f half stood up and waved his cap to the other
boats, and pointed to the harpoon and line. They waved back at us and
laughed. Then Bacon says,

"'Now I'm fast I don't hardly know what to do, because the whale is just
as cool as though he'd never been struck.'

"At that minute, as luck would have it, the whale seemed to find out
what had happened, and he ups flukes and sounds. He didn't stay down
very long, and when he came up Bacon says,

"'Now's our time. We'll go right in and give him the lance.'

"We bent our backs to it and dashed the boat ahead; but it was not to be
our luck to kill just then, for just as Bacon stood up with the lance
the whale hove his tail into the air and brought it down on the water
with a report like a cannon. At the same instant he sounded again.

"'He's a regular demon!' says Bacon; 'but we'll get him yet.'

"In a few minutes he came up again and lay perfectly still. Once more we
pulled up on him, and Bacon got ready to throw the lance. Again the
whale sounded. Down, down he went till the line was all out. And then he
didn't stop.

"'Great Scott!' yells Bacon, 'he's trying to tow us under.'

"Without a second's hesitation he grabbed the axe and cut the line. It
was lucky he was so quick, for the bow of the boat had been pulled down
till the water was flowing over the gunwales. Another second and we'd
all have been in the water. Again the whale came up and lay perfectly
still, with the tantalizing harpoon fast in his back.

"'Now we'll not fool with that any more,' said Bacon, the boat-steerer,
'but we'll go on and put in a new iron.'

"'We made a good approach, and got up within heaving distance. Bacon
stood up, and was just going to let fly, when Mr. Whale went down again.

"'Well, that's the most exasperating brute I ever met,' says Bacon, 'and
I'll never leave him till I see him dead.'

"I don't suppose a whale down under the sea can hear what a man in a
boat says, and I guess he wouldn't understand it if he did; but that
whale acted as if he knew a heap. The first thing we knew, the
stroke-oar, who was leaning over the side of the boat, let out a yell
and dashed his oar into the water.

"'Pull for your lives!' says he."

[Illustration: SUDDENLY TWO GREAT WALLS SEEMED TO SHOOT UP OUT OF THE
OCEAN.]

"We didn't need any second invitation of that kind. We all dipped our
oars, but it was too late. Suddenly two great dark walls seemed to shoot
up out of the ocean, one on eac