“Dat prisoner man has escaped!” cried Washington.  “He’s clean gone!  Flown away!  Jumped his bail!”

“That’s bad!” exclaimed the professor.  “He’ll work some mischief now!  I guess we’ll have to start on our trip at once!”

CHAPTER VI

AWAY IN THE AIRSHIP

“Quick, Washington!” cried the professor.  “Jump in the engine room and start the gas generator.  Mark, you bring in from the cabin all those wheels and things on the walls!  Jack, load those packages there into the locker in the after part of the Monarch!  But handle them carefully!  They contain explosives and ammunition for the machine gun!”

If there had been hurry and bustle before, there was ten times as much now.  The professor gave one look at the place where Taggert had been concealed.  The man had worked off his bonds and escaped while his captors were in the airship’s cabin.

Soon there was a queer hissing noise from the engine room of the Monarch.  The gas bag began to distend.

“She’s fillin’, Perfessor!” cried Washington.

“We must tie her down,” muttered the old man.  “Otherwise she will rise and take the shed with her.  I say, Washington!”

“Yes, Perfessor.”

“We must get some one to help us open the shed roof to let the ship rise out.  We can’t do it alone.”

“Guess it’s a extraunordinary contract,” agreed the negro.

“Then you go out and see if any one is in sight.  Try to hire them for the work, but don’t tell them about the ship.  They can work up on the roof.  I will see to the gas machine while you are away.  Hurry now!”

The colored man went out.  In the meanwhile the professor and the two boys continued to load up the Monarch.  They had nearly everything that the inventor intended to take along piled in its proper place, when footsteps were heard outside.  Then the noise of some persons on the roof was audible.  In a few minutes Washington came in.

“I found three men,” explained the negro.  “One is dat old hunter as helped us before, Andy Sudds.  He was goin’ huntin’ but he said he’d help take the roof off fer a dollar.  De oder two is does farm hands, Tom Smith an’ Bill Jones.  Dey was goin’ down to do post-office, but dey said dey’d help fer fifty cents apiece.  All three is up on de roof now.”

“Good!” exclaimed the professor.  “It’s lucky I had the roof made in sections when I built this shed.  Now it can be taken off in a hurry.  Come on, boys!  There are some more things that must go in the ship!”

Thus urged, Mark and Jack worked with a will.  Washington helped, and then went up on the roof to aid the three emergency toilers.  By this time several sections of the covering to the shed had been taken off and the place was quite light.

All the while the gas machine in the ship continued to generate the vapor.  It flowed into the cigar-shaped bag through two rubber tubes.  As the bag distended more and more, the Monarch tugged and pulled at the anchoring ropes on the floor of the shed, as if anxious to be away.