socket in its blubber; while
from the thick wooden shanks, protruding beyond the skin, were lines
extending into the water, at the ends of which were large blocks of wood
floating like buoys upon the surface of the sea.

Ben identified the latter as the "drogues," that form part of the
equipment of a regular whale-ship. He knew them well, and their use.
Before becoming a man-o'-war's-man, he had handled the harpoon; and was
perfectly _au fait_ to all connected with the calling of a whaler.

"Yes," resumed he, on recognising the implements of his _ci-devant_
profession, "it ha' been jest as I said. A whaler 'a been over this
ground, and killed the spermacety. Maybe I'm wrong about that," he
added, after reflecting a short while. "I may be wrong about the ship
being over this very ground. I don't like the look o' them drogues."

"De drogue?" inquired the Coromantee. "Dem block o' wood dat am
driffin' about? Wha' for you no like dem, Massa Brace?"

"But for their bein' thear I could say for sartin a ship had been here."

"Must a' been!" asserted Snowball. "If no', how you count for de
presence ob de flag and de hapoons?"

"Ah!" answered the sailor, with something like a sigh; "they kud a' got
thear, without the men as throwed 'em bein' anywhere near this. You
know nothin' o' whalin', Snowy."

This speech put Snowball in a quandary.

"You see, nigger," continued the sailor, "the presence o' them drogues
indercates that the whale warn't dead when the boats left her." (The
_ci-devant_ whaler followed the fashion of his former associates, in
speaking of the whale, among whom the epicene gender of the animal is
always feminine.) "She must a' been still alive," continued he, "and the
drogues were put thear to hinder her from makin' much way through the
water. In coorse there must a' been a school o' the spermacetys; and
the crew o' the whaler didn't want to lose time with this 'un, which
they had wounded. For that reason they have struck her with this pair
o' drogued harpoons; and stuck this whift into her back. On fust seein'
that, I war inclined to think different. You see the whift be stickin'
a'most straight up, an' how could that a' been done by them in the
boats? If the whale hadn't a' been dead, nobody would a' dared to a
clombed on to her an' fix the flag that way."

"You are right dar," interrupted Snowball.

"No," rejoined the sailor, "I ain't. I thought I war; but I war wrong,
as you be now