se the first ship fast claims the whale, and such a prize
as this one we were quarrelling about was not to be tamely yielded.

However, as reason asserted her sway over Mr. Count, he quieted down,
knowing full well that the state of the line belonging to his rival
would reveal the truth when the whale rose again. Therefore we returned
to the ship, leaving our three boats busy waiting the whale's pleasure
to rise again. When the skipper heard what had happened, he had his own
boat manned, proceeding himself to the battle-field in expectation of
complications presently. By the time he arrived upon the scene there
were two more boats lying by, which had come up from the third ship,
mentioned as working up from to leeward. "Pretty fine ground this's got
ter be!" growled the old man. "Caint strike whale 'thout bein' crowded
eout uv yer own propputty by a gang bunco steerers like this. Shall hev
ter quit it, en keep a pawnshop."

And still the whale kept going steadily down, down, down. Already he was
on the second boat's lines, and taking them out faster than ever. Had
we been alone, this persistence on his part, though annoying, would
not have mattered much; but, with so many others in company, the
possibilities of complication, should we need to slip our end, were
numerous. The ship kept near, and Mr. Count, seeing how matters were
going, had hastily patched his boat, returning at once with another tub
of line. He was but just in time to bend on, when to our great delight
we saw the end slip from our rival's boat. This in no wise terminated
his lien on the whale, supposing he could prove that he struck first,
but it got him out of the way for the time.

Meanwhile we were running line faster than ever. There was an enormous
length attached to the animal now--some twelve thousand feet--the
weight of which was very great, to say nothing of the many "drogues" or
"stopwaters" attached to it at intervals. Judge, then, of my surprise
when a shout of "Blo-o-o-w!" called my attention to the whale
himself just breaking water about half a mile away. It was an awkward
predicament; for if we let go our end, the others would be on the whale
immediately; if we held on, we should certainly be dragged below in a
twinkling; and our disengaged boats could do nothing, for they had no
line. But the difficulty soon settled itself. Out ran our end, leaving
us bare of line as pleasure skiffs. The newcomer, who had been prowling
near, keeping a