This was alarming news. Old Andy dropped his shovel and scrambled over the side of the ship.
"What's de matter? Am yo' skeered?" asked Washington.
"Not a bit of it!" cried Andy. "I want to get a gun and give those fellows something to remember me by!"
"Never mind them!" shouted the professor. "Get the ship free and we need not stay to fight them. We are almost ready to start!"
But Andy was bound to have a shot at the savages, and he grabbed up his rifle, which was fully loaded, and came out on the deck.
The natives came on with a rush. There were about two hundred of them, and they had arrived on several big sleds. The Esquimaux who had piloted the adventurers back to their ship had disappeared, for he knew he would be killed as a traitor if his tribesmen caught him.
"Come on!" cried Bill to Tom and the boys. "Let's get aboard. We'll be killed!"
"You can go!" shouted Jack. "I'm going to stay down here and free the ship from ice. That's the only thing to do."
"I'll stay with you!" exclaimed Mark.
Tom and Bill scrambled up the sides of the ship and disappeared into the cabin. The boys remained on the ice, partly under the airship, chipping and picking to free the bottom.