The adventurers peered from the windows.  At first they could see nothing but a vast expanse of frozen whiteness.  Then the ship, in an instant, seemed to be surrounded by men, women and children, all dressed in furs, only their faces showing.

“Here they come!” cried Andy.

The Esquimaux showed no fear of the airship nor the strange beings that inhabited it.  They advanced boldly, many of them bearing rude weapons, spears, stone axes, and bows and arrows of bone.  They were a fierce looking crowd.

“I can’t have them come inside the ship,” spoke the professor, “they will tear the machinery apart.”

“Shall I fire on them?” asked Andy, getting his rifle ready.

“Not for the world!” cried the captain.  “They are ten to our one, and probably this is but a small part of the tribe.  Our only safety lies in peaceful means.  Come, we must put on our fur garments and go outside.  That may induce them to let the ship alone.”

“They may take us prisoners,” objected Jack.

“Better be prisoners with the airship safe than with it all broken so we can never use it,” said the old inventor.  “If we lose the ship then we are lost indeed.  If we go out to them, they may be afraid to venture in alone.  Come, we must hurry!”

Obeying the captain’s advice, they all donned their fur garments, and each took a revolver and several rounds of ammunition.  These small weapons could be concealed about them without much trouble.

Then the whole party emerged from the cabins out on the forward deck of the Monarch.  It was high time, for several of the Esquimaux, with their big stone axes, were advancing to batter in the doors.  At the sight of the adventurers, who had only been dimly observed through the windows, there arose a great shout among the savages.

Rapidly the air-travelers climbed over the ship’s rail, down on to the ice, and walked boldly among the Esquimaux.

“Show a brave front!” exclaimed the captain, in a low voice.  “Perhaps they mean no harm after all.”

But this idea was soon dismissed.  With a shout the foremost of the natives rushed on the party of whites, surrounded them, and, before any one had a chance to draw his revolver, had he desired to do so, each member of the Monarch’s crew was seized and bound with strong thongs of walrus hide.

“Well, they’ve got us,” groaned old Andy.  “I wish I’d taken a few shots at them first!”

The old inventor watched narrowly every move the Esquimaux made.  At first several of the natives showed a desire to penetrate the interior of the Monarch.  But the commands of one big man, evidently the chief, who was clad entirely in white furs, deterred them.  Scores crawled up the ice hummock and looked the strange craft over with wondering eyes, but none molested it.

Suddenly the man in the white furs uttered a loud cry.  It was answered from a dozen throats, and then great activity was manifested.  Big sledges, made of bone for a framework, with laced thongs for a body, were brought up, and dogs were harnessed to the vehicles.  While some natives were attending to this, others scattered in different directions, returning presently with large supplies of dead fish, seals, and a large polar bear.