Luis Senarens

“ It went through, splintering the wood, and before he could withdraw his skull, Barney seized one of the bed-slats and belabored him so that every thump sounded like a pistol shot, and the howls of the captured coon awakened every one in the house.
In the midst of the furore Frank rushed in, and although he could hardly refrain from laughing at the drenched Irishman and the stuck darky, he assumed an angry look and cried, sternly:
“Stop that row, will you? Every one in the hotel is alarmed.” ”

“ The American sailors were among the Norwegians, and when they saw the stars and stripes fluttering from one of the Ranger’s masts, they set up a loud cheer.
Both captains then hailed Frank, asking what sort of craft the flying ice ship was, and he told them and asked:
“Has the Red Eric, of Boston, arrived here yet?”
“No, sir,” replied one of the captains; “but as we know she is coming here, we are on the lookout for her daily.”
“Is the captain a friend of yours?”
“Oh, no; nor any one else’s, for that matter,” replied the whaler. “He’s a very ugly man, who is not liked very much by any one.” ”

“ Suddenly the strain on one of the square sails became so great that it burst in two with a report like a gun-shot.
In a moment the tattered canvas was wildly flying ahead from the yard, and as considerable power was lost, the speed of the Ranger was slightly diminished.
It made a vast difference, for the storm now began to gradually gain upon the ice ship.
The cloud was only a mile behind them.
“What a misfortune!” muttered Frank, in disgust.
“Kain’t we rig a new sail, honey?” asked the coon.
“We couldn’t,” replied the doctor. “We haven’t got strength enough. ”

“ In a lonely, desolate place like the bay is where the Red Eric lies, he can put the unlucky boy out of the way, and no one will be the wiser. Don’t you see the point?”
“That’s just what I thought, Frank.”
At this moment a fine big reindeer bounded into view from behind a mass of icy blocks.
The beast cast a frightened glance of its big soft eyes at the boat, and wheeling around, it sped away.
“There’s fine game!” ejaculated Frank. ”

“ Just then the yelling natives fired at the boat, a shower of arrows, spears and musket bullets striking the Ranger.
All the wooden weapons broke against the hull of the ice ship, and the leaden bullets flattened against the plates.
“Where’s Barney?” asked Frank, anxiously.
“Done leabe him astern, sah,” Pomp answered.
“We must pick him up ere the angry natives see him.”
“Gwine ter shoot ‘em?”
“No. They can’t harm us here.”
“Look out! They’re jumping on the deck!” said the doctor.
“I’ll soon get rid of them,” Frank answered. ”

“ The boat landed on solid ice again.
As soon as the ice ship landed beside the carcase of the deer Frank went around and secured the best portions of it.
Then they resumed their journey to the northward.
Numerous indentations were met with along the coast, and a keen lookout was kept for the whaler.
As they proceeded the ice grew rougher.
Mighty cliffs rose here and there, vast glaciers were crossed, valleys were traversed, and they had to skirt the bases of huge rocky ridges and towering mountains. ”

“ Barney only wore a red flannel undershirt, and as the cold liquid flew about his limbs he jumped up in the air, his teeth chattering, his hair on end, and roar after roar pealing from his lips.
“Begorra! I’m a dead man!” he roared, as he rushed, danced, hopped and galloped around the room, followed by the cold stream and the laughter of the mischievous coon. “Howly beans! ther roofs leakin’! Ther poipes bushted! Ther house is afoire! Help! Help!” ”

“ Frank was amazed.
He knew that Dr. Vaneyke was a good man.
Murder was the last crime he was capable of committing.
He therefore said quietly:
“Tell me what your trouble is, professor.”
“Night before last, while walking here from the railroad depot, I heard a pistol shot in a lonely part of the road, followed by the cry of murder,” the doctor answered. “Running forward, I saw a man fall to the ground, and another man plunged into the bushes. Beside the fallen man laid a revolver which I picked up. It was the weapon with which the man was shot; I next examined the body. The man was dead. ”

“ Frank replied. “My flying ice ship is nearly finished. I came to Boston to get the few things I need to complete her. To-morrow I am going home; but ere I leave this city I shall make it my business to help you to have Alfred Milburn arrested, so you can recover possession of the fortune of which he designs to rob you.” ”

“ They thought they could get the air ship when the storm blew over, so Barney and Pomp tied their fiddle and banjo to their backs and all hands hastened out on deck.
Grasping the grapnel rope they slid down one after another to the steeple and safely reached a platform there.
Scarcely was this done when the wind caused the Ranger to give a sudden plunge, and the grapnel tore itself free. ”

“ By forming a wire net over the ice and charging it with all the heat we use for the boat, the ice can gradually be melted away enough to let us get through.”
“Such a plan will consume much time,” said Dr. Vaneyke, “but as no better solution of the problem can be advanced, let us try it.”
“By de time we done reach Nordenskjold bay,” said Pomp, “de Red Eric mebbe be gone away.”
“I hope not,” Frank said.
They saw no more of the cyclone that drove them into the pass, and set to work to carry out his idea. ”

“ Indeed the gyroscopes had been revolving from the moment Frank first turned on the lever; but as it required a few seconds for the current to get them spinning fast enough to buoy the ship up, they had not sustained the Ranger immediately.
As soon as the ice boat gained its equilibrium in the air, however, she came to a pause and hung there.
The avalanche of snow poured over the cliff and fell with a dull roar down upon the ice below.
“God bless me sowl!” said Barney. “We’re floyin’!” ”

“ Biff! Bang! Thump! went his fists like pile drivers, and every time they struck a man went down.
“When people of your stamp fool around Frank Reade, Jr., you generally get left!” muttered the gallant stranger.
The sailors swore as they got up, and the captain drew a pistol.
“Cuss yer!” he growled, as he leveled the weapon at Frank’s head. “I’ll blow yer brains out fer them welts!” ”

“ Each apartment was equipped with electric lights and an electric heating apparatus of Frank’s invention.
The motive power was derived from a dynamo which was driven by a small petroleum engine; there was a special machine for the electric lights, and the mechanism of the gyroscopes worked by a large number of storage batteries.
Any height could be reached in the air, according to the speed at which the gyroscopes were run, and the huge driving wheel drove the ice ship along at a prodigious rate of speed. ”

“ Frank replied. “I owe Captain Ben Bolt a grudge for the scalp wound he gave me, and I’ll avenge myself by wresting Walter Grey from his power.”
“What is your destination?”
“The Kara Sea and the island of Nova Zembla.”
“It will be very cold there now.”
“Well, the boat is well heated, and we have warm fur clothing on board,” said Frank. “If there is ice on the island, we can travel over it on the boat’s runners, to examine the remains of the mammoth you say you wish to get for the institute you represent.” ”

“ You are right,” cried Frank. “That will increase our speed.”
Around spun the wheel which had been geared to the ice rudder, and as the boat swung off on the new tick, Frank and the coon hastened out, and slackened off the braces. ”

“ Bolt made me work with the crew. There I got nothing but kicks and cuffs, poor fare and hard work. At the time they were looking for the whale I was towing astern mixing paint in a quarter boat. Ben Bolt appeared at the taffrail and cut the painter. I was left adrift. No attention was paid to my cries. The current carried me to where you found the boat. Thinking I might find some one on shore, I went up on the cliffs. A pack of wolves attacked me. I had a pistol which I found aboard the Red Eric, but it did little good. If you hadn’t arrived just in time, the beasts would have killed me. ”

“ The whaler, stripped of her canvas, was moored to the shore of a large bay in a great basin below an eminence upon which the ice ship had just come to a pause.
CHAPTER XI.
BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN. The appearance of Captain Ben Bolt’s ship so close by sent a thrill through the crew of the Ranger.
Not a soul was to be seen upon the whaler, and Frank at once caused the ice ship to recoil out of sight.
“Well,” said Dr. Vaneyke, “there is the ship we are after. Now what, do you intend to do about it, Frank?” ”

“ A smothered roar was heard, and a tremendous mass of mud was blown so high in the air that some of it spattered the upper part of the flying ice ship.
When it subsided Frank looked down and saw that a huge pit had been rent in the marsh, and in the middle of it laid the body of an enormous mammoth.
The carcase was somewhat mutilated by the shells, but none of the limbs had been torn off.
A mass of black, muddy water ran back into the holes from the ground and settled around the body of the mammoth.
“Well,” asked the professor, “what luck?”
“The body is exposed. ”

“ The question that most troubled them was whether Ben Bolt had the shanghaied boy aboard his ship yet.
They did not know that he had contracted with Alfred Milburn to put Walter Grey out of the way, so the lawyer could gain possession of the boy’s fortune.
Nor did Bolt know that the lawyer was in prison, Mrs. Grey in possession of her husband’s fortune, and Frank on his track to rescue the boy.
The mammoth’s bones did not interfere with the Ranger’s work, whether she was in the sea, on the ice, or in the air, as she was calculated to carry a much greater weight. ”

“ It was getting so uncomfortably cold out on deck that our friends were glad to go inside again.
The boat was steered away to the southward.
They spent a week in the frozen sky, searching for some trace of the whaler, but failed to see her.
Far in the north the ocean was frozen up and covered with drift ice which the currents carried to the southward.
But the warm current of the Gulf Stream kept the Russian shore-water clear enough for any ships to pass on to Nova Zembla, so they expected to see the Red Eric come along any moment.
Every day that went by the weather grew colder. ”

“ The flying ice ship was steered down the coast again.
When she reached the bay, Frank found the ship gone.
“She certainly did not go northward,” said the inventor to his friends. “We would have seen her if she had. Therefore we must go to the southward to find her.”
“Perhaps she has gone to the strait.”
“That’s the only open place in which she could find a safe refuge,” said Frank. “We return to the Norwegian fishing station.” ”

“ Once this mass of tons upon tons of snow fell on them, the ice ship would be buried.
The Ranger was now rushing ahead again down a steep declivity that terminated at the edge of the lofty cliffs.
Ahead Frank now saw a boyish figure in the midst of a pack of ravenous wolves.
He was armed with a revolver, with which he was firing into them, while he shrieked to frighten them away.
Up to him rushed the ice ship.
25Barney ran out on deck, and stood at the side of the boat to render the boy aid.
“Pomp!” screamed Frank, “is the dynamo fixed?” “Yassah!” came the reply. “Only a wire got unfastened.” ”

“ The inventor was accompanied by a little old negro named Pomp, and a rollicking, red-headed, pug-nosed Irishman named Barney O’Shea, who always went with him on his travels, and lived in Readestown.
Both were inveterate practical jokers; the coon was a good cook and played the banjo, and the Celt was an expert violinist, and ever ready for a fight or fun of any kind, while both were greatly devoted to the inventor. ”

“ He did not recover his senses until after the ship departed, and then found a policeman standing beside him, to whom he explained what had happened.
3“My name is Frank Reade, Jr.,” said the wounded young man. “I am an inventor of submarine boats, flying machines and overland engines, and reside in Readestown. I have just invented a flying ice boat, and came to Boston to get some things for her construction. While I was passing the railroad depot on my way to the hotel where I am stopping, I saw a man and boy go by in the same direction I was taking. ”

“ It caught in one of the windows in the steeple.
Every moment the gale was slamming the boat against the spire, threatening to demolish the Ranger.
If that happened she was apt to fall to the ground and kill her crew, and Frank realized it.
It made him desperate.
“We will have to abandon her!” he cried at last.
“Can’ yo’ sen’ her down?” asked Pomp.
“Not till the gyroscope lever is repaired. It would occupy an hour or two to do that. In the meantime we may get killed.”
“What shall we be afther doin, sor?” questioned Barney. ”

“ Vaneyke complied, there being plenty slack wire attached to the bombs.
Then Frank handed him the ends of the wire, and said:
“In a minute you can touch them to the battery binding-post.”
“All right,” said the professor, with a nod, and Frank went out again.
Peering down, he saw that they were at a safe distance from the place where the shells would explode.
“When the ordinary gun-powder shell is fired on the battlefield,” he muttered, “if it explodes in front of a man, he will get killed, while if it bursts behind him, the man will not be injured, for the force is all thrown forward. ”