and letting fall the curtain so that if he awoke I should not be
missed, I stole up the "companion," and reached the deck.

What a sight was there! the whole sea around us was in motion with the
great monsters, who, in pursuit of a shoal of herrings, darted at speed
through the blue water,--spouting, blowing, and tossing in all the
wildest confusion; here, every eye was bent on a calm still spot in the
water, where a whale had "sounded," that is, gone down quite straight
into the depths of the sea; here, another was seen scarcely covered
by the water, his monstrous head and back alternately dipping below or
emerging above it; harpoons and tackle were sought out, firearms loaded,
and every preparation for attack and capture made, but none dared to
venture without orders, nor was any hardy enough to awake him and
ask for them. Perhaps the very expectancy on our part increased the
interest, for certainly the excitement of the scene was intense,--so
much so that I actually forgot all about my task, and, without a thought
of consequences, was hanging eagerly over the taffrail in full enjoyment
of the wild scene, when the tinkle of the captain's bell startled me,
and, to my horror, I remembered it was now his dinner hour, and that,
for the rest of the day, no opportunity would offer of my reaching the
state-room to finish my writing.

I was so terrified that I lost all interest in the spectacle, whereof,
up to that time, my mind was full. It was my first delinquency, and had
all the poignancy of a first fault. The severity I had seen practised
on others for even slight infractions of duty was all before me, and
I actually debated with myself whether it would not be better to jump
overboard at once than meet the anger of Sir Dudley. With any one else,
perhaps, I should have bethought me of some cunning lie to account for
my absence; but he had warned me about trying to deceive him, and I well
knew he could be as good as his word. I had no courage to tell any of
the sailors my fault, and ask their advice; indeed, I anticipated what
would be the result: some brutal jest over my misfortune, some coarse
allusion to the fate they had often told me portended me, since "no
younker had ever gone from land to land with Sir Dudley without tasting
his hemp fritters." I sat down, therefore, beside the bowsprit, where
none should see me, to commune alone with my grief, and, if I could, to
summon up courage to meet my fate.

Night had cl