From one who seemed to be a leader of the natives several sharp orders came.  The others listened and then, lifting the three prisoners, who had been securely bound, they hurried with them from the deck of the ship.

“We’s ketched agin!” cried Washington.  “They’ll eat us shuah dis time!  Land ob Goshen!  How I does wish I’d neber come heah!”

There was little time for protest, reflection or anything else.  Once the Esquimaux had secured their prisoners they lost no time in hastening away.  The airship did not seem to interest them.  Hoisting the three men on shoulders, the natives fairly ran along over the ice.

“I wish they’d bring up a sled,” said Andy.  “It would be easier than this style.  The breath is ’most jolted out of me.”

As if in answer to his desire, the party of Esquimaux soon came upon a little camp.  There were several ice huts, and a number of sleds, while the yelping of scores of dogs could be heard on every side.  In a few minutes, after a short talk among the natives, the captives were tossed, none too gently, all on one big sled, a dog team was hitched fast, and a driver started them off across the field of ice.

“Good-bye to de ole Monarch!” cried Washington.  “No mo’ good meals in yo’!  Landy!  Landy!  I wisht I had some dynamite to blow dese heathen up!”

“Hush!” cried Andy.  “I’ve got three revolvers in my pockets.  I’ll slip you one if I can get my arms free, but don’t fire until I give the word.  We’ll have to save our shots.”

“We seem to be having nothing but bad luck,” said Professor Henderson.  “I am afraid it is all up with us this time.  Those poor boys, and Bill and Tom!  I wish I knew what had become of them!”

“Same here!” remarked Andy.

Then the captives became silent, filled with their sad thoughts and worry over their predicament.  On and on went the sledge over the ice, into the unknown.  Mile after mile was covered.  Then the driver of the prisoners, as well as the one in charge of three sleds that followed, halted the dogs.  All the natives talked rapidly together, pointing this way and that.

“They’ve missed the path!” exclaimed Andy.  “We are lost in this land of snow!”

CHAPTER XXII

MAGNETIC FIRE WORSHIPERS

Jack’s only thought, when he felt himself falling from the deck of the airship to the earth, was that he would strike on a pinnacle of ice and be killed.  Much the same were the feelings of the others, as they admitted later.  Jack was half senseless from fright when, seemingly half an hour after he tumbled, though in reality it was but a few seconds, he stuck head first into a big drift of soft snow.

His mouth, ears, eyes and nose were filled with the fluffy flakes, and he nearly choked before he could struggle to an upright position and clear a breathing space.

To his astonishment he saw similar struggles going on in several places in the snow.  First Mark stuck his head out of the drift.  Then Bill’s face appeared, to be followed by Tom’s, and next Dirola bobbed up, smiling as though it was the biggest joke in the world, and as if falling from an airship was an every-day occurrence with her.