n, with a
line drifting from it.

"'That's my iron!' says the boat-steerer.

"'Get out!' says I.

"'I won't,' says he.

"'How do you know it's yours?' says I.

"'Because I made it myself, and I know my own work even when I see it
afloat on a whale's back away off in longitude and latitude something or
other.'

"'Then it's the same whale!' says I.

"'Right!' says he. 'It's the whale I struck the other day, and which got
away because you went out and cut the line.'

"'It would be a pretty good joke on the whale,' says I, 'if we could get
close enough to him to catch hold of the end of the line.'

"'It would,' says he,' and we could begin again where we left off
yesterday.'

"'Shall we try it?' I asks.

"'Of course,' says he.

"'He's stopped swimming ahead,' says I.

"'Then we'll soon be close to him,' says he.

"'But if he don't swim ahead the end of the line'll sink,' says I.

"'And we'll go on and heave a new iron into him,' says he, 'and so we'll
get him anyway.'

"Well, we sailed on, and occasionally the whale would swim ahead a
little, and then again he'd stop, and we'd gain on him. By-and-by we got
pretty close, and the boat-steerer says:

"'Let's make a dash now and make fast to him with the new iron.'

"With that we got the oars out, and with a jump and a snort we sent the
light boat boiling ahead. Now in all my life I never saw anything quite
as smart as that particular whale. The minute we began to go ahead, so
did he. But we were so close that old Bacon, the boat-steerer, made up
his mind that we could catch him.

"'Pull hard, lads!' he says; 'pull hard! We're gaining on him at every
stroke.'

"And now it came to be a regular race between us and the whale, which
was altogether out of the nature of things. The whale, if he'd been
scared, ought to have sounded. We thought of that afterward, but we
didn't think of it then. The other boats' crews didn't think of it
either, for they were pulling hard too. But owing to the whale's
starboarding his helm a little we were much the nearest to him. All of a
sudden I happened to look over the side of the boat, and blow me if I
didn't see the end of the harpoon-line dragging along in the water!
Quick as a wink I let go of my oar and grabbed that line. The next
second I had it in the boat, and had a turn around the loggerhead.

"'We're fast!' says I.

"'Bully for you!' says Bacon.

"'Hurrah!' says the rest of the crew.

"Then Bacon he sort o