he
sea like glass. We were within two rifle shots of the shore at one
point. Behind this point of rocks was an inlet and the pool made good
anchorage without doubt, for there were several sail there, and a jumble
of huts on the shore.

We had seen whales for several days and once passed a whaleship at work
trying out; but it was not the Scarboro. Now a great whale swam calmly
past the Sea Spell, nosing in toward the land, probably following some
school of tiny fish upon which he was feeding.

"Wisht I had a crew of bully boys to go after that critter," sighed
Captain Tugg, behind his long cheroot. "He'll make more'n a bucket o'
ile, you bet!"

"You wouldn't want to litter up your tidy schooner with grease, sir,"
said I, in wonder.

"Mebbe not; mebbe not. But money's good wherever you find it, and that
critter is wuth two or three thousand dollars. By the e-tar-nal snakes!"
he added, using his favorite expletive, "I'd love to stick an iron in
that carcass."

I knew that Adoniram Tugg had been almost everything in the line of
sea-going and was not surprised to find that he had driven the iron into
many a whale. We stood swapping experiences, idly watching the big
whale. The creature sounded and remained down twenty or thirty minutes.
When he came up he spouted three times in quick succession, and then lay
basking on the surface.

"Looker there!" exclaimed Captain Tugg, suddenly. "By the e-tar-nal
snakes! looker there!"

He was pointing at the whale. Up towards its head, on the port side,
there appeared on the water a long tail, or fin, at right angles with
the whale.

"What in tarnation d'ye s'pose that critter is?" demanded Captain Tugg.

The thing was all of four and twenty feet long, about two wide at the
upper end, and tapering to eighteen inches. Almost at once the living
club was elevated in the air and then was flung down across the whale's
back--just behind where the head was attached to its body--with a noise
like a signal gun.

"Will ye looker that now!" bawled the Captain, in wonder.

Again and again the monstrous club rose and descended. The great whale
leaped like a beaten horse under the rain of blows; but whichever way
it turned, it could not shake off its assailant. The operator of that
club seemed to have it under perfect control, and likewise had means of
keeping up with the victim no matter in which direction, or how fast,
the latter swam. The blows fell only a few seconds apart, and the