h side of the boat. The boat itself was
lifted bodily out of the water, bending and straining as if it was made
of straw. Looking over the sides, our blood just stood still at the
sight. The whale had come up under us straight up and down, as if he was
a-standing on his tail. He had opened his terrible cave of a mouth, and
had snatched the boat in it, and now he was holding the little vessel
and us in it a good fifteen feet above the water, while he sort of
rocked back and forward like a child playing with a doll.

"'Give him an iron in his beastly snout!' yelled one of the men.

"Too late; and it wouldn't have done any good anyhow. He moved his jaw a
little, and the sides of the boat bent in and creaked like paper. With
wild yells we all threw ourselves out of the boat, for in another minute
some of us would have been in his throat. He snapped his jaws together,
crunching the boat into kindling-wood. Then he threw himself end over
end, going down head first, and lashing out with his great flukes. Poor
Bill Johnson got a crack that broke one of his legs, and if it hadn't
been for Bacon, he'd have drowned. The other boats came dashing down to
our rescue, the boat of the first mate of the _Two Cousins_ leading the
way. She was nearest to us, and the mate was shouting words of
encouragement, when all of a sudden his cries changed to shouts of fear.
The next instant we saw the waters split wide open, and the whale came
up, back first, with a crash right under the boat. Boys, I hope I may
never see South Street again if he didn't drive the harpoon that was
still sticking in his back right through the bottom of her. There she
was pinned fast to his back.

"'Give him your lance'!' yells Bacon, who was swimming and holding up
Bill Johnson.

"'What! And be killed in his flurry?' shouted the mate. 'Not much!'

"With that he grabs the spars of his boat, throws them overboard, and
jumps after them, followed by all his crew. At the same instant the
whale lashed out with his flukes again and went down, taking the boat on
his back. This time, as good luck would have it, he didn't hit any one.
But we were all thoroughly terrified, for we knew now that the brute was
in a temper, and that he knew what he was doing. Meanwhile the ship was
bearing down on us, and we had hopes of being saved. The third boat,
too, was pulling up, but we had not much hopes of her, for we expected
to see the whale attack her. And, sure enough, he came up a