ik, Okiok, Simek, Norrak, and Ermigit were among them, in
borrowed kayaks, and mad as the maddest with glee. Even Kajo joined
them. He was as drunk as the proverbial fiddler, having obtained rum
from the sailors, and much more solemn than an owl.

While these hastened to the conflict, the women and children who could
run or walk proceeded by land to view the battle.

And it was indeed a grand fight! The unlucky monster had got thoroughly
embayed, and was evidently in a state of consternation, for in its
efforts to regain deep water it rushed hither and thither, thrusting its
blunt snout continually on some shoal, and wriggling off again with
difficulty and enormous splutter. The shouts of men, shrieks of women,
and yells of children co-mingled in stupendous discord.

Simek, the mighty hunter, was first to launch his harpoon. It went deep
and was well aimed. Blood dyed the sea at once, and the efforts of the
whale to escape were redoubled. There was also danger in this attack,
for no one could tell, each time the creature got into water deep enough
to float in, to what point of the shore its next rush would be.

"Look out!" cried Rooney in alarm, for, being close to Arbalik in a
kayak, he saw that the whale was coming straight at them. It ran on a
shoal when close to them, doubled round in terror and whirled its great
tail aloft.

Right over Arbalik's head the fan-like mass quivered for one moment.
The youth did not give it a chance. Over he went and shot down into the
water like an eel, just as the tail came down like a thunder-clap on his
kayak, and reduced it to a jumble of its shattered elements, while
Rooney paddled out of danger. Arbalik swam ashore, and landed just in
time to see the whale rise out of the water, lifting Ippegoo in his
kayak on its shoulders. The electrified youth uttered a shriek of
horror in which the tone of surprise was discernible, slid off, kayak
and all, into the sea--and was none the worse!

By this time some dozens of harpoons had been fixed in the body of the
whale, and the number of bladders attached to them interfered slightly
with its movements, but did not render an approach to it by any means
safer. At last Simek, losing patience, made a bold rush in his kayak,
and drove his lance deep into the huge creature's side. The act was
greeted with a cheer--or something like one,--which was repeated when
Red Rooney followed suit successfully. Okiok and his two sons were no