'em."

"Aye, aye, sir," came back the answer clear and strong.

"Good luck," yelled the captain, and the boys waved their hands in
reply.

But no sooner had they pulled away than he got the other boat ready to
launch in case it should be needed and a couple of life preservers
were gotten ready, with a line attached, for no one knew better than
the old sailor the dangerous undertaking on which the boys had
launched.

Meanwhile they were making good time over the slow, lazy swell towards
the whales that could be seen floating easily along two miles distant.
Jo was pulling the stroke oars, and Jeems was pulling the other pair
directly behind him. Jo was a fair oarsman and Jeems was capable of
keeping up with him.

They discovered that there was an excitement and interest in rowing on
the ocean that was not present in the same form of exercise on a lake
or river, for there was a vitality, breadth and power about the sea
that was lacking in the others. I tell you, they felt rather small
and puny as they pulled the boat steadily over the swells that played
gently with their craft, as though the old ocean was in a lazy playful
mood, just like a tiger when it rolls sinuously upon its back fondling
some object.

Jim was in the bow of the boat, ready to use the harpoon when the time
should come. Once or twice he stood up in the bow and plunged it down
into the blue bosom of a rounded wave with all his force, the water
slashing white from the track of the tearing weapon.

"Better save your strength," warned Juarez, who was at the steering
oar.

"Just getting warmed up, lad," said Jim.

"Think you can fetch him, Jim?" inquired Jo anxiously.

"Sure," replied his older brother confidently. "I reckon a whale is no
tougher than a grizzly, and we've got them."

"Not with a harpoon," remarked Jeems Howell. "You won't be more than
able to tickle the leviathan with that weapon."

But Jim scoffed at his prophecy, for there was this about James
that helped him in a crisis like the present, that he had perfect
confidence in himself which had been fortified by several narrow
escapes. But here was an occasion where his good luck in danger was
apt to be thoroughly tried out.

"Whales are something like elephants, it seems to me," said Jeems
Howell. "They are big, dangerous and very intelligent."

"The elephant beats the whale when it comes to ears," remarked Juarez.

"But makes it up with his tail," laughed Jeems.

"Now, bo