Jack hurried to where the sheet of thick glass was set into the floor of the cabin. He peered down toward the ground.
"We are over land, or, at least, a big ice field," he said, looking up." We must have crossed some arm of the sea, or, perhaps, a bay." Then, as he looked down through the window again, he gave a frightened start. "There are people below us!" he cried. "I can see hundreds of them! They are waiting for us to land!"
The ship was fast settling, and, because of that fact, and for the reason that the propeller was sending it ahead, the Monarch was approaching the ice at a sharp angle.
"Stop the engines!" commanded the professor. "Our only hope is in coming down easily. If we strike the ice hard we are lost!"
Lower and lower sank the Monarch, like a bird with a broken wing. In a few minutes there came a sudden jar that told the ship had struck the ice. Then, with a swish and rustle the silk bag, emptied of gas fell on the roof of the cabins. The Monarch had come down between two big hummocks of ice, and rested almost in a level position.
The adventurers peered from the windows. At first they could see nothing but a vast expanse of frozen whiteness. Then the ship, in an instant, seemed to be surrounded by men, women and children, all dressed in furs, only their faces showing.
"Here they come!" cried Andy.
The Esquimaux showed no fear of the airship nor the strange beings that inhabited it. They advanced boldly, many of them bearing rude weapons, spears, stone axes, and bows and arrows of bone. They were a fierce looking crowd.
"I can't have them come inside the ship," spoke the professor, "they will tear the machinery apart."
"Shall I fire on them?" asked Andy, getting his rifle ready.