inally yielding to his secret desire. "Our
additional fishermen are lacking, it is true, but we alone----"

"Yes! yes!" cried the sailors, with a single voice.

"This will not be the first time that I have followed the trade of
harpooner," added Captain Hull, "and you will see if I still know how
to throw the harpoon!"

"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" responded the crew.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VII.

PREPARATIONS.

It will be understood that the sight of this prodigious mammifer was
necessary to produce such excitement on board the "Pilgrim."

The whale, which floated in the middle of the red waters, appeared
enormous. To capture it, and thus complete the cargo, that was very
tempting. Could fishermen let such an occasion escape them?

However, Mrs. Weldon believed she ought to ask Captain Hull if it was
not dangerous for his men and for him to attack a whale under those
circumstances.

"No, Mrs. Weldon," replied Captain Hull. "More than once it has been my
lot to hunt the whale with a single boat, and I have always finished by
taking possession of it. I repeat it, there is no danger for us, nor,
consequently, for yourself."

Mrs. Weldon, reassured, did not persist.

Captain Hull at once made his preparations for capturing the jubarte.
He knew by experience that the pursuit of that baloenopter was not free
from difficulties, and he wished to parry all.

What rendered this capture less easy was that the schooner's crew could
only work by means of a single boat, while the "Pilgrim" possessed a
long-boat, placed on its stocks between the mainmast and the
mizzen-mast, besides three whale-boats, of which two were suspended on
the larboard and starboard pegs, and the third aft, outside the
crown-work.

Generally these three whale-boats were employed simultaneously in the
pursuit of cetaceans. But during the fishing season, we know, an
additional crew, hired at the stations of New Zealand, came to the
assistance of the "Pilgrim's" sailors.

Now, in the present circumstances, the "Pilgrim" could only furnish the
five sailors on board--that is, enough to arm a single whale-boat. To
utilize the group of Tom and his friends, who had offered themselves at
once, was impossible. In fact, the working of a fishing pirogue
requires very well trained seamen. A false move of the helm, or a false
stroke of an oar, would be enough to compromise the safety of the
whale-boat during an attack.