h, cap'n, then all I can say is that it's a mighty big one.
Maybe 'tis a dead whale, yet I don't exactly think it. I've passed to
leeward of a dead whale, wi' a cloud o' gulls and what not feedin' upon
un, and the smell was different from this; just so strong, but
different, and if my memory sarves me--even wuss. And if 'twas a whale,
the gulls'd be swarmin' about un, fillin' the air wi' their cries, but I
don't hear a sound. And, as to seein'--well, I wish 'twould come on to
lighten a bit, then us might--"

"Aft there!" came a hail at this moment from the fore deck. "Do 'e
happen to smell anything strange in the air, sir?"

"Ay, ay, we do," answered George; "the odour is strong enough, goodness
knows. Who is it who is hailing?"

"Drew, the bo's'un, sir," came the answer, with a sharpness in it which
effectually prevented its recognition by the two officers upon the poop.
There was a note of alarm in the voice, and it was apparent that the
men who had been endeavouring to sleep had risen to their feet and were
excitedly discussing the phenomenon, for a low murmur of many voices
came floating aft from the forecastle.

"Light a lantern, Drew," ordered George, "bend it on to a rope's end,
and sling it overside. Maybe the light will show us something."

"Ay, ay, sir," floated back the answer, with that faint, elusive
suggestion of sadness in its tone which seems to characterise the human
voice when heard in the midst of the lonely ocean on a night of darkness
and calm. There followed a slight scuffling of feet, another subdued
murmur of voices, a pause of a few moments, then the sharp clink of
flint and steel, a tiny spark of light, and finally the mellow glow of a
ship's lighted lantern.

"Sling it over the bows, to start with," ordered George, "and then, if
you can see nothing, walk slowly aft with it."

Another "Ay, ay," was quickly followed by the disappearance of the
lantern over the fore extremity of the topgallant forecastle, and then
in the faint upward sheen from the lamp the dimly illuminated outline of
the boatswain's face and form appeared, his outstretched right hand
grasping the line to which the lantern was attached, while his left held
the spare coil. His eyeballs gleamed as his gaze went out searching to
its utmost confines the small space of illuminated water, apparently
without result, for he presently began to move slowly aft, pausing for a
short space of time in the foot of the fore-riggi