"Run to the rear!" the boy cried to Andy. "And hurry up!"
The hunter did so. A few seconds later the stern of the ship was toward the ocean monster. Andy called for some one to bring ammunition and feed the hopper of the machine gun, and Bill responded.
Then, when the whale was within a hundred feet of the Monarch, Andy began turning the crank. A storm of lead shot out toward the big fish. The water about was dyed with blood and the spouting streams from the nostrils were changed from white to red. With a terrible flurry, lashing the waters of the ocean to foam with its broad flukes, the whale died, hundreds of bullets in its head.
The airship was saved.
CHAPTER XXX
HOMEWARD BOUND
"We're sinking! we're sinking!" yelled Bill Jones. He pointed to a stream of water that was trickling up from the cabin floor. The freezing of the ship in the ice had strained the seams.
The professor and Washington were working earnestly over the gas machine. They piled in fresh chemicals and started the electric current. The water in the cabin continued to rise.
"Well, I guess I might as well have let the whale finish us," sighed
Andy. "We're bound to die, anyhow!"
"Not yet!" cried the professor suddenly. "Not if I can help it! Quick,
Washington. Another turn to the handle, and I think we will be safe!"