n seen again. Nevertheless,
strange as it may appear, out of that seething lather of foam, all six
heads emerged again in an instant, but on the OTHER side of the great
creature. How any of them escaped instant violent death was, and from
the nature of the case must, ever remain, an unravelled mystery, for
the boat was crumbled into innumerable fragments, and the three hundred
fathoms of line, in a perfect maze of entanglement, appeared to be
wrapped about the writhing trunk of the whale. Happily, there were two
boats disengaged, so that they were able very promptly to rescue the
sufferers from their perilous position in the boiling vortex of foam by
which they were surrounded. Meanwhile, the remaining boat had an easy
task. The shot delivered by the captain had taken deadly effect, the
bomb having entered the creature's side low down, directly abaft the
pectoral fin. It must have exploded within the cavity of the bowels,
from its position, causing such extensive injuries as to make even that
vast animal's death but a matter of a few moments. Therefore, we did not
run any unnecessary risks, but hauled off to a safe distance and quietly
watched the death-throes. They were so brief, that in less than ten
minutes from the time of the accident we were busy securing the line
through the flukes of our prize.

The vessel was an unusually long time working up to us, so slow, in
fact, that Mr Count remarked, critically, "Shouldn't wonder if th' ole
man ain't hurt; they're taking things so all-fired easy." By the time
she had reached us, we had a good few visitors around us from the
fishing fleet, who caused us no little anxiety, The Chinese have no
prejudices; they would just as soon steal a whale as a herring, if the
conveyance could be effected without, more trouble or risk to their own
yellow skins. If it involved the killing of a few foreign devils--well,
so much to the good. The ship, however, arrived before the fishermen had
decided upon any active steps, and we got our catch alongside without
any delay. The truth of Mr. Count's forecast was verified to the hilt,
for we found that the captain was so badly bruised about the body that
he was unable to move, while one of the hands, a Portuguese, was injured
internally, and seemed very bad indeed. Had any one told us that morning
that we should be sorry to see Captain Slocum with sore bones, we should
have scoffed at the notion, and some of us would probably have said that
we