le remonstrances. Resolved to maintain his just rights at
every hazard, he ordered his men to haul in upon the line, the movement of
the whale becoming so slow as to admit of this measure. Daggett's crew did
the same, and a warm contest existed between the two boats, as to which
should now first close with the fish and kill it. This was not a moment
for prudence and caution. It was "haul in--haul in, boys," in both boats,
without any regard to the danger of approaching the whale. A very few
minutes sufficed to bring the parties quite in a line with the flukes,
Gardiner's boat coming up on the larboard or left-hand side of the animal,
where its iron was fast, and Daggett's on the opposite, its line leading
out of the jaws of the fish in that direction. The two masters stood erect
on their respective clumsy cleets, each poising his lance, waiting only to
get near enough to strike. The men were now at the oars, and without
pausing for any thing, both crews sprung to their ashen instruments, and
drove the boats headlong upon the fish. Daggett, perhaps, was the coolest
and most calculating at that moment, but Roswell was the most nervous, and
the boldest. The boat of the last actually hit the side of the whale, as
its young commander drove his lance through the blubber, into the vitals
of the fish. At the same instant Daggett threw his lance with consummate
skill, and went to the quick. It was now "stern all!" for life, each boat
backing off from the danger as fast as hands could urge. The sea was in a
foam, the fish going into his "flurry" almost as soon as struck, and both
crews were delighted to see the red of the blood mingling its deep hues
with the white of the troubled water. Once or twice the animal spouted,
but it was a fluid dyed in his gore. In ten minutes it turned up and was
dead.

Chapter XII.

"God save you, sir!"
"And you, sir! you are welcome."
"Travel you far on, or are you at the furthest?"
"Sir, at the furthest for a week or two."

Shakspeare.

Gardiner and Daggett met, face to face, on the carcase of the whale. Each
struck his lance into the blubber, steadying himself by its handle; and
each eyed the other in a way that betokened feelings awakened to a keen
desire to defend his rights. It is a fault of American character,--a fruit
of the institutions, beyond a doubt,--that renders men unusually
indisposed to give up. This stubbornness of temperament, that so many
mistake for