at whale whatever it should cost us."

We did not need a second bidding; the size of the fish was so great
that we felt more excited than we had yet been during the voyage, so we
bent our oars till we almost pulled the boat out of the water. The
other boats had got separated, chasing the little whales, so we had
this one all to ourselves.

"There she blows!" said Tom Lokins, in a low voice, as the fish came up
a short distance astern of us.

We had overshot our mark, so, turning about, we made for the whale,
which kept for a considerable time near the top of the water, spouting
now and then, and going slowly to windward. We at last got within a
few feet of the monster, and the captain suddenly gave the word, "Stand
up."

This was to our harpooner, Tom Lokins, who jumped up on the instant,
and buried two harpoons deep in the blubber.

"Stern all!" was the next word, and we backed off with all our might.
It was just in time, for, in his agony, the whale tossed his tail right
over our heads, the flukes were so big that they could have completely
covered the boat, and he brought them down flat on the sea with a clap
that made our ears tingle, while a shower of spray drenched us to the
skin. For one moment I thought it was all over with us, but we were
soon out of immediate danger, and lay on our oars watching the
writhings of the wounded monster as he lashed the ocean into foam. The
water all round us soon became white like milk, and the foam near the
whale was red with blood.

Suddenly this ceased, and, before we could pull up to lance him, he
went down, taking the line out at such a rate that the boat spun round,
and sparks of fire flew from the loggerhead from the chafing of the
rope.

"Hold on!" cried the captain, and next moment we were tearing over the
sea at a fearful rate, with a bank of white foam rolling before us,
high above our bows, and away on each side of us like the track of a
steamer, so that we expected it every moment to rush inboard and swamp
us. I had never seen anything like this before. From the first I had
a kind of feeling that some evil would befall us.

While we were tearing over the water in this way, we saw the other
whales coming up every now and then and blowing quite near to us, and
presently we passed close enough to the first mate's boat to see that
he was fast to a fish, and unable, therefore, to render us help if we
should need it.

In a short time the line began to slac