Every
one was thrown off his feet, and the lights which had been turned on
suddenly went out.
"What's the matter?" cried Ned.
"Have we hit anything?" demanded Mr. Damon.
"Hit anything! I should say we had!" yelled Tom. "We've knocked a
piece off a big mountain of ice!"
As he spoke the airship began slowly settling toward the earth, for
her machinery had been stopped by the terrific impact.
CHAPTER XVIII
A FIGHT WITH MUSK OXEN
"Can I help you, Tom? What's to be done?" demanded Ned Newton, as he
rushed to where his chum was yanking on various levers and gear
wheels.
"Wait a minute!" gasped the young inventor. "I want to throw on the
storage battery, and that will give us some light. Then we can see
what We are doing." An instant later the whole ship was illuminated,
and those aboard her felt calmer. Still the RED CLOUD continued to
sink.
"Can't we do something?" yelled Ned. "Start the propellers, Tom!"
"No, I'll use the gas. I can't see where we're heading for, as the
searchlight is out of business. We may be in the midst of a lot of
bergs. We were flying too low. Just start the gas generating
machine."
Ned hurried to obey this order. He saw Tom's object. With the big
bag full of gas the airship would settle gently to earth as easily
as though under the command of the propellers and wing planes.
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