"Oh! Glynn!" cried Ailie, laughing, "how can you?"

"It all depends on the drogue," remarked the doctor. "I'm surprised to
find how few of the men can state with absolute certainty that they saw
the drogue attached to the whale when the boat came up to it. It all
hinges upon that."

"Yes," observed Mr Millons, "the 'ole case 'inges on that, because that
proves it was a fast fish."

"Dear me, Mr Millons," said Aunt Martha, smiling, "I have heard of fast
young men, but I never heard of a fast fish before."

"Didn't you, ma'am?" exclaimed the first mate, looking up in surprise,
for that matter-of-fact seamen seldom recognised a joke at first sight.

Aunt Martha, who very rarely ventured on the perpetration of a joke,
blushed, and turning somewhat hastily to Mr Markham, asked if he would
"take another cup of tea." Seeing that there was no tea on the table,
she substituted "another slice of ham," and laughed. Thereupon the
whole company laughed, and from that moment their spirits began to rise.
They began to discuss the more favourable points of the evidence led
that day, and when they retired at a late hour to rest, their hopes had
again become sanguine.

Next morning the examination of the witnesses for the defendant came on.
There were more of them than Dick Jones had expected; for the crew of
the _Termagant_ happened to be partly made up of very bad men, who were
easily bribed by their captain to give evidence in his favour. But it
soon became evident that they had not previously determined, as Captain
Dunning's men had done, to stick to the simple truth. They not only
contradicted each other but each contradicted himself more than once;
and it amazed them all, more than they could tell, to find how easily
Mr Rasp turned their thoughts outside in, and caused them to prove
conclusively that they were telling falsehoods.

After the case had been summed up by the judge, the jury retired to
consult, but they only remained five minutes away, and then came back
with a verdict in favour of the pursuers.

"Who's the `pursooers?'" inquired Gurney, when this was announced to him
by Nikel Sling. "Ain't we all pursooers? Wasn't we all pursooing the
whale together?"

"Oh, you grampus!" cried Nikel, laughing. "Don't ye know that _we_ is
the purshooers, 'cause why? We're purshooin' the cap'en and crew of the
_Termagant_ at law, and means to purshoo 'em too, I guess, till they
stumps up for that air whale. And th