a steamer,
so that we expected it every moment to rush in-board 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 slack, so we hauled it in hand over
hand, and Tom Lokins coiled it away in the tub in the stern of the boat,
while the captain took his place in the bow to be ready with the lance.
The whale soon came up, and we pulled with all our might towards him.
Instead of making off again, however, he turned round and made straight
at the boat. I now thought that destruction was certain, for, when I
saw his great blunt forehead coming down on us like a steamboat, I felt
that we could not escape. I was mistaken. The captain received him on
the point of his lance, and the whale has such a dislike to pain, that
even a small prick will sometimes turn him.

For some time we kept dodging round this fellow; but he was so old and
wise, that he always turned his head to us, and prevented us from
getting a chance to lance him. At last he turned a little to one side,
and the captain plunged the lance deep into his vitals.

"Ha! that's touched his life," cried Tom, as a stream of blood flew up
from his blow-holes, a sure sign that he was mortally wounded. But he
was not yet conquered. After receiving the cruel stab with the lance,
he pitched right down, head foremost, and once more the line began to
fly out over the bow. We tried to hold on, but he was going so straight
down that the boat was almost swamped, and we had to slack off to
prevent our being pulled under water.

Before many yards of the line had run out, one of the coils in the tub
became entangled.

"Look out, lads," cried Tom, and at once throwing the turn off the
logger-head, he made an attempt to clear it. The captain, in trying to
do the same thing, slipped and fell. Seeing this, I sprang up, and,
grasping the coil as it flew past, tried to clear it. Before I could
think, a turn whipped round my left wrist. I felt a wrench as if my arm
had been torn out of the socket, and in a moment I was overboard, [see
frontispiece] going down with almost l