no wind at all, so the fleet approached slowly, and we had the
whale tackled to the Sea Spell, fore and aft, before the tug was very
near.

We made no immediate attempt to butcher the whale and I took pains to
get some of its dimensions. It was eighty-two feet over all in length
and nearly sixty feet around the biggest part of the body. The lower jaw
was nineteen and one-half feet long and the tail, when it was expanded,
measured twenty-three feet. I suppose, through the thickest part of the
body it must have been as many feet as the expanded tail was wide; at
least, so it appeared. These measurements will give the reader some idea
of what these huge mammals look like. And Captain Tugg had not been far
out of the way when he declared the whale to be worth two thousand
dollars.

"What you got to run oil into, sir?" I asked, curiously.

"Wait a bit; wait a bit," returned the Yankee, puffing on his cheroot.
"Let's see what these Yaller-skins have to offer. If we hadn't tailed
onto the whale as we did they'd had their hooks in it by this time."

A few words in Spanish to Pedro had stirred up the mate and crew of the
Sea Spell. They seemed wonderfully busy getting a lot of gear and litter
upon deck. The uninitiated might have thought that we were getting ready
to cut up the whale and boil down the blubber in the most approved
style.

Finally a man aboard the tug hailed us. Captain Tugg answered in
Spanish, and an excited conversation ensued--at least, excited upon the
side of the man aboard the steam vessel and his compatriots. The skipper
of the Sea Spell seemed particularly calm and unshaken. I could
understand but little of the talk, although I had begun to pick up the
bastard Spanish spoken along the coast. I knew the Yankee and the dagos
were bargaining.

Finally Tugg sang out to Pedro to belay the work he and the crew were
engaged in, and to lower a boat again. The captain was rowed to the tug
and after some further conversation I saw certain moneys counted out and
paid over to the master of the Sea Spell. He was then rowed back and
when he was aboard he ordered the dead whale cast off.

"And git some of your watch down there, Pedro," added Captain Tugg, "and
swab the grease off her side. Ugh! There ain't nothing nastier than a
whale."

"Yet you were going to cut her up?" I suggested, curiously.

He favored me with a wink. "Buncome, Bluff," he murmured. "That little
play-acting turned me two hundred dollars