CHAPTER VI.

THE FISHING STATION.

None of the Ranger’s crew had seen what had befallen Barney, as the bend in the pass hid him from their view.

Frank, therefore, did not hasten to stop the ice ship’s wheels, and to his surprise he found her flying down the side of a steep hill.

To stop her now with the brake was almost an utter impossibility, for the wheels were apt to trip her up.

He, therefore, raised them, and let the boat go on her runners.

She gathered speed every moment, as the hill was steep, and was soon roaring down like a locomotive.

The snow flew up in showers from in front of her runners, and a loud buzzing sound came from them as they cut through the ice.

Away she flew, and reaching the bottom of the hill, Frank abruptly turned to the right to avoid a mass of rough ice ahead of her.

No sooner did she fly around the base of the hill, when to their amazement the boat began to sink.

She had run into a drift.

Above the snow rose the tops of a number of ice huts, shaped like inverted bowls, and a tremendous shout in a strange tongue emanated from the huts the boat struck and crushed in.

Some of the inmates of these huts had been hurt.

The rest swarmed out into the passages cut through the drift and got upon the level ground above the hollow where they had their huts.

All of them were dark-skinned people, somewhat resembling the Esquimaux of North America and Greenland.

They wore fur clothing, with pointed hoods for their heads, and carried walrus spears, muskets and knives in their hands.

Although amazed at the sight of such a peculiar boat there, these Nova Zembla savages soon recovered from their surprise, and brandishing their weapons at our friends whom they now saw, they began to prepare for an attack.

Their animosity was aroused by the injury done so innocently to some of the inmates of the ice huts.

Frank could do nothing with the ship but let her stop of her own accord when she plunged into the snow drift.

“Natives!” he exclaimed in surprise, upon seeing them.

“Armed and angry at us, too,” added the professor.

“We’ve ruined several of their huts.”

“Yes; and injured the inmates of some.”

“That’s what they are angry about.”

“Evidently,” coincided the professor.

“I didn’t notice the huts until we were upon them.”

“Nor I, as they were nearly covered up with the snow.”

Just then Pomp came rushing in from the deck.

The boat had paused, half buried in the snow, and the coon was covered.

He was very much excited, and cried, warningly:

“Dey’s a gang ob niggahs out dar gwine ter shoot!”

“Close the metal shutters over the windows, doctor.”

“Better start the gyroscopes,” said the professor, complying.

Just then the yelling natives fired at the boat, a shower of arrows, spears and musket bullets striking the Ranger.

All the wooden weapons broke against the hull of the ice ship, and the leaden bullets flattened against the plates.

“Where’s Barney?” asked Frank, anxiously.

“Done leabe him astern, sah,” Pomp answered.

“We must pick him up ere the angry natives see him.”

“Gwine ter shoot ‘em?”

“No. They can’t harm us here.”

“Look out! They’re jumping on the deck!” said the doctor.

“I’ll soon get rid of them,” Frank answered.

He put the gyroscopes in operation, and the air ship pulled herself up out of the snowbank into the air.

A dismal howl of dismay pealed from the throats of the natives on her deck when they found themselves being carried up.

They lost no time jumping down into the snowdrift, and when the last man had left her the ones on the ice discharged a second volley up at her from their weapons.

The Ranger mounted to the height of the hill she descended before Frank stopped her.

He then glanced down and saw that there were nearly one hundred men, women and children standing on the ice glaring up at the boat.

“They are a peculiar race,” he muttered.

“Never heard of before,” said the doctor.

“Whar am Barney?” asked Pomp.

Frank glanced around, but saw no sign of the Irishman.

He then steered the boat back to the pass.

She was within a dozen feet of the ground, ran back the way she came from, and had scarcely turned the bend when Frank heard a tremendous yell from Barney.

“This way wid yez, for ther love av Heaven!”

Such was his shout.

Frank saw him.

Perched on an icy ledge.

The bear squatted at the bottom.

Both glaring at each other!

“Jerusalem!” cried the inventor.

“Why doan’ yer git down?” laughed Pomp.

“He’s cornered in earnest,” the professor remarked, dryly.

“Take the wheel,” said Frank. “I want some bear meat for dinner.”

The professor complied, and the young inventor took a pneumatic rifle that threw dynamite bombshells and went outside.

Aiming at the bear, he fired one shot.

Sput! went the piece, and zing-g-g! went the ball.

A loud report was heard when it hit the bear’s head.

When the flash of fire and glare of smoke vanished the bear was lying on its side violently kicking, and the upper part of its head was scattered to the four winds of heaven.

“Bull’s eye!” yelled Barney.

“Lower the Ranger!” said Frank.

When she alighted the inventor descended the ladder.

Walking over to Barney, he asked:

“How did he send you to roost?”

“Faith, he didn’t,” grinned Barney. “I wint av me own accord.”

“I don’t see how you got way up there.”

“More power to me toes, I clumb ther wall loike a floy.”

The Irishman was a dozen feet from the ground, upon a little shelf that was projecting over an almost smooth wall.

When the bear chased him, and he found it gaining, he ran up this wall by means of the tiny protuberances and indentations until he reached the edge of the shelf, when he pulled himself up the rest of the way.

If he hadn’t been frightened he couldn’t have done it.

Dropping down, he told Frank what had happened to him, after which they began to skin the bear, and cut away the choicest parts.

These were stowed aboard the ice ship.

It was hardly done when Pomp shouted:

“Heah come de niggahs!”

The natives had been swarming up the hill, and seeing the boat on the ground, made a grand rush for her.

Pomp did not wait for orders.

He pulled the gyroscope lever, and the Ranger bounded up into the air, thwarting them a second time.

At a height of 290 feet she paused.

Just then Frank entered the turret.

He saw at a glance what had happened.

“We’ll have to keep up in the sky to avoid those beggars,” he remarked.

“Dey’s boun’ ter git aboa’d.”

“Apparently. But they won’t succeed.”

“Gwine ahead, sah?”

“Yes. Right on along the strait.”

The coon started the boat along through the frozen sky, and the fine, needle-like particles that filled the air blew into their faces so strongly that they were forced to close the window.

The natives were left out of sight astern.

Finally the sun came up.

As its burning rays fell upon the desolate landscape, the ice gleamed and sparkled like myriads of diamonds.

A cold, bleak air was blowing against the boat; but she ran through it with the greatest of ease, and reached the water front.

“Even had we remained down below, we could not have traveled over the ice,” remarked Frank. “See there, Pomp, great chasms in the ground in some places, and insurmountable hills in other places.”

“Wha’ yo’ call dat ahead dar neah de ribber?”

“A settlement. That’s the place we are searching for.”

“An’ dar am some ships along do sho’.”

“Sure enough. Whalers, every one of them!”

“Wondah if de Red Eric am among dem?”

“That we will soon find out.”

“Am it time fo’ her to be heah?”

“She could, if she was not prevented by floating ice.”

“I’se jes’ itchin’ ter git dat Walter Grey way from de capting.”

“By this time the poor boy may be dead.”

“Dead!” muttered Pomp, aghast.

“Yes; Ben Bolt may have killed him,” said Frank.

Just then the doctor and Barney came up from below.

As soon as Vaneyke saw the settlement, he said:

“Yes; that’s the Norwegian fishing settlement. See the flag?”

“Do most of the Kara Sea whalers meet here, sir?”

“They have to until the cold weather is over.”

“But the water is pretty well open, professor.”

“Yes, I know it’s a mild winter, but if the Red Eric comes to this sea at all, she will stop at that fishing station, I’m sure. I’m glad we’ve found the place, for it’s near here the body of the mastodon I’m after is to be found buried in the ground.”

The air ship continued on toward the wretched little cluster of wooden huts and soon reached them.

News of her approach had been communicated to the inhabitants and the crews of the ships.

They were all grouped on the shore watching the ice ship.

Frank sent the Ranger down on the ice near them, and they all made a rush for her to find out what she was.

In a few moments the ship was surrounded by the curious throng.