here he reared himself upon his
hind legs, emitting a succession of deep, alert barks; and the crew
forward shambled over to the port bulwarks, staring curiously.

"Come up here, Miss Trevor," said Leslie, extending his hand to help the
girl up on to the grating beside him. "Here is a sight that you may
never have an opportunity to behold again--at least, under such perfect
conditions as these."

The girl, closely attended by Sailor, sprang lightly upon the grating,
and following with her eyes Leslie's pointing finger, gazed down into
the blue, transparent depths, where she beheld the enormous black bulk
of a large sperm whale, lying right up alongside the brig--so close to
her, indeed, that his starboard fin was right under her bilge, about a
third of his length--from his blow-holes aft toward his tail--showing
shiny as polished ebony, some six inches above water, while his
ponderous tail stretched away some forty feet or more beyond the
taffrail, where it could be clearly seen gently rising and falling to
enable him to keep pace with the brig.

"What a veritable monster!" exclaimed Miss Trevor, gazing down with
wide-open eyes of mingled astonishment and dismay at the huge creature,
as she clung unconsciously to Leslie's supporting arm. "Is it
dangerous? I hope not, because it looks big enough and strong enough to
destroy this ship at a single blow if it chose to do so!"

"You need not be in the least alarmed," answered Leslie, reassuringly.
"He will not hurt us if we do not interfere with him. These creatures
are only dangerous if attacked; then, indeed, they have been known to
turn upon their assailants, with dire results. But ah! look there!--
there is another one!"

And sure enough, up came another of the monsters, breaking water with a
rush that showed nearly half his length, at a distance of only some
fifty yards from the brig.

"And there is another!" cried Miss Trevor, with unmistakable
trepidation, as a third came to the surface and blew close under the
brig's counter.

"Pity as we ain't a whaler, sir," remarked the helmsman. "If we was,
here 'd be a chance to get fast to two of 'em at once, without so much
as havin' to lower a boat!"

"Yes," responded Leslie, good-naturedly. "Such chances do not, however,
seem to come to whalers. Why, there blows another!" as a fourth whale
broke water about a hundred yards on the brig's starboard beam. "We
seem to have fallen in with a whole school of them