dely as was thought necessary, in order
to be near him on his arrival. It was, as might be imagined, some time
before we saw the light of his countenance; but when we did, we had no
difficulty in getting alongside of him again. My friend Goliath, much
to my delight, got there first, and succeeded in picking up the bight of
the line. But having done so, his chance of distinguishing himself was
gone. Hampered by the immense quantity of sunken line which was attached
to the whale, he could do nothing, and soon received orders to cut the
bight of the line and pass the whale's end to us. He had hardly obeyed,
with a very bad grace, when the whale started off to windward with us at
a tremendous rate. The other boats, having no line, could do nothing to
help, so away we went alone, with barely a hundred fathoms of line, in
case he should take it into his head to sound again. The speed at which
he went made it appear as if a gale of wind was blowing and we flew
along the sea surface, leaping from crest to crest of the waves with
an incessant succession of cracks like pistol-shots. The flying spray
drenched us and prevented us from seeing him, but I fully realized
that it was nothing to what we should have to put up with if the wind
freshened much. One hand was kept bailing the water out which came so
freely over the bows, but all the rest hauled with all their might upon
the line, hoping to get a little closer to the flying monster. Inch
by inch we gained on him, encouraged by the hoarse objurgations of the
mate, whose excitement was intense. After what seemed a terribly long
chase, we found his speed slackening, and we redoubled our efforts. Now
we were close upon him; now, in obedience to the steersman, the boat
sheered out a bit, and we were abreast of his labouring flukes; now the
mate hurls his quivering lance with such hearty good-will that every
inch of its slender shaft disappears within the huge body. "Layoff! Off
with her, Louey!" screamed the mate; and she gave a wide sheer away from
the whale, not a second too soon. Up flew that awful tail, descending
with a crash upon the water not two feet from us. "Out oars! Pull, two!
starn, three!" shouted the mate; and as we obeyed our foe turned to
fight. Then might one see how courage and skill were such mighty factors
in the apparently unequal contest. The whale's great length made it no
easy job for him to turn, while our boat, with two oars a-side, and
the great leverage at