There was no fire; it was only a neat joke of Barney’s, and now he heard the haw-haw of the Irishman in the engine-room.
“Great ’possums!” he reflected, sagely, “dat I’ishman hab done got de bes’ ob me dis time. But I’ll bet mah life he don’ do it agen!”
Then he crept slowly and sorrowfully back into his bunk.
Barney met Pomp the next morning on the engine-room stairs, but nothing was said. There was a twinkle in Pomp’s eyes, however, which boded no good.
The airship now had reached the frozen seas. Vast fields of ice, densely packed, extended as far as the eye could reach.
The cold was something frightful. To add to the discomforts a blinding snowstorm began its sway.
For hours the Dart battled with the blinding snow. Then Frank decided to find a good place and wait until the storm was over. Much damage was being done to the wings and rotascope by the heavy snow.
So the young inventor selected a spot under the cover of a mighty berg or peak of ice which rose into the air for a height of full a hundred feet.
This kept off the brunt of the storm, and here the airship rested safely.
The electric heating apparatus was taxed to its fullest capacity, for the cold was something frightful.