?" queried Jack, idly. 

"I dunno dat. But he's some disturbed--yo' kin see it's so, " returnedWashington, nervously. "Does yo' hear anything yit?"

"You think he can smell out an enemy, do you?" chuckled Jack. 

"He done gotter great head, Buttsy has, " declared the black man. "Ifdere is anyt'ing prowlin' aroun' permiscuous like, he's de boy to hear'em--yes, sah!" "By the same token it was a flock of geese that savedRome, " Mark said. 

Wash had his back to the thick clump of firs. Jack was facing him. Suddenly the boy, raising his eyes to look across the fire at thedarkey, beheld a huge black object rise out of the brush directly inWashington's rear. 

One glance told Jack what the creature was. There was no mistaking thegleaming eyes, the pointed, slobbering muzzle, and the hairy, yellowishbreast of the gigantic Kodiak bear as it poised its huge body over theunconscious darkey. 

Like a ghost the bear had crept to the camp of the explorers and wasnow on the eve of an attack, totally unheralded!

CHAPTER XX

THE HEROISM OF THE SHANGHAI ROOSTER

Jack Darrow was the only person in the group around the campfire whoat first saw the huge bear. And he was so startled that for a breathhe did not know what it was best to do. To shriek out in alarm wouldneither save the darkey nor frighten off the bear. 

The Shanghai rooster settled down with a half-stifled squawk in thebottom of his coop. Without doubt the bird saw the bear and realizedthat his life was in peril. 

"What de matter wid yo'?" demanded Washington, rolling his eyes andbeginning to look scared himself. 

Jack's mouth was dry and he had to wet his lips before he could asmuch as whisper. Only a few seconds had elapsed since the bear roseinto view behind the darkey; but it seemed to Jack as though an eternityhad passed. 

His whispered words were for the old hunter, whom he knew was alwaysalert. 

"Andy! Your rifle!"

The brown claw of the old hunter was never far from the grip of hisgun when he lay before a campfire. Jack saw the hand clamp upon theweapon even before Sudds rolled over. 

"What's up, Jack?" he whispered. 

"Behind Wash--quick!"

No need to tell the hunter to be quick. He was on his knees and thegun was at his shoulder in the twinkling of an eye. 

"Come here, Wash--quick!" ejaculated Jack, with sudden inspiration, and the darkey, used to obeying orders without question, scrambled upand started toward the boy. 

With a roar that brought every other person save the old hunter to hisfeet, the huge bear swung both front paws to grab the negro. Washescaped the embrace by the breadth of a hair. 

Bang! spoke Andy Sudds' rifle. 

"Gollyation! I'se done shot!" bawled the darkey, and sprang into Jack'sarms. 

The boy hung on to him or perhaps Wash would still be running, he wasso scared. Nor were the other members of the party much less startled. 

But Andy Sudds was as steady as a rock. His first ball had hit thehuge beast in the breast, but the latter had plunged forward after theescaping darkey as the ball struck him. Therefore the wound was toohigh up to do serious damage. 

A grizzly, or Kodiak, bear has never yet been settled by a singleshot--unless the bullet entering the beast's carcass was explosive. With a mighty roar the bear plunged forward, right through the fire, scattering it far and wide and aiming directly for the place from whichthe rifle ball had come. It had stung him, and he was after the oldhunter on the instant. 

He half fell over the coop which contained the Shanghai rooster. Irritable as he could be, the bear delayed long enough to strike atthis coop. He smashed one end of it flat, but the Shanghai miraculouslyescaped injury. 

The bird had undoubtedly been disturbed and frightened by the secretapproach of Bruin; but once free, the feathered creature felt hisdignity disturbed, and finding himself free of the coop, he flew witha loud squawk at the charging bear. 

Andy had pumped two more bullets after his first one. Both had foundtheir billet in the body of the bear; but neither had struck a vitalspot. The scattering fire, as the beast plowed through the embers, drove the rest of the party out of range in a hurry. Jack dragged Washto one side; but the darkey yelled:

"Gollyation! I wanter save Buttsy! Oh, lawsy-massy! Dat Shanghai suahlyis a reckless bird!"

In the flaring light of the flames the rooster was seen to pounce uponthe shoulders of the huge bear as the latter came down to "all-fours"and dived at the old hunter. Andy sprang back, collided with atree-trunk, and went head over heels. In an instant the bear wouldhave been upon him and one stroke of his sabre-like claws would havefinished Andy Sudds. 

But the rooster certainly did delay the bear's charge. The brute struckat his feathered tormentor with first one fore paw, and then the other. He failed to dislodge his enemy by such means. 

And then a big ember behind him snapped and a part of the flamingbranch fell upon the ground just where Bruin put his hind paw upon it. Plowing through the blaze in a hurry was one thing--_this_ was anentirely different proposition. 

Bruin uttered a roar of pain and turned to bite at the stung paw. Ashe swung his huge body about, the blood now spouting from his jaws--forone of the bullets had punctured a lung--Andy came into position again, with the muzzle of his rifle less than ten feet from the hairy side. 

Bang!

An answering roar of rage and pain followed the shot. The beast triedto whirl again, but fell instead. The rooster fled, squawking, intothe bush. 

The huge bear struggled on the ground for some moments before anybodydared approach. It was Wash who first dashed in and planted a footupon the dead beast's neck. 

"See wot dat Shanghai done?" he cried. "Wot you gotter say now terChristopher Columbus Amerigo Vespucci George Washington Abraham LincolnUlysses Grant Garibaldi Thomas Edison Guglielmo Marconi Butts?"

"I got to take off my hat to the rooster, " Andy Sudds said, quietly. "If it hadn't been for him that bear would have had me as sure asshootin'!"

"Butts is a hero--no doubt of that, " gasped Jack Darrow, when he couldget his breath. 

The others--even Professor Henderson--were greatly excited by theincident and delighted by its outcome. Here was fresh meat in abundance, to say nothing of a fine blanket-robe, if they could take the time tostretch and "work" the hide. Andy promised to do that the next day ifthey would camp where they were long enough. 

Meanwhile the bear was skinned and certain steaks cut off for immediateconsumption, while the bulk of the carcass was cached under some blocksof ice on the glacier. Andy was for smoking some strips of meat overthe rebuilt fire. 

"You see, Professor, it's so hot in the daytime here, and so cold atnight, that pemmican is about the only kind of meat that willkeep--unless it's canned. We'll eat what we can of the fresh bearsteaks; but these strips will be all right smoked a long time afterthe fresh meat has become too strong for anything but a buzzard, " quoththe hunter. 

CHAPTER XXI

MARK ON GUARD

After the hearty supper, and the excitement of the bear-killing, theywere all more or less ready for bed. The professor figured that thesun would not appear again to the Crusoes on this island in the airfor quite fourteen hours. They all ought to get sufficient sleep beforethat time. The havoc wrought by the rays of the torrid sun upon theglacier had been apparent as they came over it to this fringe of treesat the base of the cliff. It might be necessary for them to move quicklyfrom the ice to save their lives. 

"We can afford to spend some hours in rest, and will start with bodiesrefreshed, at least. Now we will divide the watches, " suggested thescientist. 

But the others would not hear of the professor going on guard. Andydeclared for the first watch, for he had to 'tend his "jerked" bearmeat. And following him the die fell to Mark. The old hunter awoke theyouth some four hours after the camp had become quiet for the night. 

The earth was then hanging low on their horizon, while the moon wasclimbing up from the east, the reflected light of both orbs floodingthe surface of the ice-field. 

Mark came out of his warm nest yawning like a good fellow, and the oldhunter said to him:

"Take that axe yonder and cut some wood for the fire. Keep up a goodblaze and that will keep us comfortable as well as keep you awake. Idon't want you to go to sleep, Mark. "

"Who's going to sleep?" cried Mark, much abused. 

But he had to confess to himself that he _was_ mighty drowsy whenhe had finished cutting up the wood a little way from the camp. Hetook a turn or two, replenished the fire, and then backed up againsta sheltering tree-bole and blinked at the dancing flames. 

Sleep overtakes one suddenly and strangely at times. Without intendingto even close one eye, Mark was off into dreamland with a promptnessthat was surprising. He settled back against the tree and slept standingup. But his neglected duty troubled his subconscious mind. He wasuneasy. In his dreams he was troubled by nameless dread. He awoke atlast seemingly with a scream of human agony in his ears. 

Had something happened to his comrades during his brief defection?Mark sprang erect and looked over the sleeping camp. Every person wasin his place, but the fire was low. It had been, perhaps, an imaginedsound that aroused him so suddenly. 

He threw more wood on the fire and stepped out upon the ice to getmore of the fuel he had previously cut into handy lengths. Thismorainial deposit which offered rootage for the trees and bushes wasbut a narrow streak--a sort of an island on the glacier. They hadcarried the bear meat out to a small sink in the ice where there weregreat slabs of the hard crystal which were easily packed over the meat. As Mark started for the wood he heard a noise out on the ice in thedirection of their cache. He picked up his rifle again quickly andstarted for the spot. Something was disturbing the meat, and Mark didnot lack courage. His rifle was loaded and, thanks to Andy, he was agood shot. The old hunter took pride in training the boys to shootwell. 

The youth did not stop to ask what manner of enemy it was disturbingtheir cache. And it never entered his head to disturb the camp. He ranright out upon the glacier and had advanced to within a few yards ofthe spot before he learned what he was up against, for a huge blockof ice hid the cache from his view. 

Around this ice-block, from either side, as though they had been waitingpurposely to ambuscade him, shot several animals, who charged himwithout as much as a whine. 

"Dogs!" thought Mark, remembering the Alaskans that Phineas Roebachhad been forced to abandon. "They have gone mad. "

But the next moment he saw his mistake. They were wolves--huge, gaunt, shaggy fellows, with gaping jaws displaying rows of ferocious teeth. They charged him in awful silence, their great claws scratching overthe ice. 

There were eight or ten of them in sight and they were only a few yardsaway from the youth when he first saw them. But instantly Mark droppedto one knee to steady himself, put the rifle to his shoulder, andopened fire. 

Four shots he placed in quick succession. Two of the wolves rolledover and over upon the ice, and a third limped off after the remainder, who darted behind the ice-block again. Mark leaped up, uttering a shoutof triumph, and followed them, believing that he had beaten the packthus easily. 

But the moment he came around the obstruction he found himself in themidst of the actual pack. He was not charged by a dozen of the fiercecreatures, but by more than half a hundred. 

The wolves had raided the cache already, having torn away the blocksof ice, and were feasting on the half-frozen bear meat. Mark did notthink at that moment of driving them away, however; he wanted to getaway himself. 

His shots had aroused the camp, although he was some distance from it. But when his friends ran out upon the ice they did not see him, andnobody for the minute suspected what had happened or where the youthhad gone. The two bodies of the wolves were not at first sighted. 

Mark did not have a chance to use his rifle again. The wolves seemedto rush him from all sides, and a huge gray fellow leaped against him, knocking the rifle from the lad's grasp and rolling him over and over, half stunned, upon the ice. 

By marvelous good fortune none of the savage beasts followed him forthe moment. The wounded wolf took up their attention. They pitchedupon him and before Mark could rise to his feet the savage brutes hadtorn their wounded comrade limb from limb. 

The ice was stained crimson and their slobbering jaws ran blood. Amore terrifying sight the youth had seldom seen. He could not reachhis rifle, and the bulk of the pack was between him and the way he hadcome. He therefore leaped away in the other direction, running frominstead of toward his friends. 

He passed through the thinning pack without being touched, althoughseveral of the beasts snapped at him and the clashing of their fangssent cold chills up and down his spine. Then he leaped away at topspeed across the ice. 

It was a natural move, but a very unwise one. The wolves tore theircomrade to pieces and bolted the pieces in about sixty seconds. Thenthey wheeled en masse and shot off across the glacier after the boy. 

Mark ran about as fast as he had ever run before. Fortunately he hadspurs in his boot-soles and therefore he did not slip on the ice. Butsuddenly he found that he was crossing a smooth sheet of new ice--thesurface of a lake in the glacier. This lake had frozen after the sunwent down and Mark felt the new ice bend under him as he ran. 

The moonlight revealed his path before him plainly; but the now yappingpack behind took up so much of his attention that Mark did not takea careful view of the surface of the thinly frozen lake. 

The leaders were all but upon him in a very few moments. As the firstwolf leaped, Mark threw himself sideways and ran off at a tangent, holding his feet much better than did the brutes. They went scratchingalong the smooth ice for some yards before they could change theircourse. 

The turn, however, put Mark in a serious position. He found the thinice cracking loudly under his feet. He glanced ahead. There was astreak of open water. 

He tried to turn again, but this time his spurs slipped. He went downon the ice. The first two wolves were a-top of him and one seized hisarm. But luckily it was protected by his thick coat sleeve. 

Then the wolves darted back from the prone, sliding body of the boy. They saw their peril; Mark could not help himself. 

With a shriek and splash he was struggling in the deadly cold waterof the lake. He plunged beneath the black surface while the yappingpack halted upon the very verge of the broken ice. 

CHAPTER XXII

THE WOLF TRAIL

The hole into which Mark fell was not many yards across; but when hecame to the surface of the icy water he found that the edge of thestrong ice was fringed with open jaws and lolling, blood-red tongues. The wolves had surrounded the open bit of water and were prepared towelcome him with wide jaws wherever he sought to climb out. 

The lad knew well enough that he was helpless against these foes. Toseek to reach the ice would be to give himself up to the savage brutes. Nor could he remain long afloat in this ice-cold water. He was alreadychilled to his very marrow. 

Mark was in a perilous position indeed. He could bear up but a fewmoments. He knew that if he again sank beneath the surface he wouldnever rise again. 

And so he struggled mightily to keep his head above water. The wolvesdid not dare leap in to seize him; they did not have to. In theircanine minds they probably knew that the boy would have to come tothem. But fortunately for Mark the wolves had given tongue when theychased him over the ice. Otherwise the boy's friends might not havebeen warned of his predicament until too late to be of assistance tohim. 

But the moment the wolves gave tongue Andy Sudds had started with awhoop for the cache of bear meat. Jack and Phineas Roebach followedwith their weapons. 

Coming in sight of the slavering pack, as they whined about the openwater-hole in the lake, Andy advised his companions as to the situationand they deployed so as to shoot into the pack of wolves without sendingtheir bullets in the direction of the half-drowned Mark. 

All using magazine rifles, they were enabled to send such a fusilladeinto the wolves that the pack was scattered in a few moments. Thenthey ran on to the edge of the broken ice, finding at least a dozendead brutes lying about the water-hole. 

Jack lay down and reached his gun barrel out to his chum and by itsaid Mark got to the edge of the ice and scrambled out of the water. They ran him back to the campfire in short order and then Andy set outto make a second attack upon the wolves, the pack having returned toeat up their comrades. 

However, the beasts had already been punished enough. They could notstand before the old hunter, and ran howling down the glacier. 

"One thing about it, " Andy Sudds said, "we can make up our minds thereis an outlet from this field of ice in that direction. To escape wehave only to follow the wolf trail. "

They were not in shape to travel at once, however. Jack's hand painedhim frightfully after his work in helping Mark escape from the water, and Mark, himself had a serious chill before sunrise. Treated by theprofessor, however, the youth quickly recovered from his plunge intothe lake. 

But it was decided, nevertheless, to wait over another of the short, torrid days before leaving the trees, for the traveling by night wouldbe much more practicable. So they were leisurely eating another mealof bear steak when the sun touched the horizon with rosy light. 

The dawn broke in what Jack termed "record time, " and Washington Whitegave vent to his surprise in characteristic language:

"I done seed de sun rise in eb'ry clime, f'om de Arctic t'rough detropical to the Antarctic kentries. But de speed wid w'ich disher sunpops up is enough ter tear de bastin 't'reads loose from de Universe--itsuah is! I finds mahself, " continued Wash, reflectively, "circumnavigatin' ma mind to de eend dat disher 'sperience we is allgoin' t'rough is a hallucination ob de brain. In odder words, we isall climbin' trees an' makin' a noise like de nuts wot grows dere. Doyou hear me?"

"We hear you, " said Jack. "And if you think you're crazy, all right. I don't feel like joining you in the foolish factory yet awhile. "

"I more than half believe the darkey's right, " muttered Phineas Roebach. "This experience is enough to turn the brain of any man. I don't myselfbelieve half the things we are seeing. "

The heat of the sun, as soon as it had well risen, was a fact thatcould scarcely be doubted, however. They were glad to seek the shadeof the fir trees, and the surface of the glacier began to melt witha rapidity that not only surprised, but startled them. 

A flood of water, like a great river, began to sweep by the narrow bitof earth on which they were encamped. The roar of the falling waterinto the crevasse from which they had so fortunately escaped soonbecame deafening. 

They all had to remove their outer garments. The smell of the heatedfir branches was like the odor of a forest on a hot August afternoon. Professor Henderson watched the melting of the ice with a serious face. When Mark asked him what he thought threatened their safety, the oldscientist replied:

"I _am_ serious, that is true, my boy. I see in this terrible heat thethreat of a great and sudden change in this glacier. We must start assoon as the freeze comes on to-night, and travel as fast as we cantoward the far end. Mr. Roebach knows the trail, I believe?"

"I've been over it several times; but I must say that the glacier hassunk a whole lot since I was across it before, " the oil man declared. 

"We can follow the wolves, " said Andy Sudds, stoutly. "They knew theirway out. "

"That is true, we will hope, " Professor Henderson said. "For I muststate that I believe our peril is very great. "

"How so, sir?" Jack queried. 

"We do not know how soon this glacier may move on. "

"Another earthquake?" cried Mark. 

"Oh, gollyation! I suttenly hopes not, " wailed Wash. 

"No. I do not think we need apprehend any further seismic disturbance. Such gaseous trouble as there is in the heart of this island will findescape--if I do not mistake--through Mr. Roebach's oil well. "

"Then what is troubling you, sir?" queried the boys in chorus. 

"The knowledge I possess of the nature of glaciers leads me to fearthis peril, " replied the aged scientist. "Under the immediate conditionsthis vast river of ice may move forward at any moment. "

"Impossible, I tell you!" interrupted Phineas Roebach. "I tell youthis is a 'dead' glacier. It has not been in motion for ages. I haveseen the face of it at the lower end of this valley. There is only asmall stream of water trickling from under it, and the forest has grownright up to the base of the ice wall. "

"And how big a stream do you suppose is flowing from beneath the glaciernow, and working its way toward what was once the Arctic Ocean--orBeaufort Sea?" queried the professor. 

"Why--why---"

"Exactly, " concluded Mr. Henderson, sharply. "You had not thought ofthat. You see this vast amount of water pouring into yonder crevasse?Water cannot run up hill. It is bound to seek a lower level. It mustforce its way down the valley, beneath the glacier, and so stream outfrom beneath the ice at the far end. 

"Gradually this flow of water is going to wear away the ice--is goingto loosen the entire glacier. And then, suddenly, with no warning atall, the field will plunge forward--break up, sink, grind itself topowder against these cliffs! And where will we be?"

"My goodness gracious gollyation!" cried Washington White. "I wantsto git out o' disher right away--me an' Buttsy is ready ter go teronct, an' no mistake!"

"What will you do--swim?" queried Jack, pointing to the river that wasnow washing the shore of the strip of soil on which they stood--a riverwhich seemed to stretch the entire breadth of the glacier. 

Jack and Mark were deeply impressed by the good sense of the professor'sobservations; and both Andy and Roebach were disturbed. They watchedthe disintegration of the ice with considerable worriment. It seemedto melt away much quicker during these hours of sunshine than it hadon the previous occasion when the orb of day shone fully upon thesurface of the island in the air. 

The soil they had camped upon began to crumble away, too, for the heatwas insidiously melting the ice under the morainial deposit. At thetime which should be high noon--when the sun was directly overhead inits course--one end of the patch of soil, forest and all, slumped intothe water with a loud crash, and at once the fierce current tore therubbish apart and carried it onward to the brink of the crevasse, intothe maw of which it fell. 

"Wash is perfectly right in his statement, " Jack Darrow said. "Thisis no place for any of us. As soon as the ice freezes up after the sunsets we must travel as fast as we can after the wolves. "

"And I wish we could travel as fast as they can, " muttered Andy Sudds. 

"I wish we had Mr. Roebach's dogs and sleds, " said Mark. 

"All right. As long as you're wishing, though, why not wish for theright thing?" demanded Jack. 

"And what is that, Master Jack?" asked the oil man. 

"Wish we were aboard the _Snowbird_ and that she was all right. That'swhat _I_ wish. "

"And I reckon the boy's right, " said Phineas Roebach, with a sigh. "Asmuch as I object to flying through the air, an airship now would bea God-send indeed. "

What bear meat the wolves had not destroyed the water now washed away. The party had only that which Andy had smoked over the fire. But thiswas easily carried and their packs were not heavy when they preparedto leave the camp as soon after sunset as the frost would allow. 

The terrific change from the heat of midsummer to the cold of midwinter, and all within something near twenty-four hours, was hard indeed tobear. The professor calculated that the drop in temperature from highnoon was, two hours after sunset, exactly seventy degrees Fahrenheit. 

"Human life will become extinct upon this fragmentary planet, if nothingfurther happens to it, in a very few years, " he said, thoughtfully. "We are not attuned to such frightful changes. "

They had eaten, and had packed their supplies. The earth had long sinceappeared again and the radiance she reflected fell softly upon theice-field. It glistened like silver, stretching, miles and miles awaybefore them when they climbed down from the fringe of trees in whichthey had encamped, and set out down the glacier. 

They traveled carefully at first, for there were sinks in the ice whichhad barely skimmed over since sun-down. The thermometer registered 18above zero, however, and the biting cold was congealing all lakes andpools very rapidly. Where they tramped through the slush theirfootprints froze behind them. In an hour the mercury had fallen tendegrees more and they were beating their gloved hands across theirbreasts to keep up the circulation. 

They tramped on at good speed for several hours. Here and there alongeither edge of the glacier, were groves of fir trees like the one theyhad encamped in. But in places the ice had melted from under and aroundthese patches of rock and soil and the roots of the trees were exposed, while the earth had slumped away in small land-slips until nothing buta heap of debris was left. 

The old professor grew weary and Andy insisted upon making camp againand resting. While they were warming themselves over the fire the oldhunter built, and Wash was boiling some coffee, Jack suddenly beheldseveral shining points of light in the little wood on the edge of whichthey had halted. 

"Look out! We're being watched, " he whispered in Andy's ear. 

The hunter grabbed his rifle and looked where Jack pointed. At oncehe seemed relieved. 

"The wolves, " he said. "They know their way out of this valley. I don'twant to travel on this ice any longer than I can help. "

With a word to the professor, and taking Roebach with him, the oldhunter made a determined charge into the brush at the lurking wolves. The pack scattered at first, but finding themselves determinedlyfollowed, and both hunters having been wise enough to take torcheswith them (for wolves are very much afraid of fire) the pack finallygathered once more and trailed away up a narrow path upon the rockywall close at hand. 

In the white light furnished by the earth-planet Andy counted thirtyand more of the beasts climbing this rugged path. He was sure it wasno mere lair they went to among the rocks, but a path leading out ofthe valley altogether. Therefore, when the party was again refreshed, they took up their line of march, in single file, following the wolftrail. 

CHAPTER XXIII

THE FIGHT AT ALEUKAN

Phineas Roebach knew nothing about this narrow defile through whichthe party traveled. But he agreed that they were breaking through thewall of the glacier on the right side. Aleukan, the big nativesettlement, was in this direction. 

There seemed to be a narrow crack through this cliff which had guardedthe river of ice. It had never been used by man as a right of way, butthe beasts of the wilderness had used it from time immemorial, as themarks along the way proclaimed. 

The scurrying feet of the wolf pack, were long since out of the way. But yonder a mountain sheep had been killed by a puma, or other bigfeline, and the wolves had picked its bones after the Master of theChase had eaten his fill. 

Where a little rill of sweet water sprang from between two boulders, boiling out white sand from the depths of its spring, was the printof a bear's paw. Many of these marks Jack and Mark saw for themselves;but Andy was quick to point them out as he led the way up the steeppath. 

Their progress was necessarily slow because of the aged professor. Although the scientist was not the man to retard the party, Andy wouldlet nobody take the lead but himself, so that he could watch the oldman's flagging steps and call a halt whenever he thought it best forMr. Henderson to rest. 

"You are babying me, Andy!" ejaculated the professor, with someirritation. 

"You're the most important person in this party, sir, " declared thehunter. "We can lose any other person and not miss him much. But withoutyou we'd be without a head. "

Therefore, when they had clambered through the last steep cut andreached the farther slope of the cliff, the hunter called a halt andbuilt a camp, determined to bivouac here although the oil man assuredhim that they were now less than twenty miles from Aleukan. 

A few hours later they awoke to find the sun rising once more and theheat of the exposed hillside becoming unbearable. Were it not for thewonderful clearness of the air they could not have stood the heat atall. But all agreed that they would better descend the hill to theforest and so be sheltered from the direct rays of the sun. 

The bearing of their extra clothing in this tropical heat was an effort, and they were all glad to find shelter beneath the huge-limbed treesat the foot of the slope. 

There they lay in the shade and discussed the direction they shouldtravel from this point. It was not until this time they discoveredthat their pocket compasses pointed the north as being in a totallydifferent direction from what they had supposed. Phineas Roebach haddeclared the native settlement of Aleukan to be directly north andwest of the place where he had tapped the mud-spouter. But now, althoughhe was positive of the contour of the hills and the line of peaks ofthe Endicott Range under which Aleukan was established, their compassesmade the direction southwest. 

"Not at all strange, sir, " said Professor Henderson. "In becomingdetached from the old earth, our new planet was shifted a good bit, and that which was to the north is now almost west. If, by chance, this island in the air includes that point on the earth's surface whichonce represented the most northerly spot--the North Pole, in fact--itis the North Pole no longer. The magnetic needle points instead to anew North Pole, established on this fragment of a planet since it wasshot off into space from its parent world. "

Phineas Roebach grunted his disbelief in all this. He could not getit into his head that they were riding on a piece of the old earthfar, far above that stable planet. He would not believe it. No marvelof this situation could change his belief. He would not accept theprofessor's theory of what had happened to them. 

The sun went down again and the frost began to creep after it. Alreadythe bulk of vegetation about them (save the hardy firs and kindredtrees and shrubs) were black and dead. The change in climate had tolledthe knell of all those plants that had withstood heretofore the rigorsof the Alaskan summer. 

"What do you suppose has happened to the _Chrysothele-Byzantium_herb that Dr. Todd sent us for?" demanded Jack Darrow. "Seems to methat will be badly frost-bitten by the time we find it; won't it?"

"I fear so, indeed, " admitted Professor Henderson. 

"Lawsy-massy!" gasped Wash. "Do yo' mean ter tell me dat we ain't gwineter fin' dat chrysomela bypunktater plant after all? What fo' did wecome away off here on dis floatin' islan' if we ain't gwine ter gitdat specimen of botanical horrorforbilicalness? I done hoped I couldtell ma friends w'en I returned dat we done was successful, an' curesome ob dem ob craziness in de haid by applyin' some ob de bypunktater. If we don't find it, den dey all say we been follerin' achimera-infantum--in odder words, dat we needs some ob de bypunktaterour own selfs!"

"You mean, " said Jack, seriously, "that they will think we are crazyif we do not bring home what we were sent for?"

"Dat's wot I done said, " grumbled the colored man. 

"No, you didn't say it; but you meant it, most likely, " admitted Jack. "And I reckon you are right. It does seem as though we have come along way for nothing. "

"And no likelihood of our ever getting back!" added Mark, despondently. 

But this was out of the professor's hearing. The party was already ontheir way again, and the traveling was much easier now. Andy and Roebachled the way, followed by the professor and the boys, Wash, with hisrooster in a fur bag, following on behind. They covered the twentymiles to the hilltop which overlooked Aleukan without making more thanone short stop. By that time both the earth and her largest satellite, the moon, were shining brightly upon this little planet on which ourfriends had become marooned. 

"Hurrah!" cried Jack. "We are _somewhere_ at last! Do you supposethose supplies got over from Coldfoot before that last eruption?" "Ifthe train did not arrive before that time, " said Mark, "make up yourmind that it never will arrive. Probably there is no Coldfoot on thisplanet. "

"There are some natives on hand, at least, " said the professor, withsatisfaction. 

They indeed saw several men moving about the town; but Phineas Roebachdid not seem at all pleased. 

"I don't like that a bit, " he declared. 

"Don't like what?" asked Andy Sudds, quickly. 

"There's always a slather of squaws and children around Aleukan. Thereare two white traders here, too--one representing the Hudson Bay Companyand the other working for the French Company. And always a heap ofdogs are in sight. "

"What do you suppose is the matter?" Jack queried. 

"Don't know, " grunted the oil man. "Looks as though the squaws andyoung ones had been sent off with the sleds. Why, those fellows areall armed, too!"

"I expect that the strange happenings have puzzled and frightened theaborigines, " suggested Professor Henderson. "We had better go downinto the town and try to allay their fears. "

The hunter and Roebach evidently had their doubts regarding the wisdomof this move. Yet they had come all this distance for the expresspurpose of going into Aleukan. They set out down the trail to enterthe big village of cabins and skin huts. 

Suddenly the group of bucks in the principal street of the town turnedand ran shouting toward the little party descending from the heights. Their actions were extremely warlike. 

Then up from a side gulch appeared twice as many other Indians, armedwith spears and guns. Several shots were fired at the party approachingthe town. 

"Lawsy-massy!" yelled Washington White. "Disher don't seem like deus'al 'Welcome to our City' warcry. Dem fellers don't want us nohow!"

"Now we see just how popular we are with the natives of Alaska, " saidJack. "What do you think of it, Mark?"

"I think we're in bad, " returned his chum, gripping his rifle nervously. 

"Quite remarkable! quite remarkable!" repeated Professor Henderson. 

"Back to that bunch o' rocks!" shouted Andy Sudds, who had taken inthe strategic advantages of a position they had just passed, at aglance. 

All saw the wisdom of the old hunter's suggestion. They hurried to thegroup of boulders. They made a natural breastwork behind which a fewdetermined men could hold at bay a horde of enemies--for a time, atleast. 

"The Indians are coming right on, " cried Mark, excitedly. 

"And I see some of my old workmen among them, " declared Phineas Roebach. "That is what is the trouble. Those fellows have got it into theirheads that we are somehow the cause of these misfortunes that haveovertaken this part of the hemisphere. "

"You go out and parley with them, Mr. Roebach, " suggested the professor. 

"You can't parley with them while their 'mad' is up, " said the oilman. "They're charging. Give them a volley--and don't be afraid toshoot low. They will listen better to reason after they taste some ofour lead. "

His final words were lost in the explosion of the guns. All but theprofessor fired. He had no weapon. Several Indians fell, wounded inthe legs, for all had taken Roebach's advice and fired low. 

With shrieks of rage and pain the Aleuts fell back, and found shelterfor themselves behind trees and rocks. But they were not minded togive up the fight so easily. They gradually extended their line ofbattle until they had our friends completely surrounded. Their desultoryfire, however, did not at first do any damage to those in the fortress, and the whites replied only occasionally, taking careful aim and wingingan Indian at almost every shot. 

CHAPTER XXIV

THE FLIGHT TOWARD THE COAST

Washington White was a good shot, but he did not like fighting. Andhe was particularly careful not to show himself above the breastworkof boulders behind which he, with his companions, were crouching, holding the Aleuts at bay. 

"Disher ain't no place for a'spectable pusson ob color, " he muttered. "Wot do Buttsy an' me want o' shootin'? Wah! Dat bullet chipped derock right near ma haid! Ain't dat Injun got no respec' for who I is?"

"I don't believe he knows who you really are, Wash, " chuckled Jack, whose wounded hand was now so much better that it did not keep himfrom handling his rifle in a way to make old Andy proud of his pupil'smarksmanship. 

"Can dat be a posserbility?" demanded Wash, vainly. "Ain't dey nebberhearn tell ob me, d'yo s'pose, Massa Jack?"

"I believe they are quite ignorant of who you are, " returned Jack, with gravity. 

"But some ob 'em done seed me ober dar at Massa Roebach's camp. Yas, sah! I reckernize one o' dem Injuns--de short feller behin' dat treeclose up yere. Gollyation! he jest fired dat shot dat come purt nighhittin' Buttsy. "

"He's trying to kill that Shanghai, Wash, " said Jack, wickedly. "That'swhat he's trying to do. "

"Dat settles it!" ejaculated the colored man, mighty wroth at thisthought. "I ain't goin' ter stan' no sech doin's. Tryin' ter shootButtsy; is he? I'll show him in jest erbout a minute dat nobody kinshoot at ma Shanghai wid imputation an' git erway wid it--no sah!"

The boys had no idea that he would do so reckless a thing. Wash wasnot ordinarily a courageous person. But he was "riled all up" now, andhe feared for the Shanghai's safety. 

Up he jumped, threw down his rifle, and agilely leaped the fortificationin the direction of the short Indian who had attracted his anger. Hestreaked it across the intervening space so quickly that the startledenemy did not even fire at him. 

But Andy Sudds began firing his magazine rifle as fast as he couldsight her and pull the trigger, and Roebach followed his example. Thisvolley drove all the Indians to cover and doubtless saved the strangelyreckless negro's life. 

Wash reached the cover of the Aleut accused by him of aiming directlyto finish the Shanghai rooster, and before that startled aboriginecould escape, he was disarmed by the black man and dragged across theintervening space to the fort. 

Wash was powerful and could easily do this, for the Indian was not aheavy fellow. But on the way one Indian had fired at the darkey andwounded the Aleut in the leg. 

"Lemme tell yo', " roared Wash, "I ain't gwine to hab no off-colorcritter like disher try ter combobberate ma Shanghai. Dat is ma finalratification ob de pre-eminent fac's. Does you understand me?"

"We most certainly do, Wash!" declared Jack, when he could speak forlaughing. "And we'll never call you a coward again. "

"You have given us a hostage, " said the professor. "You have done well. "

Wash strutted and preened himself over this praise until another bulletsang over his head. Then he dropped down flat on the ground and groaned:

"Golly! dat bullet said--jes' as plain as day--'Whar is dat coon?'D' youse 'speck dat it meant _me_?"

Meanwhile Phineas Roebach had taken the wounded Aleut in hand. He notonly extracted the bullet and bound up the wound, but he made thefellow explain the situation in Aleukan and tell why the Indians hadattacked the white men. The natives believed implicitly that the whitemen in the strange flying machine had brought the awful earthquakesand storms of ashes, and that now they were burning up the poor Indiansfor a part of the day and freezing them the rest of the time. 

Believing all the whites in the region leagued together they had atonce driven out the traders at Aleukan. This Indian did not know whathad become of the traders and their assistants. They had started ondog sleds toward the Polar Ocean. 

No train had come in from Coldfoot for a month. Therefore it was plainthat the supplies Professor Henderson had expected to meet him herewould not now arrive. The pass through the Endicott Range was so highthat, so the party all believed, an attempt to cross the mountain rangewould result in the death of those who attempted. There was noatmosphere at the altitude of that pass. 

There were no more shots fired after the Indian was brought in byWashington. The whites talked the situation over and finally the oilman made the Aleuts an offer through the captive. It was agreed thatif the white men were allowed two sleds and two teams of good dogs, with provisions for the dogs to last a week, they would instantly setout on the trail of the departed traders, thus removing their fatalpresence from the vicinity of Aleukan. 

This agreement was considered wise by all hands, for they felt thenecessity of joining if possible white men who were more familiar withthe territory than they were. In numbers there would be strength. Ifthere was to be a war on this new planet between the whites and thereds, it behooved our friends to join forces with their own kind asquickly as possible. 

The captured Indian was made to accompany the train for two days andthen was freed. The dog teams swept the party over the frozen trailat good speed toward the Anakturuk River which empties into theColeville, which in turn reaches the Arctic Ocean at Nigatuck, in sightof the Thetis Islands. 

Food was very short. Game seemed to have fled from the valleys throughwhich they passed. The cold at night (the only time they could travel)remained intense. And that flight toward the ocean shore--or what hadonce been that shore--was a perilous journey indeed. 

CHAPTER XXV

THE HERD OF KADIAKS

Jack Darrow and Mark Sampson had never experienced so arduous a tripby dog sled as this. The party was really running a race withstarvation. The terrible frosts of each long night on this island inthe air had killed every species of vegetation the country wide, savethe very hardiest trees and shrubs. The country, which two weeks beforehad been verdant as only a northern country can be verdant in latesummer, was now as black as though a fire had swept over it. 

Everywhere, too, lay the volcanic ashes that had fallen ere the newplanet had been shot from the earth by the volcanic eruption. It wasindeed a devastated country through which the Alaskan dogs drew them. 

They dared not drive the dogs more than twelve hours out of the longnight; but when the word was given to "mush, " and the train started, the party kept up a good speed for those dozen hours. 

Andy Sudds and Phineas Roebach took the lead in this journey. Theyunderstood better how to handle the dogs and how to choose the trail. But, indeed, the trail was pretty well marked for them by the whitetraders who had gone before. Their camping sites were marked by aplenitude of discarded and empty food tins. 

The party ahead, in whose pursuit the boys and their friends were, undoubtedly traveled just as fast as Jack and Mark. And they had aweek's start, according to the Indian who had not been allowed toreturn to his fellows until the whites were well along the trail tothe Anakturuk River. 

The valley of the river, when they reached it, was a desert. There waslittle wonder that most of the game had fled. All herb-eating animalswould have died for want of forage. 

"I am not sure, " the professor said, gravely, during one of theircampfire talks, "that physical life of any kind can long exist in thissmall planet. The vegetation is being rapidly destroyed. Soon theground will become like rock. The carnivorous beasts will live for awhile on the more timid creatures, then they will fight among themselvesuntil the last beast is destroyed. 

"There were no great lakes in this Alaskan region when our presentplanet was a part of the earth. We do not know how full the streamsmay be of fish. There are few birds to be seen, that is sure. I fearthat before many years this will be either a dead and frozen islandfloating in space, or it will be absorbed by some other body of theuniverse. "

"You said, Professor, " Jack observed, "that its ultimate end wouldeither be to fall into the sun, or collide with the earth. "

"And that is my belief yet; but I have no means of knowing surely. "

"I hope she bumps the world again!" cried Jack. "Maybe we can get offthen. "

"It will do a lot of damage when it falls, " said Andy Sudds, reflectively. "Some folks up there in the earth will get hurt. "

"Perhaps not, " the professor said, hastily. 

"How can it be otherwise?" Mark demanded. "This fragment of the worldmust be enormously heavy. Cities--counties--whole states will be buriedif we should fall into the earth. "

"Not if we came down into one of the big oceans, " said ProfessorHenderson. "We would probably sink some vessels, and might overwhelmislands; but if this island in the air is as big as Australia it couldeasily fall into the Pacific and do no particular harm to any presentexisting body of land--save through the great tidal waves that wouldresult from such a fall. "

"It is an awful thing to think of, " cried Mark. "I don't see, no matterhow this awful affair ends, but that we are bound to be overwhelmed. "

"We do not know that, " declared the professor, with his wontedcheerfulness. "Never say die. Our safety is in the hands of Providence. We have not got to worry about that. "

"Isn't he a wonder?" whispered Jack to his chum. "We ought to takepattern by him. Our grumbling and anxiety is a shame. "

Yet it was very difficult to remain cheerful under the circumstancesas they then were. Their provisions, even for the dogs, were at a lowebb. Not a shot at edible bird or beast had they obtained since leavingAleukan. And the torrid sun by day and the frost by night were mosttrying. 

"However, " said Professor Henderson, "I have kept a careful accountof the fluctuations of temperature since the catastrophe, and I findthat the mercury does not descend into the bulb so far now as it didat first. We are circling the earth, as the earth circles the sun. Atpresent we are turning more toward the sun. It is coming summer. Thesun will more and more heat this torn-away world. I do not believethat vegetation will start, and I look for nothing but frost duringthe hours of the sun's absence. But the cold night is not so intenseas it was at first. "

"It's quite cold enough, just the same, " Phineas Roebach grunted. "Itwas summer a few days ago--the best summer this part of Alaska everhas. And to jump right into cold weather--midwinter, as ye might say--isenough to kill us all. "

The oil man simply ignored the professor's scientific explanations oftheir situation and the changes in their environment. He absolutelywould not believe that they were floating in the air above the earth'ssurface. 

The trail down the valley of the Anakturuk was fairly smooth and welldefined; when they struck the Coleville--a much wider stream--the shorewas very rugged, and the dogs could scarcely drag the sleds over somestretches of the route. 

The traders who had gone before them were certainly having a hard time. Our friends traveled very slowly for two days, walking most of thetime. Then they found that the veil of ice that had formed on the widestream since the region had become a torn-away world, would bear bothmen and dogs; the sun merely made it spongy for a few hours each day, but did not destroy the ice, which was now three or four inches thick. 

Each night when the sun set and the air cooled the water on the surfaceof this sheet of smooth ice congealed again, making a splendid coursefor skating--had they only possessed the skates. But the sleds slippedmore easily over the ice and the dogs were saved for two or three dayslonger. The brutes were almost starved, however, and one of them goinglame, when they were released at a certain stopping place, the otherspitched upon their wounded comrade and like wolves tore the unfortunatedog to pieces before Roebach could beat them into submission. 

Andy Sudds chopped through the ice and set lines for fish; but thecatch was so small that the party could not spare more than the bonesfor the dogs. Starvation faced them. Mark was miserably despondent, and Wash was so lugubrious all the time that he seldom exploded in hisusual pyrotechnical displays of big words. His grain supply for theShanghai had completely run out, too, and the colored man divided hisown poor rations with his pet. 

"And the rooster's that lean he wouldn't be anything but skin and boneif we killed and cooked him, " Jack wickedly proposed. 

Wash looked upon his young friend in extreme horror. 

"Eat Buttsy?" he finally gasped. "Why Massa Jack! I'd jest as lief eata baby--dat I would!"

But the matter of eating was past the joking stage now. The dogs fellon the ice and could not get up again. It was a mercy to put them outof their misery, and this is what Phineas Roebach and Andy did--shootingeach faithful creature through the head and leaving the carcasses forthe wolves which had, all this time, followed the little party at arespectful distance. 

"If wolf meat was fit to eat we'd certainly live on the fat of theland, " quoth the oil man. 

"I wouldn't mind meeting a bear--savage as that other fellow was, "said Andy Sudds. 

And before they were through with this adventure they saw all the bearmeat--and that very much alive--that the party ever wished to behold. 

First, however, came Mark's invention. They dragged the emptysleds--after the dogs were killed--for several miles and then wentinto camp beside the stream, while the sun rose and warmed them mostuncomfortably. 

Roebach suggested abandoning the sleds as they could carry the littlestock of movables they now owned. But Andy was opposed to this as hefeared the professor might break down, in which event they would haveto drag him. 

"We must keep one of the sleds, at least, " the old hunter insisted. 

"I have a scheme, " quoth Mark, suddenly. "Why not use the sleds--both ofthem?"

"True enough--why not?" scoffed Jack. "Let's keep them to slide downhill on. Do you realize that the professor says we are still threehundred miles from Nigatuk and the mouth of the Coleville?"

"That is the reason I suggest traveling by sled instead of draggingthem behind us, " said Mark, unruffled. "I've got an idea. "

Jack stopped then. When Mark said he had an idea his chum knew it wasprobably worth listening to, for Mark possessed an inventive mind. 

"We will have to strap the robes and blankets on our shoulders if weabandon the sleds, " Mark Sampson said, quietly. "Let us utilize themto better advantage and save the sleds in addition. "

"How?" asked Phineas Roebach. 

"Make sails of the robes and propel the sleds, riding on them, too, "declared Mark. "Such wind as there is is pretty steadily at our backs. Why not?"

"Why not, indeed?" shouted Jack. "Hurrah for Mark!"

"A splendid thought, my boy, " declared the professor. 

Poles were cut for masts and Andy rigged a stout one on each sled, with cross-pieces, or spars, to hold the blankets spread as sails. Andy even rigged sweeps for rudders with which to steer these crudeice-boats. They got off under a fair wind as soon as the river waspassable again, and ran fifty miles straight away without stopping. This was a great lift toward the end of their journey, and all pluckedup courage. The Shanghai seemed to share the feeling of renewed hope, and began to crow again. 

They were obliged to rest over the sunlit day, as before, for the icebecame covered with a sheet of water an hour after sunrise, and theywere afraid the sled runners would cut through and let them all downinto the stream. 

However, they saw very well that--barring some unforeseen accident--theywould be able to reach the mouth of the river before the last of theirscanty food supply ran out. All the way now they looked for signs ofthe traders from Aleukan, who had started for the coast ahead of them. These men, however, seemed to have left the rough path along the bankof the Coleville, and were either traveling on the ice ahead, or hadstruck off into the wilderness. 

When they set sail for a second time the heavens, for the first timesince the final cataclysm that had shot them off into space, werebeginning to be overcast. 

"There is so great an evaporation while the sun is shining that I amsurprised that we have not had snow before, " the professor observed. "These mists rising from the earth and the bodies of water would becomeheavy nightly rains in any other climate. Here they will result, nowthat the atmosphere has become saturated with moisture, in heavy hailstorms and much snow. It is nothing more than I have looked forwardto. "

The remainder of the party were not so much interested in the naturalphenomena as he, however; they looked forward mainly to reaching somesafe refuge--some place where there were supplies and the fellowshipof other human beings. 

The wind increased, but its keenness the party did not mind. They wereonly glad that it remained favorable to their line of travel. Theyswept down the frozen river at a speed not slower than ten miles anhour. 

The wolves had followed them on the ice, or along the edge of theriver, up to this time. They saw, indeed, a pack of the ugly creatureson a wooded point ahead of them, at a distance of a couple of miles. But before the sleds reached this point (which served to hide the icytrack beyond) the wolves suddenly disappeared. 

"Something has scared them fellers, " Andy declared. 

"The traders?" suggested Jack, who traveled with the old hunter andMark on one sled, while Roebach, Wash and Professor Henderson sailedon the other. "Not hardly. Men wouldn't scare them critters so. Something bigger and uglier than the wolves themselves, I reckon. "

To prove how true Andy's guess was, Mark shouted the next moment:

"A bear--two of them! Three! See that crowd of bears, will you? Nowonder the wolves skedaddled. "

Several of the huge bears, like the one they had had the fight withon the glacier, appeared out of the woods and waddled on to the ice. They had evidently sighted the sailing party, and they roared savagelyand tried to head off the sleds. That they were wild with hunger, therecould be no doubt. 

"I have heard the Indians say that, in bad seasons, the bears travelin packs like wolves, and will attack villages and tear the huts topieces to get at the inmates, " Roebach said, from the other sledge. 

"How fortunate that we are not afoot, then, " Professor Hendersonremarked. 

The next moment the two sleds shot around the wooded point and theriver below lay before them. The bears were galloping after the partyand shut off all way of escape to the rear. 

"Oh, gollyation! Looker dat mess ob b'ars!" shrieked Washington White. 

And there was a good reason for the black man's terror. Strung outacross the frozen river, as though they had been waiting for the comingof the exploring party, was a great herd of Kodiak bears--monsters ofsuch horrid mien that more than Washington were terror-stricken bytheir appearance. 

There were more than half a hundred of the savage creatures, littleand big, and they met the appearance of the two sailing sledges witha salvo of bloodthirsty growls. 

CHAPTER XXVI

THE ABANDONED CITY

It was too late for our heroes and their friends to escape givingbattle to the bears. They could not steer the sleds clear of themonsters, nor could they retreat. There were enough of the savagebeasts in the rear to make this last impossible. 

"Come ahead!" yelled Andy Sudds to Phineas Roebach, who guided thesecond sled. "Don't stop. "

Jack and Mark, with the old hunter, were on the first sled. They werearmed with magazine rifles, and all seized these and prepared to fightfor their lives. 

Andy jammed the sweep with which he had been steering between his kneeand the stake at the rear of the sledge, and put his gun to hisshoulder. 

"Shoot into the nearest bears, boys, " he commanded. "You both takethat big fellow right ahead. Get him down and I'll try to pepper thoseon either side. "

But the bears were all shuffling across the ice to get at the sailingsleds. They were fast bunching immediately in the front of their humanenemies. 

Jack and Mark obeyed the old hunter's order. They poured their fireinto the huge, shaggy beast that rose on its hind legs before the sled, and roaring, spread its huge paws abroad ready to seize it and itshuman burden. 

Fortunately the wind had suddenly increased as the sleds rounded thewooded point. They were traveling faster. The lead pumped from therifles of the two boys spattered against the breast of the greatgrizzly, and stained its coat crimson in great blotches. But he stood, roaring in rage and pain, until the sled was right upon him. 

Jack and Mark were forward of the sail, which was hoisted amidships. The sled was surrounded by the savage beasts, and when it struck thetottering brute that alone stood in its direct path, there seemed tobe at least half a dozen of the bears on either side, rising on theirhaunches in preparation to strike. 

The collision almost overbalanced the sled. It certainly overbalancedthe bear, that had been hit by eight bullets from the rifles of Jackand Mark. And the huge body, lying right across the path of the sledge, halted it. 

"Swing your guns, boys!" bawled Andy. "Jack to the left, Mark to theright hand. "

Our heroes understood this command. They had been in tight placesbefore with the old hunter, and now they partook of his enthusiasm. 

The rifles spattered the lead among the nearest bears. Some of thecreatures fell back wounded. Some were merely enraged the more and, roaring their wrath, continued to advance. 

Meanwhile the old hunter had seized the steering sweep and endeavoredto turn the sled aside. It had rebounded from the heavy carcass of thebear which had dropped upon the ice before it. Now Andy tried to workthe sled around this obstruction. 

The second sled came; on, the professor relieving Roebach at the helm, and the oil man and Washington White pouring in volley after volleyat the bears. The black man was a good shot and in the excitement ofthe battle he forgot to be terrified. His bullets told as well as didthose from the rifle of Phineas Roebach. 

And fortunately the aged scientist brought this second sled safelythrough the line of bears. The first sled took the brunt of the battle. When that on which the professor sailed was a hundred yards beyond theherd of Kodiaks, he swerved it into the eye of the wind and so broughtit to a halt without lowering the blanket that served as a sail. "Comeon back and help' em!" cried Phineas Roebach, leaping out upon the ice. 

He started back toward the fight, firing as he went. Wash followedmore cautiously; and when one wounded beast started on a lumberinggallop in his direction, the colored man uttered a frightened shriekand legged it back to the professor. 

Fortunately just about then the sled on which the boys and old Andyfought, came through the ruck of the struggle. Andy hacked with ahatchet the paws from the last Kodiak that tried to seize the sled, and the two boys continued to pour bullets into the howling, roaringpack. 

They took Phineas aboard the slowly moving sled and so reached theprofessor and Wash. Immediately that sled was put in motion and theparty traveled a full mile before they dared halt and take stock ofthe damage done. 

The bears had given up the pursuit. The ice for yards around had beencrimsoned by the blood of the huge beasts. They could count, even atthat distance, ten dead ones, and many would die of their wounds. 

"And we didn't get even a slice of bear steak to pay us for it all!"groaned Jack. 

"Wrong, " returned Andy Sudds, proudly, and he held up the two paws hehad severed from the last brute. "Those will give us all a taste offricassee--and that same dish will be a welcome one, I declare. "

They were not again molested by bears; but looking back when they hadtraveled on some distance farther (the river being straight in thisplace) they saw a huge pack of wolves gathering on the ice--more thantwo hundred at least of the savage brutes--and believed that a battleroyal was in progress between the remaining Kodiaks and the wolves. 

"I hope they fight like the Kilkenny cats!" declared Jack, withemphasis, "And I hope the wolves will be kept so busy picking the bonesof the slain that they will follow us no farther. They are like sharksat sea. I hate the beasts. "

The country they passed as they slid down the river remained all butdeserted. The wind rose and wafted them faster and faster on theirway; but it was plainly bringing them a storm, too. 

When the sun rose next time it was behind a thick mantle of mist. Thunder rolled across the heavens and the lightning glared fitfully. The heat had been unbearable before the storm, and the downpour ofrain was terrific. The party was washed out of its encampment, and hadit not been that Andy discovered shelter for them in a sort of cavernunder a huge boulder, they would all have been saturated. 

The storm ended with a sharp fall of hail. Hailstones as big as duckeggs fell, and the wind blew so that a portion of the river-ice wasbroken up. When the storm ceased the sun was only an hour high and itwas already cold. 

There being no dry wood now, the party suffered exceedingly beforethey were able to set sail again on the re-frozen river. Quite sixhours elapsed after the cessation of the hailstorm until the ice wouldagain bear. 

The wind had then risen to a gale, and once under way, the sleds wereborne on under closely reefed blankets. They traveled down the streamat a furious pace--at least twenty miles an hour--and arrived withinsight of Nigatuk. But the appearance of this large and lively town (orso they had been led to expect it to be) was startling. 

Not a house was standing. Most of the ruins were blackened by adevastating fire. And silence brooded over the place--a silenceundisturbed by a human voice, the bark of a dog, or any other domesticsound. 

The delta of the Coleville River hid the ocean beyond. All they couldsee were the ice-bound forks of the stream. And no sign of life appearedin all that vast region to which they had flown for refuge and food. 

CHAPTER XXVII

THE WHALE HUNT ASHORE

The depressing influence of this disappointment could not fail to befelt by all--even by the old professor. They were without an ounce offood and had no means of continuing their journey, even had theypossessed an objective point. 

Nigatuk was expected to have stores. Whalers as well as Governmentships often touched there. If this torn-away world was to float aboutthe parent globe for long, Nigatuk might have become a focussing pointfor all the inhabitants of the new planet. 

But the volcanic eruption, or the earthquakes, had evidently shakenNigatuk to bits, and fire had finished what remained after theearthquakes got through. As for the former inhabitants of the place, our party could not even imagine what had become of them. 

When they went through the wrecked town, however, they found many bonespicked by the wolves. Some of the Nigatuk people had met their deathand the savage beasts had reaped the harvest. They found no signs ofthe company of traders whom they supposed they had followed fromAleukan, far up in the foothills of the Endicott Range. Not a boat wasfrozen into the ice at what had once been the wharves at the abandonedcity. That the remaining inhabitants had sailed away after thecatastrophe was at least possible. 

"At least, the ocean must be out yonder somewhere, " declared PhineasRoebach, pointing down the nearest estuary of the Coleville. 

Professor Henderson did not verbally agree with this statement; yethe made no objection to the suggestion that the party take up itsjourney again toward the sea. 

The wind was fitful. They traveled unsteadily, too, tacking back andacross the estuary, because the breeze was so light, and no longerastern. Ten miles down the mouth of the stream they beheld an islandwhere huge sheets of ice were piled one upon another, in an overhangingjumble of ice-hummock, some fifty feet high. And along the edge ofthis cliff was a herd of sea lions, that roared mournfully as the sledsadvanced. 

"Thank goodness!" exclaimed the professor. "There is meat again. "

Andy and Roebach needed no urging to the attack. Nor did the boys. They disembarked carefully and made a detour so as to get at the rearof the herd. The sea lion is not a very sagacious beast. 

Jack and Mark were on either side of the old hunter and were movingupon the herd with considerable circumspection, and all had about cometo a place where the rifles could be used effectively, when Jack Darrowspied something that brought a cry to his lips. 

Fortunately both the hunter and Mr. Roebach fired the next instant andtwo of the sea lions were hit. The remainder of the herd slid over theice-cliff and flopped away at good speed toward a break in the icethrough which they could get into the water. 

But Jack began to dance and shout, and Mark was too surprised to evenfire at the herd. 

"What under the sun is the matter with you, chum?" exclaimed Mark, with some asperity. "You're as bad as Washington White. "

"Maybe I'm worse, " bawled the cheerful Jack. 

"You scared off them sea lions, boy, " admonished Andy Sudds. "We onlygot two of them. "

"Don't care if I did, " replied Jack. "See yonder!"

The others followed the direction of his pointing arm with their gaze. Off beyond the headlands at the mouth of the river rose a column ofthick black smoke. It was as big a smoke as though some great forgeor factory was working overtime in that direction. 

"Hurrah!" cried Mark, re-echoing his chum's delight. 

The entire party was delighted. Yet not knowing who the people werewho made the smoke, nor under what circumstances they would find them, the dead sea lions were packed aboard the sleds before they continuedtheir way down the river. 

"That smoke lies a good way beyond the mouth of the river, " said PhineasRoebach. "I believe it is on the sea. "

"A vessel afire?" proposed Mark. 

"It's a fire on a vessel, " said the professor, suddenly. "I believethat is the smoke of the trying-out works on a whaler. "

"You've hit it, Professor, " agreed Andy Sudds. "It's a whaler for sure. There's more than _you_, Phineas, hunting for oil up in these regions. "

"A whaling ship on this island in the air, " murmured Jack. "What willthey do with the whale oil? They will never get back to San Franciscoagain. "

"We do not know that, " said the scientist, gravely. 

The last few miles, during which they could not see beyond the highice-shod banks of the estuary, were traversed slowly enough. They allgrew anxious to know what the column of black smoke meant. 

Finally they came to the open mouth of this branch of the river. Thesight they beheld almost stunned them. 

Instead of an ocean, rolling up in great surges upon the beach oneither hand, they beheld a vast sink through which the partly ice-boundriver crawled as far as the eye could see. They knew that this was theold bed of the Arctic Ocean; but the waters of that cold sea had recededand left little but ice-bound pools here and there. 

"Fo' de goodness gracious sake!" cried Wash. "Does yo' mean ter tryter mak' me beliebe dat disher place is whar' de great an' omniverousocean once rolled? Dat de hugeous salt sea broke its breakers on demice-bound shores? Git erlong, chile! Yo' is tryin' ter bamboozle me, suah. "

"That is where the Arctic Ocean rolled, all right, " growled PhineasRoebach. "I can swear to that. I have been here before. Something hascertainly happened to it. "

"I declare!" chuckled Jack Darrow, who could not miss the joke, despitethe seriousness of their situation. "Somebody has removed the oceanwithout permission. " Behind a great fortress of rock which had oncebeen an island they saw the same column of smoke. But it was somethingnearer to them on the bed of the Arctic sea that more particularlyattracted their attention. 

"Look at that thing! That monster!" cried Mark, pointing. 

"And there is another!" shouted Jack. 

"Whales!" yelled the excited Andy Sudds. "Those are whales as sure asshooting--there's a school of them here. "

And they had no more than made this discovery when a party of men, alldressed in furs and some dragging great sleds behind them, came outfrom behind the pile of rocks which had certainly once been an islandin the ocean. 

These new-comers did not see our heroes and their friends, but theyapproached the whale stranded nearest to the rocks. This huge leviathan, like all the others of the herd, was long since dead. The men attackedhim with blubber-saws and axes and began to cut him up in a mostworkmanlike manner. 

"A whaling ship, sure enough, " declared Professor Henderson, who seemedthe least astonished by these manoeuvres. "We will be among friendssoon. And we will hope that the ship--despite the fact that her crewhas come whaling ashore, --will have her keel in deep water. " The partyran their sleds ashore on the right bank of the river at its old mouth. Then they started at a round pace for the spot in the old bed of theocean where the crew of the whaler were cutting up their prize. 

CHAPTER XXVIII

ON THE WHALING BARK

It was several miles from the brink of what had once been the polarsea to the spot where the whalers were at work. Jack Darrow, MarkSampson, and their friends found it a difficult way to travel too. 

Naturally they had abandoned the sleds. The ice on the stream whichflowed out of this mouth of the Coleville River was so broken thatthey could no longer use it as a highway. The bottom of what had oncebeen the ocean was only partly ice-covered. There were enormous rocksto climb over, or to find a path around. Reefs and ledges reared theirheads fifty feet and more high. There were sinks, too, in the floorof the old ocean; but these were mostly covered with ice. 

The Arctic Ocean must have receded at the time of the upheaval whichhad flung this island into the air so rapidly that many of the sea'sdenizens, beside the school of whales, could not escape. 

Here, in one big pool, lay frozen in the ice a monster white shark. It had battered itself to death against the rocks in trying to escape. Through yonder blow-hole in another pool there suddenly appeared anenormous bewhiskered head, with great tusks like the drooping mustacheof a soldier. 

"A walrus!" exclaimed Jack, recognizing the creature. 

"And yonder are seals playing in the open pool, " said Mark. 

"These pools, or lakes, are still of salt water, " said the professor, thoughtfully. "Ah! what would I not have given to have been on thatheadland yonder at the moment the ocean went out. "

"Not me! Not me!" cried Phineas Roebach. "I'd gone completely off myhead then, for fair--I know I would!"

"Mr. Roebach is not quite sure now that he isn't suffering from someform of insanity, " said Jack, chuckling. 

"Den it suah is too bad dat we nebber kin fin' dat chrisomelabypunktater plant ter cure him wid, " declared Washington White, dolefully. 

"But, by the piper that played before Pharaoh!" ejaculated PhineasRoebach, at last brought to a point where he _had_ to admit thatno reasonable explanation would fit the conditions confronting them, "tell me this: What has become of the Arctic Ocean?" "You can searchme!" drawled Jack. "I can assure you, Mr. Roebach, that I haven't seenit. Have you got it, Mark?"

"The question of what has become of this great sea which once washedthe shore we are now leaving, " said Professor Henderson, seriously, "is a remarkably interesting one. The ocean may have merely recededfor a few miles at the time of the volcanic eruption and earthquakewhich threw off this new planet. "

Phineas Roebach shook his head at this, but said nothing. 

"It may be, " pursued Mr. Henderson, "that that part of our old worldthat was shot into space did not include much of this Arctic sea. Wemay find beyond here, " pointing, as he spoke, ahead, "instead of thereceded ocean, no ocean at all. We cannot believe that this island inthe air is spherical like our own old earth. It is a ragged form whichwill show on what we may call the _under_ side the very convolutions andscars made by its breaking away from the old earth. Do you get mymeaning?"

"Yo' suttenly is a most liquid speaker, Perfesser, " declared WashingtonWhite. "Yo' was sayin' dat w'en disher new planet broke off de earf, she slopped over de whole Arctic Ocean. "

"Perhaps that puts it quite as simply, " said Professor Henderson, smiling grimly. "The ocean 'slopped over'. It was either left behindto partly fill the cavity left by the departure of this torn-away worldwe are living on, or it has receded into the valleys and sinks uponthe other side of this small planet. "

Phineas Roebach threw up both hands and groaned. 

"It's as clear as mud!" he cried. "I don't understand a thing aboutit. "

But the old professor went on without heeding him, knowing that hispupils, Jack and Mark, were deeply interested in the mystery of thistorn-away world, or island in the air. 

"It is a moot question whether or not the weight of the water whichlay in this vast sink, before the eruption, was not needed, and is notneeded right now, for the balancing of this tiny planet we are livingon. Nature adjusts herself to every change more quickly than humanintelligence. How much of the crust of the earth, extending up intothe polar regions, was broken away from our old world, we do not know. But that it is now perfectly balanced we can have no doubt--that balanceis proved by the fact of the regularity of the recurrence of night andday. "

These and many other observations Professor Henderson spoke as theparty continued its rugged advance over the more or less dry bottomof the ocean. In two hours the party was observed by the crew of thewhaler at work on the carcass of the great whale. The sailors signaledto them, and when the boys and their friends drew near, some of thewhalemen ran forward to welcome them. 

"More refugees from inland, eh?" exclaimed a rough but cordial seaman, who proved to be the captain's harpooner and boat-steerer. "We havesome traders from Aleukan already with us. "

"Ah!" said Professor Henderson, "we have been looking for them. Theyhave arrived in safety, then?"

"But nearly frozen, " said the boat-steerer. 

"And where are the people of Nigatuk?"

"We believe all those not killed or burned in the first earthquakewere taken off by the United States revenue cutter _Bear_. She sailedfor Bering Sea some time before the final earthquake. "

"And where is the ocean?" demanded Phineas Roebach. 

"It was sucked away in a great tidal wave and left the _Orion_ high anddry yonder, " said the sailor. 

It was evident that the sailors had no appreciation of the realhappening. They did not know that they were cut off from the old earthby thousands of miles of space. "Your bark's name is _Orion_, then?"queried the professor. 

"Aye, aye, sir, " said the boat-steerer. "The _Orion_, out o' NewBedford; the only whaler under sail in these seas, I reckon. Most o'them that's after the ile is steam kettles, " he added, thusdisrespectfully referring to the fleet of steam whalers from SanFrancisco. 

"But we got 'em all beat, I guarantee, " he added, grinning. "We waschasin' a school of big fellers when the sea sucked out and left usan' them high and dry. But the skipper says the sea will come back ingood time and mean-times we gits the ile. "

Just then the boat-steerer was sending off several sled loads of blubberto his ship, and Jack and Mark, with the professor and their companions, accompanied the cargo. 

The _Orion_ was a fine big bark and was commanded by an old-fashionedYankee skipper of the type now almost extinct. He welcomed the travelersaboard his ship most cordially, the ship itself all of a stench with thetrying blubber, and overshadowed by a huge cloud of black smoke, for thefires were fed with waste bits of blubber and fat. 

The skipper and crew were literally "making hay while the sun shone, "for there were more than twenty huge leviathans within a circuit often miles from the bark, and they proposed to have every one of thembefore the flocks of seabirds, or the bears, should find and destroythe stranded creatures. 

"We'll fill every barrel and be ready to sail home with our hatchesbattened down when the sea comes back, " declared Captain Sproul. 

"And you are quite sure the ocean will return and float your bark?"queried the scientist, patiently, for he saw that it was quite asuseless to explain what had happened to this hard-headed old sea-dogasit was to talk to Phineas Roebach. 

"You can bet your last dollar it will come back, Mr. Henderson, "declared Captain Sproul. 

"Why do you think so?" asked the professor. 

"Why, the ocean always _has_ been here; ain't it?"

"I expect so--within the memory of man. "

"Then it will come back!" cried the skipper of the _Orion_, as thoughthat were an unanswerable argument. 

"But what do you call that up yonder?" asked Professor Henderson, pointing to the calm-faced earth rolling tranquilly through the heavens, while her satellite, the moon, likewise appeared. 

"We certainly are blessed with moons, " said Sproul, nodding. "Andmighty glad of it I be. As the day is so short now, and the sun is sohot, two moons to work by is a blessing indeed to us whalers. "

"And you don't consider that new planet anything wonderful?" JackDarrow asked Captain Sproul. 

"Not at all. We often see what they call sun dogs; don't we?"

"I have seen such things, " admitted the youth, while he and Mark smiledat the old skipper's simplicity. 

"That double moon is like that, I reckon, " said Sproul, and that endedthe discussion. 

CHAPTER XXIX

WHEN THE SEA ROLLED BACK

The boys were interested in this novel kind of whaling; but they weremore deeply interested in the possible outcome of the situation inwhich they, and their friends, and the fur-traders, and the bark'screw, were all placed. 

The tearing away of this piece of our planet, on which the boys andtheir companions now sailed, must end finally in some terriblecatastrophe. It would be catastrophe enough if the torn-away worldnever returned to the earth, but sailed forever and ever, round andround its parent planet. Our heroes and their companions would thenbe marooned without hope of rescue on a fragmentary planet in space, the said planet doomed to become a mere lump of dead and frozen matteradrift in the universe. 

Professor Henderson set up the powerful telescope that he had brought, with his other instruments, all the way from the wrecked flying machineleft in the crevasse of the great glacier, and busied himself in fillinghis notebooks with data relating to the movements of this new planet, and of the strange and remarkable incidents occurring each hour oftheir imprisonment on the island in the air. 

Jack and Mark, however, found time to help the whalemen secure the oilfrom the carcasses of the stranded leviathans which surrounded the_Orion_. They, with old Andy and Phineas Roebach, began to go outwith the parties of blubber-hunters to guard them at their work. Fornow great troops of polar bears appeared from the north, evidentlymaking their way from the fields of ice that likewise had becomestranded on the old sea bed; and these white bears were as savage andas hungry as were the Kodiak bears that infested the river. 

The two chums, thus engaged, had an adventure one day that they werenever likely to forget. Seeing that there were several of the hugewalruses imprisoned in the lakes of salt water remaining in the oceanbed, Jack and Mark desired to kill one for its great tusks. They knewwhere there was one of the beasts--half as heavy as an elephant--andnot far from one of the last whales the crew of the _Orion_ werecutting up. The boys were guarding this special party of seamen attheir work, but had seen no bears since sunset. 

There was plenty of light, for both the earth-planet was shining onthem and her moon likewise, although the latter was now in her lastquarter. Quite sure that the sailors would not be molested, Jack andMark crept away toward the pool where they had seen the walrus. 

They soon found, however, that they were not alone. Washington Whitehad come over from the bark, and seeing what the boys were about hefollowed them. 

"Is you suah 'nuff gwine ter try an' shoot dat hugeous wallingrust, an' pull his teef?" he whispered. "Yo' boys will git killed, some day, foolin' wid sech critters. "

"You'd better go back, then, " said Mark, "if you are afraid. "

But the darkey wanted to see how the boys proposed to go about thework of capturing the walrus. Jack had prepared a long and stout linewith a whale lance at one end and a sharp spike at the other. The boysvery well knew that the bullets from their rifles would make littleimpression on the walrus. They had to go about his, capture in adifferent way from shooting bears. 

The salt water lake in which the walrus was trapped was perhaps a mileacross, and there were several blow-holes in it. The party had to liedown behind a barrier of seaweed that the wind had tossed up in a greatwindrow, and wait for the walrus to appear at one hole or another. 

When his fierce head came into view Jack and Mark, with their satellite, Washington, crept around to the rear of the creature, and then madea swift but careful advance upon his position. They reached a spotupon the ice not more than ten yards from the blow-hole withoutattracting the attention of the walrus. 

Instantly Jack motioned his chum to stand ready to drive the steelspur at the end of the line into the ice to hold the beast, while hewent forward with the harpoon. Right at the edge of the broken ice, within ten feet of the monster, Jack Darrow stood a moment with theweapon poised. 

He swung back his body and arm, aimed true for the spot behind theshoulders of the walrus, and then drove the iron home with all hisstrength. 

The harpoon sank deep, and a mighty roar burst from the lips of thestricken beast. Mark drove down the steel peg, stamping on it to fixit securely in the ice. The walrus threw his huge body around and camehalf out of the water upon the ice to reach his tormentor. But Jackwas ready for this move, and he sprang back, out of danger, and pickedup his rifle. 

The ice of course broke under the walrus for yards around. His fiercelittle eyes seemed to take in every move of his tormentors. He sawboth boys (for Mark, too, had reached his gun) spreading out on eitherhand to get in fatal shots if they could. Meanwhile Washington Whitestood on the line close to the peg in the ice so that the beast couldnot jerk free. 

"Take him in the eye, if you can, Mark!" shouted Jack. "The cap ofblubber he wears will act like a cushion if we shoot him in the head. "

But before either of them could obtain a satisfactory mark, the beastsank from sight. He had broken the ice for some yards toward the placewhere the end of the line was fastened, and he now had plenty of slack. The boys waited expectantly for his reappearance, while Wash stood, open-mouthed and eyes a-roll. 

Suddenly the black man executed a most astounding acrobatic feat. Fromthat standing posture he executed in the twinkling of an eye a swiftback somersault, at least twenty feet from the ice!

"Oh, gollyation! I'se a goner!" he yelped, as he described hissurprising parabola through the air. 

The ice where Wash had stood, and where the steel peg had been drivenin, was crushed to fragments as the huge head and shoulders of thewounded walrus came up from the depths. The creature had marked thenegro's position exactly, and had burst through the ice at the rightspot. The wonderful lightness of all matter on this torn-away world, however, saved the darkey's life. The blow threw Wash so far away thatthe walrus could not immediately get at him. 

But he evidently laid his trouble entirely to the black man, and hethrew himself forward along the ice, smashing it to bits, and gnashingat it with his tusks. In half a minute he would have been on the spotwhere the negro lay had not the boys run in swiftly and pumped a dozenbullets into his eyes and down his open mouth. By good luck more thangood management they killed the beast. 

"See wot yo' done done!" wailed Washington White, rising gingerly andwith a hand upon the small of his back. "Yo' come near ter spilein'Perfesser Henderson's most impo'tant assistant. How do you 'speck deperfesser c'd git erlong widout me?"

This was certainly an unanswerable question, and the boys admitted it. They were sorry Wash had been so badly frightened, but they weredelighted at the possession of the tusks of the walrus. The whalerssecured the body, too, and made a very good quality of oil out ofthe blubber. 

In hunting adventures, and in the labor of trying-out the whale blubber, several weeks passed. The marooned scientist and his friends, with thecrew of the whale ship, experienced some bad weather during this time. For three entire days a terrible snowstorm raged--a blizzard thatdrifted the snow about the _Orion_ (which had chanced, when she wasstranded, to settle on a perfectly even keel) until one could walkover her rail out upon the bottom of the sea. 

But when this storm passed over the sun came out and shone as tropicallyas ever. The snow melted very rapidly and the old sea bed was soonawash. The beasts and fish still alive in the sinks were enabled toreach the streams running out of the various mouths of the Coleville, and these creatures took to deep water. 

"By Jo!" ejaculated Captain Sproul, "give us a leetle more water andwe'd sail the old _Orion_ after them, and reach the open sea again. "

He had every belief that the ocean would return to its former bed, andhis crew believed it, too. But Professor Henderson and the boysseriously discussed making some move from this locality. 

It was plain that there was still plenty of game 'along the shore ofthe old ocean, and they had about made up their mind to follow theedge of the shore toward Bering Sea and if possible find the revenuecutter _Bear_, when another storm broke over them. No snow fellthis time. There was almost continual thunder and a downpour of rainand hail that was sufficient to smother anybody that ventured out uponthe deck of the _Orion_. The new planet seemed to be in the throesof another eruption, too. 

Lightning lit the waste about them with intermittent flashes. They hadlost sight entirely of the old earth, of the moon, and of the sun. Itseemed to Jack and Mark as though this tiny island in the air must beflying through space again, buffeted by every element. 

The wind wailed and screamed about the whaleship. There were more thansixty souls aboard and they crouched in the cabin and in the forecastleand knew not what to make of such a foray of the elements. At onemoment the rain flooded down upon the decks as though a cloud had burstdirectly above them; then great hailstones fell, drumming on the plankslike musket balls. 

The calmest person among them all was Professor Henderson. CaptainSproul had given the aged scientist the use of the small chart-room. There he had set up certain of his instruments, and he hovered overthese most of his waking hours, making innumerable calculations fromtime to time. During the awful turmoil of the elements he watched hisinstruments without sleep. The boys remained with him most of the time, for they realized that some catastrophe was threatening which thescientist feared but did not wish to explain at once. 

Suddenly Captain Sproul burst into the chart-room and gasped:

"Can you tell me the meaning of this, Mr. Henderson? You're a scientificsharp and know a whole lot of things. My cook just went to the galleydoor to throw out a pot of slops and something--some mysteriousforce--snatched the heavy iron pot out of his hand and it went sailingoff over the ship's rail. Can you explain that?"

"Wasn't it the wind snatched it away?" asked Jack Darrow, before theprofessor was ready to answer. 

"Don't seem to be no wind blowing just at present, " said Captain Sproul. 

"Wait!" commanded the professor. "Order every companionway and hatchclosed. Do not allow a man to go on deck, nor to open a deadlight. Wemust exist upon the air that remains in the vessel for the present. "

"What do you mean?" gasped the skipper. 

"There is no air outside!" declared Professor Henderson, solemnly. "Weare flying through space where no atmosphere exists. The iron potmerely remained poised in space--our planet, far, far, heavier, isfalling through this awful void. "

"What sort o' stuff are you talkin'?" demanded Captain Sproul, growingpositively white beneath his tan. 

"We began to fall several minutes ago, " said the professor, pointingto the indicator of one of the delicate instruments before him on thechart table. "The balance of attraction between the earth and the sunhas become disturbed and we are plunging--"

"Into the sun?" shrieked Mark Sampson, springing to his feet. 

"No! no! Toward the earth! Toward the earth!" reiterated ProfessorHenderson. "Her attraction has proved the greater. We are falling withfrightful velocity toward the sphere from which we were blown off intospace so many weeks ago. "

"I reckon I'm crazy, " groaned Captain Sproul "I hear you folks talkin', but I don't understand a thunderin' word you say. "

"You can feel that the air in here is vitiated; can't you?" demandedProfessor Henderson. 

The boys had already felt that it was more difficult to breathe. Theyheard cries all over the ship. Washington White burst into the room, crying: "Oh, lawsy-massy me, Perfesser! We is done bein' smothercated. De breaf am a-leabin' our bodies fo' suah. "

The negro fell in a swoon, overturning the table and sending theprofessor's instruments crashing to the floor. The others, strugglingfor breath, likewise sank beside Wash. The lights all over the shipwere suddenly snuffed out. Every soul aboard lost consciousness as, rushing at unreckoned speed through the universe, the torn-away worlddescended toward its parent planet. 

How long they were unconscious none of the survivors ever learned. When they _did_ finally struggle to sense again, it was with the soundof the rushing of mighty waters in their ears. 

The _Orion_ was afloat! She was being tossed upon the bosom of awind-lashed ocean, and a hurricane, the like of which the two boyshad never experienced before, was at its height. 

Captain Sproul rose to his feet, panting for breath, but with hissenses all alert. He shouted:

"The sea has rolled back again! What did I tell you? Up and at it, mybully boys! Get a sail upon her so's we can have steering way. Everyile barrel is full and we're homeward bound!"

The hatches were opened and they rushed on deck. It was so black thatthey could see nothing but the storm-tossed waves--not a sign of land. But it was plain, too, that they were no longer on the lee shore. Theyhad plenty of sea room to work the ship and the brave sailors wentabout their usual tasks with cheerfulness. 

CHAPTER XXX

AN ENDURING MONUMENT--CONCLUSION

But Professor Henderson and the boys, as well as Andy Sudds andWashington, gathered in the chart room. The aged scientist was confidentthat during their period of unconsciousness the fragment of the earththat had once been shot off into space, had returned to its parentglobe, and he spoke cheerfully of their probable escape. 

"But have we descended into the very place we left?" demanded Mark. 

"Scarcely probable, " returned the professor. 

"Nevertheless the ocean has returned to this spot, " declared Jack. 

"There is water here, yes, " admitted the professor. "We are afloat, thatis true. "

"And is it not the Arctic Ocean?"

"Later I will tell you. They say there is no land in sight. I believethe bulk of the land which was shot off by the volcanic eruption hasnow sunk in this sea. What sea it is we can tell soon. "

"When can we see the sun and take an observation?" queried Mark. "Perhaps finding the temperature of this ocean which surrounds us willtell us something. However, we must have patience until this bitterstorm is past. "

And this did call for patience, for the hurricane continued for fullya week. Meanwhile the Orion ran on under almost bare poles, and in anorthwesterly direction. This course, Captain Sproul believed, wouldbring them to Bering Sea, and their homeward route. 

But a vast and amazing discovery awaited the hardy navigator of thewhaling bark when the wind finally died down, the clouds were sweptaway, and the sun again appeared. Professor Henderson appeared on deck, too, and calculated their position side by side with Captain Sproul. The latter's amazement was unbounded. His calculations, no matter howhe worked them, made the position of the _Orion_ 148 degrees west ofGreenwich and 49 degrees north. 

In other words, he was far, far south of the Alaskan Peninsula. Duringthis awful storm he had traversed (or so he was bound to believe) along stretch of the Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea and Strait, had passedthe Aleutian Islands, and was now more than a thousand miles south ofthe position of the _Orion_ when she first became stranded. 

The professor endeavored to explain to him again what had reallyhappened--that the fragment of the earth on which they had been maroonedhad plunged into the old earth again, landing by great good fortunein the empty sea between North America and Asia--in the North Pacific. 

Such an explanation seemed utterly ridiculous to Captain Sproul, tohis seamen, and even to Phineas Roebach. They were convinced thatProfessor Henderson was in his dotage. They would rather believe thatthe _Orion_, sailing on pretty nearly a straight course accordingto the compass, had traversed this enormous distance during thehurricane. 

The professor and his young friends, however, had studied too deeplythe mystery of this astounding affair to be mistaken. All the phenomenaof the experience had been noted by Professor Henderson. He had thematerial of a most remarkable work in his notebooks, and that volumewill soon appear to delight the scientific world. 

Meanwhile the _Orion_ changed her course and ran for San Franciscoto re-provision. She had a very valuable cargo of oil which she wouldlater take around the Horn to her home port, New Bedford. 

At San Francisco, however, Professor Henderson, Jack and Mark, withAndy and Wash and Phineas Roebach, left the ship. Roebach was to reportto his oil company and probably return to Alaska to continue his searchfor petroleum. Our friends started overland for home, stopping off atthe city where Dr. Artemus Todd resided to explain to that savant thereason for their inability to secure a single specimen of the_Chrysothele-Byzantium_, which herb the doctor was so confidentwould be of incalculable value in treating patients suffering fromaphasia, amnesia, and kindred troubles. 

Perhaps the disappointed doctor was not entirely sure that his friend, Professor Henderson, and his comrades, had gone through the strangeexperience which they recounted. But a few weeks later several vesselsreported sighting a new island in the North Pacific, south of theAlaskan Peninsula. On this island men who landed discovered a colonyof Kodiak bears, some Arctic foxes, and the remains of vegetation whichhad never before been found south of the Arctic Circle. 

This discovery created vast talk among the geographers and scientists. An exploring party was sent out by the Smithsonian Institution toexamine the new island. It was pronounced of volcanic origin, yet theformation of it was not of recent time. There was on this island (whichcontained several square miles) the remains of a glacier, and in theice the party discovered the wreck of a wonderful flying machine, whichhad evidently been built within a few months. 

Of course, this was the _Snowbird_, the aeroplane which our friendshad been obliged to abandon. But by that time Jack and Mark had builtanother flying machine on the same lines as the one which they hadlost in the crevasse of the glacier. 

The professor proceeded to explain and prove all this in his book; butthere will always be certain doubters. Washington White, however, wasmore disturbed than any of the party over the fact that everybody wouldnot accept as true the scientist's account of their wonderful voyageon a torn-away world. 

"De stupendous and unprecedented gall some folks has is suttenly beyondcomparination!" exploded Wash. "Dere is folks dat ain't nebber beento Bawston, eben, dat dares say dat we didn't go ter Alaska in a flyin'masheen, an' den fly away wid a piece ob dat kentry inter decimcum-ambient air--droppin' back on de same w'en we'd got t'roo widit, an' landin' right outside de harbor of San Francisco. Dey won'tbelieb it at all, not eben w'en I proves it to 'em. "

"And how do you prove it to your friends, Wash?" queried Jack Darrow. 

"By Buttsy, " declared the darkey, gravely. 

"By the Shanghai?"

"Yes, sah. By Christopher Columbus Amerigo Vespucci George WashingtonAbraham Lincoln Ulysses Grant Garibaldi Thomas Edison Guglielmo MarconiButts. "

"And how do you prove it by Christopher Columbus And-so-forth?" demandedthe chums, in chorus. 

"Why, " said Wash, rolling his eyes, "I done tooked dat rooster wid mein all ma trabels; didn't I?"

"You most certainly did, " admitted Mark. 

"And a big nuisance he was, " added Jack. 

Wash loftily overlooked this remark. He said, confidently:

"And I brought Buttsy back ergin; didn't I?"

"You did. He's getting fat and sassy right now out in his coop behindthe bungalow. "

"Well den!" cried Wash. "I done took him wid me, an' I done broughthim back. Wot furder elimination ob de fac's does dem folks want? Don'tButtsy crowin' away dar prove it?"

And Washington White walked off with his head held very high as thoughhe had made a perfectly unanswerable statement of the case. 

And here we will say good bye to our friends, who had so many thrillingadventures while drifting through space On a Torn-Away World. 

THE END