ing
fins of the killers.

"Bl-o-ows!" started the deep voice of a lookout, from where sailors and
hunters had grouped in the bows to witness this gladiatorial combat
between sea monsters, staged fittingly in a sea that was running wild.
Rainey strained his gaze to catch the steamy spiracle and the outthrust
of the great head.

"_Bl-o-ows!_" The deep voice almost leaped an octave in a sudden shrill
of apprehension. Other voices mingled with his in a clamor of dismay.

"Look out! Oh, look out! Dead ahead!"

The enormous bulk of the whale had appeared, not to spout, but to lie
belly up, rocking on the surface with fins outspread, paralyzed with
terror, directly in the course of the _Karluk_, while toward it, intent
only on their blood lust, leaped the killers, thrusting at its head as
the schooner surged down. In that tremendous sea the impact would be
certain to mean the staving in of something forward, perhaps the
springing of a butt.

"Hard a lee!" yelled Rainey. "Up with her! Up!"

It was desire to vent his own feelings, rather than necessity for the
command, that made Rainey yell the order, for he could see the girl
striving with the spokes, Carlsen lending his strength to hers. The
sheets were well flattened, the wind almost abeam, and there was no need
to change the set of fore and main.

Forward, the men jumped to handle the headsails. The _Karluk_ started to
spin about on its keel, instinct to the changing plane of the rudder.
But the waves were running tremendously high, and the wind blowing with
great force, the water rolling in great mountains of sickly greenish
gray, topped with foam that blew in a level scud.

As the schooner hung in a deep trough, the wind struck at her, bows on.
With the gale suddenly spilled out of them, the topsails lashed and
shivered, and the fore broke loose with the sharp report of a gunshot
and disappeared aft in the smother.

Rainey saw one huge billow rising, curving, high as the gaff of the
main, it seemed to him, as he grasped at the coil of the main halyards.
Down came the tons of water, booming on the deck that bent under the
blow, spilling in a great cataract that swashed across the deck.

His feet were swept from under him, for a moment he seemed to swing
horizontal in the stream, clutching at the halyards. The sea struck the
opposite rail with a roar that threatened to tear it away, piling up and
then seething overboard.

CHAPTER V

RAINEY SCORES

W