"It's Taggert! He is after me!" exclaimed the inventor. "He must not be allowed to get on the ship! Come on, Mark and Jack! Never mine unknotting the ropes! Cut 'em! We have no time to lose! Jump in, Washington!"

The boys clambered over the sides of the airship. Washington followed their example. The anchor ropes were cut.

"Hi, there! Stop!" cried a voice from outside. "Don't you dare start that ship!"

"Here we go!" shouted Professor Henderson in a joyful tone. "Now to see if the _Monarch_ fulfills her promise!"

He hurried into the engine room. The noise of the gas generating machine increased. The gasolene engine went faster, and the motors and dynamos added to the noise. There was a loud hissing sound. The professor had opened a valve admitting the full force of gas into the oiled silk bag.

Then came a snapping sound as several anchoring ropes that had not been cut, broke.

Up rose the _Monarch_ like some immense bird, through the opened shed roof. Out into the air went the big yellow bag. And then a strange thing happened.

Andy Sudds, the hunter, and Bill Jones and Tom Smith, the two farm hands, who had been peering over the edge of the shed down at the airship, leaned over too far in their anxiety to observe everything. As the gas bag brushed past them they were startled. They lost their balances and the next instant all three toppled right into the bow of the _Monarch_ as she arose, and were lifted up into the air with her.

"Hold on, there! Stop!" cried Taggert, who by this time had come close to the shed.

"It's too late!" shouted back the professor, poking his head from a window in the engine room.

"Hey, there! You're carrying me off in your ship!" yelled Andy Sudds as he scrambled to his feet after his tumble into the bow of the _Monarch_.

"And me!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Bill Jones.

"And me!" exclaimed Tom Smith. "I didn't figure on coming with you."

"It's too late!" the old inventor cried. He turned some wheels and levers and the airship arose faster. Then he switched on the electric machinery. The big propeller began to revolve. Swifter and swifter it went. The _Monarch_, which had risen several hundred feet, started forward at a swift pace. "We are off for the north pole!" shouted the inventor. "Hurrah! The ship works! I knew it would!"

"Here!" roared Andy Sudds. "I don't want to go to the north pole. I want to hunt muskrats down by the creek."

"You can hunt seals and whales up north," the professor called to him.

"But I've lost my gun!" the hunter exclaimed, soberly, yet a little appeased at the prospect of big game.

"I'll give you a better one," promised Mr. Henderson. "You shall have all the hunting you want."

"I can't go to the north pole," fairly yelled Bill Jones, starting back toward the engine room. "I had a job plowing on a farm. If I don't go back I'll lose my place."

"You can hire out to me," suggested the professor. "I need a crew, and I didn't have time to ship one."

"What about me?" asked Tom Smith. "I was working on a farm like Bill."

"I'll hire you also," spoke the inventor of the _Monarch_.

"Hi, Perfessor! Shall I shut off de gas?" Washington suddenly cried.

"For a while," was the inventor's reply. "We are high enough now. Then oil up the engines and dynamos, they need it. You boys can help," he said to Mark and Jack. "I must see to my instruments and find whether everything is working right."

The two boys were delighted to have a chance in the engine room. Under Washington's direction, the colored man showing quite a knowledge of the apparatus, they oiled the various bearings until everything was running smoothly.

Until now they had no time to realize what an experience they were going through. Things had happened so quickly that it was hard to realize they were sailing through the air in a wonderful ship, probably the most successful navigator of the upper regions ever invented.

It was not until Jack looked over the edge of the airship from the engine room window that he felt what a trip up among the clouds meant.

Below the earth was spread out like a good-sized map, with little threads of silver for rivers, patches of green for big fields, and narrow gray ribbons where there were roads.

"It's wonderful!" he cried to Mark.

"And to think we were chased out of town yesterday by a constable,"

spoke his companion. "This is a great change. I'd like to see him catch us now."

"Dis prolonguated elevation into de airy s.p.a.ce ob de zeneth am extremely discommodatiousness to a pusson what ain't used to it," remarked Washington with a broad grin as he oiled a whirring motor.

"Yes--er--I guess it is," admitted Mark.

"Are your teeth all fast after that effort?" asked Jack with a laugh.

"Neber yo' mind my teeth," said Washington. "Golly! What's de matter now?"

The _Monarch_ was darting from side to side like a kite that has lost its tail in a high wind.

"It's only the professor trying the steering apparatus," said Jack, looking forward toward the conning tower. This proved to be true, for, in a moment, the airship resumed a straight path, and the professor, coming back to the engine room, cried:

"She answers her helm perfectly. It certainly is a success in every way!

But now, since the machinery is working well, and I have the _Monarch_ headed due north, in which direction she will sail alone for a while, I want you boys to come into the dining room, while we talk over matters with our unexpected visitors. We must lay plans and divide up the work of running the ship."

Jack and Mark went with the old man into the middle room of the craft.

There they found the old hunter and the two farm hands. None of the three had quite gotten over his fright at being suddenly carried off through the air.

"Everything has turned out for the best," the inventor began. "I feared my forced start would spoil my plans, but you see I got a crew almost at the last moment. Now we will--"

He was interrupted by a sudden cry from the engine room.

"Help! Help!" rang out the voice of the colored man. "Hurry up an'

help, Perfessor. I'm caught in some cantankerous conglomeration an' I'm bein' killed! Help! Help!"

Followed by the boys and the three men the old inventor hastened aft, alarm showing on his face.

CHAPTER VII

HELD BY ELECTRICITY

As they reached the engine room they saw a queer sight. Washington was close to the buzzing dynamo which he had started to oil. His hands grasped two large copper switches used to turn the current on and off.

"Let go and come away from there!" cried Mr. Henderson.

"I can't! I'se stuck fast!" yelled the negro, writhing in pain.