weather-bow.

"She's a whaler, I do believe, and her boats are after a sperm whale,"
said Simon O'Rook, who stood by the mizzen shrouds looking intently at
her through his double glass. Simon, being now a rich man, had not only
taken a cabin passage, but had bought for himself one of the best
binocular telescopes to be had in San Francisco.

It was soon seen that O'Rook was right for the whale rose to blow, and
swam towards the _Rainbow_, while the boats of the whaler immediately
followed in pursuit.

Great was the excitement on board the _Rainbow_ as the men clustered on
the forecastle, or ran up the rigging, to watch the chase, while the
officers and passengers got out their telescopes.

"Come here, Polly," cried Jack; "look through my glass. It's a rare
chance you've got of seeing what men have to go through in order to send
oil to market."

Polly at once accepted the invitation. Jack assisted her to mount on
the top of the capstan, and arranged the glass.

"There she blows!" shouted one of the men who had been an old whaler;
"there she breaches!"

As he spoke the whale rose about three miles to windward of them, not
far from the boat that led the chase. The men in the boat were seen to
bend to their oars, as Captain Samson said, "with a will." Another
moment and the harpooneer stood up in the bow. The spectators were too
far off to see the weapon used, but they could perceive the man's
action, and there was no possibility of mistake as to the result, when
the tail of the enormous creature was suddenly flourished in the air,
and came down on the sea like a clap of distant thunder.

"Oh! oh!!" shrieked the horrified Polly, "the boat is gone!"

But the boat was not gone. It had been quickly backed out of danger
when the harpoon was thrown, and reappeared when the cataract of spray
sent up had dispersed.

"He's pouring water on the rope now," said Jack, in a low excited voice,
"to prevent its catching fire as it runs out. They're fast to the
fish."

"Yes, I see," exclaimed Polly, squeezing her right eye against the glass
and shutting the other with her hand.

But in a few minutes there was no need for telescopes, as the whale came
straight towards the _Rainbow_, dragging the boat after it, while the
other boats followed as fast as the men could pull. The whale-ship
steered in the same direction, but there was scarcely wind enough to
fill her top-sails.

Suddenly the leviathan came to the surfa