第26章 ABNER'S WHALE(3)

Therefore, we separated as widely as was thought necessary, in order to be near him on his arrival.It was, as might be imagined, some time before we saw the light of his countenance;but when we did, we had no difficulty in getting alongside of him again.My friend Goliath, much to my delight, got there first, and succeeded in picking up the bight of the line.But having done so, his chance of distinguishing himself was gone.Hampered by the immense quantity of sunken line which was attached to the whale, he could do nothing, and soon received orders to cut the bight of the line and pass the whale's end to us.He had hardly obeyed, with a very bad grace, when the whale started off to windward with us at a tremendous rate.The other boats, having no line, could do nothing to help, so away we went alone, with barely a hundred fathoms of line, in case he should take it into his head to sound again.The speed at which he went made it appear as if a gale of wind was blowing and we flew along the sea surface, leaping from crest to crest of the waves with an incessant succession of cracks like pistol-shots.The flying spray drenched us and prevented us from seeing him, but I fully realized that it was nothing to what we should have to put up with if the wind freshened much.One hand was kept bailing the water out which came so freely over the bows, but all the rest hauled with all their might upon the line, hoping to get a little closer to the flying monster.Inch by inch we gained on him, encouraged by the hoarse objurgations of the mate, whose excitement was intense.After what seemed a terribly long chase, we found his speed slackening, and we redoubled our efforts.Now we were close upon him; now, in obedience to the steersman, the boat sheered out a bit, and we were abreast of his labouring flukes; now the mate hurls his quivering lance with such hearty good-will that every inch of its slender shaft disappears within the huge body."Layoff! Off with her, Louey!" screamed the mate; and she gave a wide sheer away from the whale, not a second too soon.Up flew that awful tail, descending with a crash upon the water not two feet from us."Out oars! Pull, two! starn, three!" shouted the mate; and as we obeyed our foe turned to fight.Then might one see how courage and skill were such mighty factors in the apparently unequal contest.The whale's great length made it no easy job for him to turn, while our boat, with two oars a-side, and the great leverage at the stern supplied by the nineteen-foot steer-oar circled, backed, and darted ahead like a living thing animated by the mind of our commander.When the leviathan settled, we gave a wide berth to his probable place of ascent; when he rushed at us, we dodged him; when he paused, if only momentarily, in we flew, and got home a fearful thrust of the deadly lance.

All fear was forgotten now--I panted, thirsted for his life.

Once, indeed, in a sort of frenzy, when for an instant we lay side by side with him, I drew my sheath-knife, and plunged it repeatedly into the blubber, as if I were assisting is his destruction.Suddenly the mate gave a howl: "Starn all--starn all! oh, starn!" and the oars bent like canes as we obeyed.

There was an upheaval of the sea just ahead; then slowly, majestically, the vast body of our foe rose into the air.Up, up it went, while my heart stood still, until the whole of that immense creature hung on high, apparently motionless, and then fell--a hundred tons of solid flesh--back into the sea.On either side of that mountainous mass the waters rose in shining towers of snowy foam, which fell in their turn, whirling and eddying around us as we tossed and fell like a chip in a whirlpool.Blinded by the flying spray, baling for very life to free the boat from the water with which she was nearly full, it was some minutes before I was able to decide whether we were still uninjured or not.Then I saw, at a little distance, the whale lying quietly.As I looked he spouted, and the vapour was red with his blood."Starn all!" again cried our chief, and we retreated to a considerable distance.The old warrior's practised eye had detected the coming climax of our efforts, the dying agony or "furry" of the great mammal.Turning upon his side, be began to move in a circular direction, slowly at first, then faster and faster, until he was rushing round at tremendous speed, his great head raised quite out of water at times, clashing his enormous jaws.Torrents of blood poured from his spout-hole, accompanied by hoarse bellowings, as of some gigantic bull, but really caused by the labouring breath trying to pass through the clogged air passages.The utmost caution and rapidity of manipulation of the boat was necessary to avoid his maddened rush, but this gigantic energy was short-lived.In a few minutes he subsided slowly in death, his mighty body reclined on one side, the fin uppermost waving limply as he rolled to the swell, while the small waves broke gently over the carcass in a low, monotonous surf, intensifying the profound silence that had succeeded the tumult of our conflict with the late monarch of the deep.Hardly had the flurry ceased, when we hauled up alongside of our hard-won prize, in order to secure a line to him in a better manner than at present for hauling him to the ship.This was effected by cutting a hole through the tough, gristly substance of the flukes with the short "boat-spade," carried for the purpose.The end of the line, cut off from the faithful harpoon that had held it so long, was then passed through this hole and made fast.This done, it was "Smoke-oh!" The luxury of that rest and refreshment was something to be grateful for, coming, as it did, in such complete contrast to our recent violent exertions.