第70章 ON THE "LINE" GROUNDS(2)

When I told Samuela, of his chance, he was beside himself with joy.As to his being scared, the idea was manifestly absurd.He was as pleased with the prospect as it was possible for a man to be, and hardly able to contain himself for impatience to be off.

I almost envied him his exuberant delight, for a sense of responsibility began to weigh upon me with somewhat depressing effect.

We gained a good weather-gage, rounded to, and lowered four boats.Getting away in good style, we had barely got the sails up, when something gallied the school.We saw or heard nothing to account for it, but undoubtedly the "fish" were off at top speed dead to windward, so that our sails were of no use.We had them in with as little delay as possible, and lay to our oars for all we were worth, being fresh and strong, as well as anxious to get amongst them.But I fancy all our efforts would have availed us little had it not been for the experience of Mr.Cruce, whose eager eye detected the fact that the fish were running on a great curve, and shaped our course to cut them off along a chord of the arc.

Two and a half hours of energetic work was required of us before we got on terms with the fleeing monsters; but at last, to our great joy, they broke water from sounding right among us.It was a considerable surprise, but we were all ready, and before they had spouted twice, three boats were fast, only myself keeping out, in accordance with my instructions.Samuela was almost distraught with rage and grief at the condition of things.Iquite pitied him, although I was anything but pleased myself.

However, when I ranged up alongside the mate's fish, to render what assistance was needed, he shouted to me, "We's all right;go'n git fas', if yew kin." That was enough, and away we flew after a retreating spout to leeward.Before we got there, though, there was an upheaval in the water just ahead, and up came a back like a keelless ship bottom up.Out came the head belonging to it, and a spout like an explosion burst forth, denoting the presence of an enormous bull-cachalot.Close by his side was a cow of about one-third his size, the favoured sultana of his harem, I suppose.Prudence whispered, "Go for the cow;"ambition hissed, "All or none--the bull, the bull." Fortunately emergencies of this kind leave one but a second or two to decide, as a rule; in this case, as it happened, I was spared even that mental conflict, for as we ran up between the two vast creatures, Samuela, never even looking at the cow, hurled his harpoon, with all the energy that he had been bursting with so long, at the mighty bull.I watched its flight--saw it enter the black mass and disappear to the shaft, and almost immediately came the second iron, within a foot of the first, burying itself in the same solid fashion.

"Starn--starn all!" I shouted; and we backed slowly away, considerably hampered by the persistent attentions of the cow, who hung round us closely.The temptation to lance her was certainly great, but I remembered the fate that had overtaken the skipper on the first occasion we struck whales, and did not meddle with her ladyship.Our prey was not apparently disposed to kick up much fuss at first, so, anxious to settle matters, Ichanged ends with Samuela, and pulled in on the whale.A good, steady lance-thrust--the first I had ever delivered--was obtained, sending a thrill of triumph through my whole body.The recipient, thoroughly roused by this, started off at a great lick, accompanied, somewhat to my surprise, by the cow.

Thenceforward for another hour, in spite of all our efforts, we could not get within striking distance, mainly because of the close attention of the cow, which stuck to her lord like a calf to its mother.I was getting so impatient of this hindrance, that it was all I could do to restrain myself from lancing the cow, though I felt convinced that, if I did, I should spoil a good job.Suddenly I caught sight of the ship right ahead.We were still flying along, so that in a short time we were comparatively close to her.My heart beat high and I burned to distinguish myself under the friendly and appreciative eye of the skipper.

None of the other boats were in sight, from our level at least, so that I had a reasonable hope of being able to finish my game, with all the glory thereunto attaching, unshared by any other of my fellow-officers.As we ran quite closely past the ship, calling on the crew to haul up for all they were worth, we managed actually to squeeze past the cow, and I got in a really deadly blow.The point of the lance entered just between the fin and the eye, but higher up, missing the broad plate of the shoulder-blade, and sinking its whole four feet over the hitches right down into the animal's vitals.Then, for the first time, he threw up his flukes, thrashing them from side to side almost round to his head, and raising such a turmoil that we were half full of water in a moment.But Samuela was so quick at the steer-oar, so lithe and forceful, and withal appeared so to anticipate every move of mine, that there seemed hardly any danger.