to get us, because he was short-handed, some
of his men having deserted at the last port. So we agreed to work in
with his crew until our own ship was sighted, when he was to put us
aboard of her. Of course we never had any sort of a notion that it was
going to be six months before we got back to the _Ellen Burgee_. Say, of
all the wearing, tearing things that can come to a man in this world
there's nothing more exasperating than waiting for whales. We pretty
nearly went crazy aboard the _Two Cousins_, for it was two weeks before
the masthead let go the mighty welcome yell,

"'There she breaches!'

"The skipper he jumped into the rigging and took a squint, and the next
minute he shouted:

"'There she blows--one--two--three! Three good whales. Lower away
lively, you shipkeepers!'

"Our crew had been put in one boat, because the Captain agreed that we'd
do better working together, and of course he knew we wouldn't run away,
because there wasn't any place to run to. Well, we lowered away and off
we went under oars, because the whales were dead to windward, and not so
very far away either. We had gone about half the distance, when the
boat-steerer said,

"'There goes flukes.'

"Which meant, of course, that the whales had sounded. There was nothing
to do except to wait for them to come up again. They staid down a pretty
long time, which proved that they were big ones, and then they came up
half a mile dead to leeward of us. We set our little boat sail, there
was a fairly good breeze, and we went dancing over the waves toward the
whales at a good pace. The first mate of the _Two Cousins_ had the
weather-gage of us, and he had the smallest whale. The one we were
heading for was a regular old leviathan.

"'Get in your sail,' whispered the boat-steerer.

"It was done with great caution.

"'Now a good stroke, starboard, to pull her round.'

"We were now in a position to go up to his whaleship without being seen;
so the boat-steerer says:

"'Now, lads, give way with a will. Jump her; jump her!'

"We dashed our oars, and the boat sprang forward.

"'Now!'

"The iron was thrown with a whiz, and as quick as a flash--yes, as quick
as a mouse could dart into his hole--the whale went down into the sea.
The line ran out of the tub fast enough to make you dizzy. All of a
sudden--how, I never could tell--there was a kink in the line, and it
fouled for a second in the bow chock. Such a thing meant destruction to
the boat,