as if
shot. Then I took in the situation at a glance. There were all my poor
fellows with me, stranded upon the top of our late antagonist, but
no sign of the boat to be seen. Bewildered at the state of affairs, I
looked appealingly from one to the other for an explanation. I got it
from Abner, who said, laconically, "When yew fired thet ole gun, I guess
it mus' have bin loaded fer bear, fer ye jest tumbled clar head over
heels backwards outen the boat. Et that very same moment I suspicion the
bomb busted in his belly, fer he went clean rampageous loony. He rolled
right over an' over to'rds us, n' befo' we c'd rightly see wat wuz
comin', we cu'dnt see anythin' 'tall; we wuz all grabbin' at nothin',
some'rs underneath the whale. When I come to the top, I lit eout fer the
fust thing I c'd see to lay holt of, which wuz old squarhead himself,
deader 'n pork. I guess thet ar bomb o' yourn kinder upset his
commissary department. Anyway, I climed up onto him, 'n bime-by the rest
ov us histed themselves alongside ov me. Sam Weller here; he cum last,
towin' you 'long with him. I don'no whar he foun' ye, but ye was very
near a goner, 'n's full o' pickle as ye c'd hold." I turned a grateful
eye upon my dusky harpooner, who had saved my life, but was now
apparently blissfully unconscious of having done anything meritorious.

Behold us, then, a half-drowned row of scarecrows perched, like some new
species of dilapidated birds, upon the side of our late foe. The sun
was not so furiously hot as usual, for masses of rain-laden NIMBI were
filling the sky, so that we were comparatively free from the awful
roasting we might have expected: nor was our position as precarious for
a while as would be thought. True, we had only one harpoon, with its
still fast line, to hold on by; but the side of the whale was somehow
hollowed, so that, in spite of the incessant movement imparted to the
carcass by the swell, we sat fairly safe, with our feet in the said
hollow. We discussed the situation in all its bearings, unable to
extract more than the faintest gleam of hope from any aspect of the
case. The only reasonable chance we had was, that the skipper had almost
certainly taken our bearings, and would, we were sure, be anxiously
seeking us on the course thus indicated. Meanwhile, we were ravenously
hungry and thirsty. Samuela and Polly set to work with their
sheath-knives, and soon excavated a space in the blubber to enable them
to reach the meat. T