k, so we hauled it in hand over
hand, and Tom Lokins coiled it away in the tub in the stern of the
boat, while the captain took his place in the bow to be ready with the
lance. The whale soon came up, and we pulled with all our might
towards him. Instead of making off again, however, he turned round and
made straight at the boat. I now thought that destruction was certain,
for, when I saw his great blunt forehead coming down on us like a
steamboat, I felt that we could not escape. I was mistaken. The
captain received him on the point of his lance, and the whale has such
a dislike to pain, that even a small prick will sometimes turn him.

For some time we kept dodging round this fellow; but he was so old and
wise, that he always turned his head to us, and prevented us from
getting a chance to lance him. At last he turned a little to one side,
and the captain plunged the lance deep into his vitals.

"Ha! that's touched his life," cried Tom, as a stream of blood flew up
from his blowholes, a sure sign that he was mortally wounded. But he
was not yet conquered. After receiving the cruel stab with the lance,
he pitched right down, head foremost, and once more the line began to
fly out over the bow. We tried to hold on, but he was going so
straight down that the boat was almost swamped, and we had to slack off
to prevent our being pulled under water.

Before many yards of the line had run out, one of the coils in the tub
became entangled.

"Look out, lads!" cried Tom, and at once throwing the turn off the
logger-head, he made an attempt to clear it. The captain, in trying to
do the same thing, slipped and fell. Seeing this, I sprang up, and,
grasping the coil as it flew past, tried to clear it. Before I could
think, a turn whipped round my left wrist. I felt a wrench as if my
arm had been torn out of the socket, and in a moment I was overboard,
going down with almost lightning speed into the depths of the sea.
Strange to say, I did not lose my presence of mind. I knew exactly
what had happened. I felt myself rushing down, down, down with
terrific speed; a stream of fire seemed to be whizzing past my eyes;
there was a dreadful pressure on my brain, and a roaring as if of
thunder in my ears. Yet, even in that dread moment, thoughts of
eternity, of my sins, and of meeting with my God, flashed into my mind,
for thought is quicker than the lightning flash.

[Illustration: "IN A MOMENT I WAS OVERBOARD"]

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