e,
mainly because of the close attention of the cow, which stuck to her
lord like a calf to its mother. I was getting so impatient of this
hindrance, that it was all I could do to restrain myself from lancing
the cow, though I felt convinced that, if I did, I should spoil a good
job. Suddenly I caught sight of the ship right ahead. We were still
flying along, so that in a short time we were comparatively close to
her. My heart beat high and I burned to distinguish myself under the
friendly and appreciative eye of the skipper.

None of the other boats were in sight, from our level at least, so that
I had a reasonable hope of being able to finish my game, with all the
glory thereunto attaching, unshared by any other of my fellow-officers.
As we ran quite closely past the ship, calling on the crew to haul up
for all they were worth, we managed actually to squeeze past the cow,
and I got in a really deadly blow. The point of the lance entered just
between the fin and the eye, but higher up, missing the broad plate of
the shoulder-blade, and sinking its whole four feet over the hitches
right down into the animal's vitals. Then, for the first time, he threw
up his flukes, thrashing them from side to side almost round to his
head, and raising such a turmoil that we were half full of water in
a moment. But Samuela was so quick at the steer-oar, so lithe and
forceful, and withal appeared so to anticipate every move of mine, that
there seemed hardly any danger.

After a few moments of this tremendous exertion, our victim settled
down, leaving the water deeply stained with his gushing blood. With him
disappeared his constant companion, the faithful cow, who had never left
his side a minute since we first got fast. Down, down they went, until
my line began to look very low, and I was compelled to make signals to
the ship for more. We had hardly elevated the oars, when down dropped
the last boat with four men in her, arriving by my side in a few minutes
with two fresh tubs of tow-line. We took them on board, and the boat
returned again. By the time the slack came we had about four hundred and
fifty fathoms out--a goodly heap to pile up loose in our stern-sheets. I
felt sure, however, that we should have but little more trouble with our
fish; in fact, I was half afraid that he would die before getting to
the surface, in which case he might sink and be lost. We hauled steadily
away, the line not coming in very easily, until I judged