ere is work to be done on deck; he's too mean a
Yankee to satisfy his revenge at the expense of his pocket."

But their pleasant belief that a whale had been killed, and that the
ship was shortening sail while the carcass was being cut-in, was rudely
disturbed a few minutes later, when the _Shawnee_ took a sudden list
over to port, and they were all pitched to the lee side of the sail
locker in a heap. A squall had struck the barque.

Bruised and lacerated by the force with which they had been hurled
together, the five prisoners sat up, and were soon enlightened as to the
condition of affairs by the carpenter making his appearance, taking off
their galling irons, and ordering them on deck.

The squall was a very heavy one, accompanied by savage gusts of stinging
rain, and the old ship, with her canvas in great disorder, was every
now and then thrown almost on her beam ends with its fury. After
considerable trouble the officers and crew succeeded in saving her
canvas from being blown to ribbons, and got the barque snug again. A
quarter of an hour later the squall began to lose its force, but the
rain descended in torrents, and obscured the view of the now agitated
ocean to such an extent that the look-outs from aloft could not discern
its surface a cable length away. All those on board the barque felt
intense anxiety as to whether the mate had succeeded in killing his
whale before the squall burst upon him, for they knew that had he not
done so he would have been compelled to cut the line and let his prize
escape; no boat could live in such a sea as had arisen when "fast" to
a sperm whale which was travelling at such a speed, even though fatally
wounded and weak from loss of blood.

An hour passed, and then, to the joy of all on board, the rain ceased,
a faint air came from the westward and blew away the thick clouds of
tropic mist which enveloped the ship. Ten miles distant the verdant
hills and valleys of Upolu glistened in the sunshine, and then one of
the look-outs hailed the deck:

"I can see a boat, Mr. Newman--it is Mr. Brant's. He has killed his
whale, sir."

In an instant the fourth mate was running aloft, but before he had
ascended to the fore-top the lookout cried:

"I can see the other three boats now, sir, and they are all 'fast,'
too."

A cheer broke from the _Shawnee's_ hands, and, disregarding for the time
all discipline, they sprang aloft one after another to gaze upon the
thrilling scene. Thre