her
faint, when, in one of his scrambles up to the foretop, he saw something
in the water which was hidden from the sight of the others on board,
through the head-sails of the ship shutting out their line of view.

"Oh, crickey," shouted out Master Negus at the top of his voice, at once
betraying his whereabouts in his excitement, "there's a fight going on
in the water, and two whales are leathering each other like fun!"

CHAPTER SIX.

THE BLACK FISH AND THE THRESHER.

"Good gracious me!" exclaimed Mrs Major Negus, jumping up in a fright
from the comfortable nap which she had been taking in a lean-back chair
on the poop; "where is that unhappy boy? He'll be the death of me some
day!"

"I'm here, ma!" shouted out Maurice from the forecastle. "Do come,
everybody. It's such fun! Ah, there, the big one has just got such a
whack and is in a terrible wax. He's hunting about for the little one,
who has dived away from him out of reach!"

"Fokesall, ahoy!" hailed Mr Adams, who had charge of the deck; "what's
the matter forward!"

"Only a fight, sir, between a black-fish and a thresher," answered Ben
Boltrope, the carpenter, an old man-o'-war's man, and one of the most
efficient hands of the _Nancy Bell's_ crew.

"A fit!" exclaimed Mr Zachariah Lathrope, drawing his long telescopic
legs together and rising into a sitting posture on the top of the cabin
skylight, where he had been taking his usual afternoon siesta instead of
putting himself to the trouble of going below and turning into his bunk,
as was his usual wont after luncheon. "A fit! Wa-al I guess I'm on. I
allers likes to hitch in with a muss!" and, so saying, the lanky
American was soon scrambling down the poop-ladder and making his way
forward, followed by all the remainder of the passengers--Mrs Major
Negus, of course, going to look after her darling boy, while Frank
Harness accompanied Kate Meldrum, as he said, to "take care of her,"
although, as her father was not far distant, it might have been supposed
that his protecting arm was not so absolutely necessary as he thought!

A very strange spectacle was seen, when the party, after diving beneath
the slackened sheets of the mainsail, that flapped about an inert mess
of canvas above their heads, and picking their way past the galley and
windlass, at last climbed up into the bows of the ship, where the
majority of the crew had already assembled and taken up vantage points
in the rigging, half-way