a and I took a walk along the beach.
We came upon a great squid lying dead. He had been bitten in two by a
cachalot, and had only three arms left, but they were of tremendous
length. Then we saw pieces of other squid all along the beach.

Suddenly Costa ran forward, and gave a great shout, and bent over what
I had taken to be a big jelly-fish. "By Gar--grease!" says he. It was
a big lump of ambergrease, the biggest any man aboard has ever seen.
It weighs 198 pounds.

But this was not all. Costa and I danced around our find like madmen,
and the hands came running up. Then Silva gave a shout, and we found
he had discovered a lump of grease. Then we looked along the beach,
and we found it was dotted with the precious stuff.

I sent Costa straightway to tell the captain, and he and Mr. Garboy
came ashore in a great hurry. I never saw anybody take on like Garboy.
The Old Man brought everybody ashore, except the cook and chips, and we
combed the beach all the way around the lagoon, and around the seaward
rim of the island. But we didn't find any grease except inside. By
nightfall we had a big boatload, and we went aboard. The captain and
Mr. Garboy are on the poop now, helping the cooper stow it, themselves,
so afraid are they that some of it will be smuggled forward. The Old
Man is dancing with joy.

"There you are--all of that entry. Just think of those two chaps
dancing around their find, beside a giant dead squid! I wager that was
the supreme moment of their greasy lives. I wager that old spouter
seethed with excitement and gossip that night. No wonder the Old Man
danced! How would you like to stumble on a windfall like that, Blake?
But let us get on.

"I'll read the entry for three days later. In the interim, they had
lain to anchor in the lagoon, and continued their search for more
ambergris.

We did not get any more grease today, though we raked and scraped the
beach. There is no more. The Old Man says he is satisfied, and we
leave tomorrow morning. Everybody is speculating about how so much
grease came to be here. Nobody knows for sure. Garboy says that this
is a great place for squid, and that the school of Cachalot we were in
a couple of weeks ago had been here feeding. He says that something
was the matter with the squid and that the fish got sick and vomited
the grease.

I don't know, it may be so, the stuff is full of squid beaks. But
Garboy is too cocksure. Anyway we have t