g, grinding and booming as the great pieces of ice
collapsed one against the other, the big ice cave settled in, as
does some great building when the walls are weakened!

Down crashed the roof of the ice cave! Down upon the RED CLOUD,
burying out of sight, forever, under thousands of tons of ice and
snow, the craft which was the pride of Tom Swift's heart! It was the
end of the airship!

Tom felt a moisture of tears in his eyes as he stood there in the
midst of the snowstorm.

CHAPTER XXV

THE RESCUE--CONCLUSION

For a few moments after the collapse of the cave, and the
destruction of the airship, on which they depended to take them from
that desolate land, no one spoke. The calamity had been too
terrible--they could hardly understand it.

The snow had ceased, and, over the frozen plain, in full retreat,
could be seen the band of attacking Indians. They had fled in terror
at the manifestation of Nature. And Nature, as if satisfied at the
mischief she had wrought, called a halt to the movement of the ice.
The roaring, grinding sounds ceased, and there were no more
collapses of caves in that neighborhood.

"Well, we are up against it," spoke Tom, softly. "Poor old RED
CLOUD! There'll never be another airship like you!"

"We are lucky to have escaped with our lives," said Mr. Parker.
"Another moment and it would have been too late. I was expecting
something like this--I predicted it."

But his honor was an empty one--no one cared to dispute it with him.

"Bless my refrigerator! What's to be done!" exclaimed Mr. Damon.

"Start from here as soon as possible," decided Abe.

"Why, do you think the natives will come back?" asked Ned.

"No, but we have only a small supply of food, my lad, an' it's hard
to git up here. We must hit th' trail fer civilization as soon as we
kin!"

"Go back--how; without the airship?" asked Tom, blankly.

"Walk!" exclaimed the miner, grimly. "It's th' only way!"

They realized that. There was no hope of digging through that mass
of fantastically piled ice to reach the airship, and, even if they
could have done so, it would have been crushed beyond all hope of
repair. Nor could they dig down for more food, though what they had
hastily saved was little enough.

"Well, if we've got to go, we'd better start," suggested Tom, sadly.
"Poor old RED CLOUD!"

"Maybe we can get a little more gold," suggested Ned.

They walked over to the hole whence they had taken the yellow
nu