第75章 EDGING SOUTHWARD(4)

Now, when my whale sounded he was to all appearance as frightened a beast as one could wish--one who had run himself out endeavouring to get away from his enemies, and as a last resource had dived into the quietness below in the vain hope to get away.

So I regarded him, making up my mind to wait on him with diligence upon his arrival, and not allow him to get breath before I had settled him.But when he did return, there was a mighty difference in him.He seemed as if he had been getting some tips on the subject from some school below where whales are trained to hunt men; for his first move was to come straight for me with a furious rush, carrying the war into the enemy's country with a vengeance.It must be remembered that I was but young, and a comparatively new hand at this sort of thing; so when Iconfess that I felt more than a little scared at this sudden change in the tactics of my opponent, I hope I shall be excused.

Remembering, however, that all our lives depended on keeping cool, I told myself that even if I was frightened I must not go all to pieces, but compel myself to think and act calmly, since Iwas responsible for others.If the animal had not been in so blind a fury, I am afraid my task would have been much harder;but he was mad, and his savage rushes were, though disquieting, unsystematic and clumsy.It was essential, however, that he should not be allowed to persist too long in his evil courses;for a whale learns with amazing rapidity, developing such cunning in an hour or two that all a man's smartness may be unable to cope with his newly acquired experience.Happily, Samuela was perfectly unmoved.Like a machine, he obeyed every gesture, every look even, swinging the boat "off" or "on" the whale with such sweeping strokes of his mighty oar that she revolved as if on a pivot, and encouraging the other chaps with his cheerful cries and odd grimaces, so that the danger was hardly felt.

During a momentary lull in the storm, I took the opportunity to load my bomb-gun, much as I disliked handling the thing, keeping my eye all the time on the water around where I expected to see mine enemy popping up murderously at any minute.Just as I had expected, when he rose, it was very close, and on his back, with his jaw in the first biting position, looking ugly as a vision of death.Finding us a little out of reach, he rolled right over towards us, presenting as he did so the great rotundity of his belly.We were not twenty feet away, and I snatched up the gun, levelled it, and fired the bomb point-blank into his bowels.

Then all was blank.I do not even remember the next moment.Arush of roaring waters, a fighting with fearful, desperate energy for air and life, all in a hurried, flurried phantasmagoria about which there was nothing clear except the primitive desire for life, life, life! Nor do I know how long this struggle lasted, except that, in the nature of things, it could not have been very long.

When I returned to a consciousness of external things, I was for some time perfectly still, looking at the sky, totally unable to realize what had happened or where I was.Presently the smiling, pleasant face of Samuel bent over me.Meeting my gratified look of recognition, he set up a perfect yell of delight."So glad, so glad you blonga life! No go Davy Jonesy dis time, hay?" Iput my hand out to help myself to a sitting posture, and touched blubber.That startled me so that I sprung up 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.Idon'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.