ight off the port bow, and not half a cable's length ahead.
Up, and up the gigantic creature rose--up, up, up till it towered
fifteen feet above the Scarboro's rail!

Then it turned a somersault, beating the sea to waves like the boiling
of a cauldron. It rose again, churning the sea with its tail, and then
raising the caudal fin for twenty feet, or more, and slapping it down
upon the water with a shock like the report of a big gun--aye, like a
thunder-clap!

Then the great beast whirled round and round--it seemed seeking for the
thing that had so hurt it. We watched the struggle of the leviathan with
pop-eyed expectation--especially the young second mate and myself, for
we were the only real greenhorns aboard the Scarboro. The whale wrapped
several lengths of the line about its body and then shot away into the
southwest, away from the distant school. It swam so fast that it
actually seemed to skip from wave to wave like a swallow.

When it reached the end of the slack there was a jerk that shook the
bark from stem to stern. Then came the tug of war. There was no small
whaleboat behind it, but a great, 195 ton bark, and this massive bulk
the creature actually towed like a steam-tug towing a steamship.

The captain let more line out. Far out at the end of two miles of line
the whale lashed about, and churned the sea, and blew blasts of vapor
into the air. Then old Tom Anderly cried that it was spouting blood and
we knew the end was near.

But the captain gave the whale half an hour in which to die before
ordering the line wound inboard. The rest of the school had gone on
steadily into the south and was still several miles away. We could not
launch our boats for them, but gave our complete attention to the first
kill.

As the whale felt the pull of the line it gave a single convulsive jump.
But after waiting a moment or two, Captain Rogers commanded the
windlass to be manned again. Slowly the line came in and, after a time,
the huge, inert, flabby body floated, belly up, just off our bows.

The mate's boat was lowered and a chain was passed around the whale's
body just forward of the tail. With this it was grappled to the
Scarboro's side. I could see a dozen quarreling porpoises eating the
tongue of the monster that had been, two hours before, alive and, to
these scavengers, invincible.

There was a broad smile on every man's face, from Captain Rogers down
the line. The first kill had been successful. Oil was in