I made some progress in that tongue of
harsh and mysterious gutturals.

Through all these occupations the thought never left me,--what could
be the object of Sir Dudley's continued voyaging? No feature of pleasure
was certainly associated with it; as little could it be attributed to
the practice of smuggling,--the very seas he had longest cruised in
forbade that notion. It must be, thought I, that other reason to which
he so darkly alluded on the day he called me to his cabin; and what
could that be? Never was ingenuity more tortured than mine by this
ever-recurring question; since it is needless to tell the reader I was
not then, nor indeed for a very long time afterwards, acquainted with
those particulars of his history I have already jotted down. This
intense curiosity of mine would doubtless have worn itself out at last,
but for a slight circumstance occurring to keep it still alive within
me. The little state-room in which I used to write lay at one side of
the cabin, from which it was entered,--no other means of getting to it
existing; a heavy silk curtain supplied the place of a door between the
two; and this, when four o'clock came, and my day's work was finished,
was let down till the following morning, when it was drawn aside, that
Sir Dudley, from time to time, might see, and, if needful, speak with
me. Now, one day, when we had been about three weeks at sea, the weather
being intensely hot and sultry, Sir Dudley had fallen asleep in his
cabin while I sat writing away vigorously within. Suddenly, I heard a
shout on deck: "The whales! a shoal of whales ahead!" and immediately
the sudden scuffling of feet, and the heavy hum of voices, proclaimed
the animation and interest the sight created. I strained myself to peep
through the little one-paned window beside me, but all I could see was
the great blue heaving ocean as, in majestic swell, it rolled along.
Still the noise continued; and, by the number and tone of the speakers,
I could detect that all the crew were on deck,--every one, in fact, save
myself. What a disappointment! full as my mind was of every monster of
land and water, burning to observe some of the wonderful things I had
read so much about, and now destined actually to be denied a sight
on which my comrades were then gazing! I could endure the thought
no longer; and although my task was each morning allotted to me, and
carefully examined the next day by Sir Dudley, I stepped lightly out on
tiptoe,