up any nearer. Don't you see, sir, that every minute or two he
strikes down, instead of sculling off handsomely and with a wide sweep, as
becomes a whale?"

"That is just the motion I distrust, Stephen, and I shall wait a bit to
see what he would be at. I hope those ship-keepers will be busy, and work
the schooners well up to windward before it gets to be dark. Our man is
asleep half his time, and is apt to let the vessel fall off a point or
two."

"Mr. Hazard gave him caution to keep a bright look out, sir, and I think
he'll be apt to--look out, sir!--Look out!"

This warning was well-timed; for, just at that instant the whale ceased
sculling, and lifting its enormous tail high in the air, it struck five or
six blows on the surface of the water, that made a noise which might have
been heard half a league, besides filling the atmosphere immediately
around him with spray. As the tail first appeared in the air, line was
permitted to run out of the boat, increasing the distance between its bows
and the flukes to quite a hundred feet. Nothing could better show the
hardy characters of the whalers than the picture then presented by Roswell
Gardiner and his companions. In the midst of the Atlantic, leagues from
their vessel, and no other boat in sight, there they sat patiently waiting
the moment when the giant of the deep should abate in his speed, or in his
antics, to enable them to approach and complete their capture. Most of the
men sat with their arms crossed, and bodies half-turned, regarding the
scene, while the two officers, the master and boat-steerer, if the latter
could properly be thus designated, watched each evolution with a keenness
of vigilance that let nothing like a sign or a symptom escape them.

Such was the state of things, the whale still threshing the sea with his
flukes, when a cry among his men induced Roswell for a moment to look
aside. There came Daggett fast to a small bull, which was running directly
in the wind's eye with great speed, dragging the boat after him, which was
towing astern at a distance of something like two hundred fathoms. At
first, Roswell thought he should be compelled to cut from his whale, so
directly towards his own boat did the other animal direct his course. But,
intimidated, most probably, by the tremendous blows with which the larger
bull continued to belabour the ocean, the smaller animal sheered away in
time to avoid a collision, though he now began to circle the spot