, Snowy. You see the flag-spear ain't straight into the
back o' the anymal. It's to one side, though it now stand nearly on
top; because the body o' the whale be canted over a bit. A first-rate
`_heads-man_' o' a whale-boat could easily a' throwed it that way from
the bottom o' his boat, and that's the way it ha' been done."

"Spose 'im hab been jest dat way," assented Snowball. "But wha' matter
'bout dat? De whale have been kill all de same."

"What matter? Everything do it matter."

"'Splain, Massa Brace!"

"Don't ye see, nigger, that if the spermacety had been dispatched while
the boats were about it, it would prove that the whale-ship must a' been
here while they were a killin' the creature; an' that would go far to
prove that she couldn't be a great ways off now."

"So dat wud,--so im wud, fo' sa'tin sure."

"Well, Snowy, as the case stands, thear be no sartinty where the whaler
be at this time. The anymal, after being drogued, may a' sweemed many a
mile from the place where she war first harpooned. I've knowed 'em to
go a score o' knots afore they pulled up; an' this bein' a' old bull,--
one o' the biggest spermacetys I ever see,--she must a sweemed to the
full o' that distance afore givin' in. If that's been so, thear ain't
much chance o' eyther her or we bein' overhauled by the whaler."

As the sailor ceased speaking he once more directed his glance over the
ocean; which, after another minute and careful scrutiny of the horizon,
fell back upon the body of the whale, with the same expression of
disappointment that before had been observable.

CHAPTER SIXTY.

A CURIOUS CUISINE.

During all that day, the sailor and the ex-cook of the _Pandora_ kept
watch from the _summit_ of the dead _cachalot_.

It was not altogether for this purpose they remained there,--since the
mast of the _Catamaran_ would have given them an observatory of equal
and even greater elevation.

There were several reasons why they did not cast off from the carcass,
and continue their westward course: the most important being the hope
that the destroyers of the whale might return to take possession of the
valuable prize which they had left behind them.

There was, moreover, an undefined feeling of security in lying alongside
the leviathan,--almost as great as they might have felt if anchored near
the beach of an actual island,--and this had some influence in
protracting their stay.

But there was yet another motive whi