CHAPTER III. THE AIRSHIP TO THE RESCUE.

“Dead!” he exclaimed, in hollow tones. “It is Martin Jones, foretopman. He has been murdered!”

Captain Hardy reeled toward the cabin door. His face was chalky white.

“Lucille!” he gasped.

The same thought was in Jack Wallis’ mind. He followed at once.

The companionway was stained with blood, the cabin floor the same. On went the two hunters.

There by the galley fire, which was out, lay the stark and stiff forms of three more of the crew.

They were in positions to show that they had fought for their lives.

But where were the other two and Lucille?

“Mark Vane and Alvan Bates, with Lucille, are missing!” declared the excited captain. “What can have become of them?”

“There is but one theory.”

“What?”

“They have been taken away as prisoners.”

“As prisoners?”

“Yes.”

“But by whom?”

“As yet I cannot answer. Human fiends, no doubt. See, the ship has been ransacked and many things carried away.”

“You are right.”

“I have an idea.”

“What is it?”

“Below us lies the great continent?”

“Yes.”

“I fancy it is inhabited by various tribes of savages who are hostile. They have come out on to the pack, hunting, and have found the ship.”

“My God! and they have taken Lucille away, captive?”

“Yes.”

For a moment tears of agony streamed down Captain Hardy’s face.

Then he grasped Jack’s hand.

“My boy,” he said, in agony, “it is a fearful blow! Life is sped for me now. The Albatross will never see home again!”

“Don’t give up.”

“But how can it? How can we ever go back and leave Lucille here?”

“We will not!”

Jack Wallis’ voice rang out with clarion pitch.

“I tell you we will rescue Lucille if we have to follow those wretches to the very heart of the Antarctic continent itself!”

“Brave boy!” cried Captain Hardy. “But will the ship be here? Can we find our way back?”

“We have our bearings. But I hope that we may overtake the wretches before they have gone very far.”

“Then let us be off!”

“At once!”

“We will return and bury these poor fellows later.”

“Yes; all depends upon prompt pursuit.”

Leaving the ship, the two desperate men set out upon the trail. It was a broad and easy one to follow.

The air had moderated very much. Indeed, there was a faint mist creeping up from the sea.

The barbarians left huge footprints in the snow, and it was from these that Captain Hardy drew his deductions.

“I tell you they are literal giants!” he declared. “No doubt they are fearful fighters.”

“Yet they cannot, one of them, stop a rifle ball without getting sick,” said Jack.

“You are right, there!”

On through the snow for hours the two men followed the tracks.

All that day and the next they followed it. Happily they had taken the precaution to bring eatables.

A few hours’ sleep in the snow was all the rest they got, but they were consoled with the cheerful fact that every moment the trail grew fresher.

And now, from the horizon line, there had arisen vast heights of snowy white. Towering yet above them all was a mighty peak, which sent forth flame and smoke.

“A volcano!” declared Captain Hardy. “I’ll wager we will find the settlement of the barbarians not far from that.”

“I think you may be very sure of it,” declared Jack Wallis.

But as they drew nearer the coast line suddenly some startling incidents occurred.

Jack, who was in advance, suddenly halted.

A cry of alarm pealed from his lips.

At that moment they had been approaching a vast pile of conglomerated ice. Suddenly, from behind it, a number of strange-looking beings sprang forth.

They were gigantic in stature and dressed in skins, with the tusks of the seal for horns upon their head-dresses, which consisted of untanned seal hide, with holes for the eyes and mouth.

They were armed with huge battle clubs, with the bones of huge fish and huge rocks for heads, and javelins tipped with stone or fish bones.

At sight of the two men they came forward with a rush.

Brandishing their weapons and yelling, they rushed forward.

It was a critical moment.

It was a question of life or death, and there seemed but one move for the two men to make.

“Aim low!” cautioned Captain Hardy. “Take the first man!”

Then their rifles spoke.

Two of the barbarians fell.

Fortunately our adventurers had good repeating Winchesters, and they were enabled to keep up a good steady fire.

But the barbarians now began hurling their javelins. One nearly impaled Jack. This caused him to shout:

“This way, Captain Hardy! We must get shelter!”

Both retreated to the cover of some blocks of ice and the battle went on.

They pluckily held the foe at bay. But the barbarians seemed to become legion in number.

It seemed as if a hundred of them at least had appeared upon the scene from some mysterious source.

And now our adventurers made an appalling discovery.

This was that they had neglected to take sufficient ammunition from the ship with them. But a few more rounds of cartridges were left.

With blanched faces they looked at each other.

“My boy,” said Captain Hardy, steadily, “I fear it is all up with us!”

“It looks so, captain.”

“What an awful fate!”

“At least we will die game!”

Wallis shut his lips tightly and resumed the firing. He made every shot tell. But presently he found that he had but three cartridges left.

And the barbarians were every moment growing bolder. A hand-to-hand combat would be sure to be fatal.

A few moments more and they would certainly have overwhelmed the two brave men, had it not been for an intervention.

And this came from a most unexpected quarter.

Suddenly, what seemed like a veritable bolt of lightning dropped from the sky, and right among the barbarians.

There was a fearful explosion.

Tons of ice and snow rose to the height of fifty feet in the air. Dozens of the barbarians were torn in shreds.

Astounded, Jack and Captain Hardy looked up and beheld a sight the like of which they had never seen before.

“Great Neptune!” gasped the captain. “A ship sailing in the air!”

This was what it seemed.

But in place of sails were flapping wings. The hull was of different shape. It was a ship, but not one intended for sailing the seas.

That it was not a supernatural apparition was evident, for at the rail were four men, all of them shouting encouraging words.

“Keep up, friends!” came down from above. “We will help you!”

“Ahoy!” gasped Captain Hardy, in amazement. “Who are you?”

“This is Frank Reade, Jr.’s airship, the Dart. We are Americans!”

“And so are we,” replied Hardy. “I’ve commanded many a good ship in my life, but I never yet saw one that sailed in the air.”

At this the aerial voyagers laughed.

“Wait and we will descend!” they cried.

Then the Dart settled rapidly until it alighted upon the ice. At the rail four men were standing.

One was a tall, handsome young man, another was short and wore glasses, one was an Irishman, and the fourth was a negro, as black as coal.

The reader, of course, recognizes them as Frank Reade, Jr., Barney and Pomp, and the scientist, Professor Gaston.

They had left home some six weeks previous and had enjoyed a first-class trip of eight thousand miles or more.

One thing was certain. They had arrived in the nick of time to save the lives of Captain Hardy and Jack.

Stories were soon exchanged. Frank Reade, Jr., listened with deep interest to the story of the whalers.

When he was told about Lucille’s capture by the Antarctic natives he was at once aroused, and cried:

“She shall be rescued, and have no fear, Captain Hardy!”

“God bless you, sir!” cried the overjoyed captain. “Of course, you have it in your power to do so with your airship?”

“I believe so. At least we will try.”

“Antarctic natives!” cried Professor Gaston, at once interested. “Well, that settles one important point, don’t it, that the South Pole regions are inhabited?”

“It does!” agreed Frank. “And yonder are mountains and a volcano!”

The scientist was, however, just now interested in the barbarians.

A visit was made to the spot where the electric bomb had exploded.

Some of the primitive weapons of the barbarians were secured. Several of them had escaped mutilation and a look was taken at their features.

“Of the Aryan type!” declared Professor Gaston. “Barbarians in every sense of the word. The shape of the skull precludes anything but low intellect.”

The remaining or surviving barbarians had vanished.

Where they had gone was something of a mystery. Certain it was they were not in sight anywhere.

It was decided to follow their trail as well as possible through the snow.

This was not difficult.

It was well-defined and broad.

For some ways the airship kept on.

Then the volcano and its attendant peaks drew nearer.

To the surprise of all it was seen that the slope of the volcanic mountain were devoid of snow.

What was more, there actually seemed to be vegetation upon it.

But this was probably in the form of Arctic mosses and ferns, which grow in very barren places and even under the snow.

But as the airship now rapidly drew nearer to the volcano a startling discovery was made.

“Look!” cried Jack Wallis, in amazement. “The mountain is hollow!”

Indeed, the appearance of a mighty yawning cavity in its side seemed to warrant this assertion.

The volcano looked like a walnut shell cut in halves, with its side cut open.