Though the birds by their flight had dissolved one half of the
speculative theory which the crew of the _Catamaran_ had constructed,
the other half still held good. The island was still there, before
their eyes; though completely divested of its inhabitants,--whose sudden
eviction had cost only a single shout!
The flag was still waving over it; though, to all appearance, there was
not a creature on shore that might feel pride in saluting that solitary
standard!
There could be no one; else why should the birds have tarried so long
undisturbed, to be scared at last by the mere sound of human voices?
Since there was nobody on the island, there was no need to observe
further caution in approaching it,--except so far as regarded the
conduct of their craft; and in the belief that they were about to set
foot upon the shores of a desert isle, the sailor and Snowball, with
little William assisting them, now went to work with the oars and
hastened their approach to the land.
Partly impelled by the breeze, and partly by the strength of the rowers,
the _Catamaran_ moved, briskly through the water; and, before many
minutes had elapsed, the craft was within a few hundred fathoms of the
mysterious island, and still gliding nearer to it. This proximity,--
along with the fact that the morning mist had meanwhile been gradually
becoming dispelled by the rays of the rising sun,--enabled her crew to
obtain a clearer view of the object before them; and Ben Brace,
suspending his exertions at the oar, once more slewed himself round to
have a fresh look at the supposed _land_.
"Land!" he exclaimed, as soon as his eyes again rested upon it. "A
island, indeed! Shiver my timbers if 't be a island after all! That be
no land,--ne'er a bit o't. It look like a rock, too; but there be
something else it look liker; an' that be a _whale_. 'Tis wery like a
whale!"
"Berry,--berry like a whale!" echoed Snowball, not too well satisfied at
discovering the resemblance.
"It _be_ a whale!" pronounced the sailor, in a tone of emphatic
confidence,--"a whale, an' nothin' else. Ay," he continued speaking, as
if some new light had broken upon him, "I see it all now. It be one o'
the great _spermaceti_ whales. I wonder I didn't think o't afore. It's
been killed by some whaling-vessel; and the flag you see on its back's
neyther more nor less than one o' their _whifts_. They've stuck it
there, so as they might be able to find the sparmacety when they come
back. Marcy heaven! I hope they _will_ come back."
As Ben finished this explanatory harangue, he started into an erect
attitude, and placed himself on the highest part of the _Catamaran's_
deck,--his eyes no longer bent upon the whale, but, with greedy glances,
sweeping the sea around it.
The object of this renewed reconnoissance may be understood from the
words to which he had given utterance,--the hope expressed at the
termination of his speech. The whale must have been killed, as he had
said. He was looking for the _whaler_.
For full ten minutes he continued his optical search over the sea,--
until not a fathom of the surface had escaped his scrutiny.
At first his glances had expressed almost a confident hope; and,
observing them, the others became excited to a high degree of joy.
Gradually, however, the old shadow returned over the sailor's
countenance, and was instantly transferred to the faces of his
companions.
The sea,--as far as his eye could command a view of it,--showed neither
sail, nor any other object. Its shining surface was absolutely without
a speck.
With a disappointed air, the captain of the _Catamaran_ descended from
his post of observation; and once more turned his attention to the dead
_cachalot_ from which they were now separated by less than a hundred
fathoms,--a distance that was constantly decreasing, as the raft, under
sail, continued to drift nearer.
The body of the whale did not appear anything like as large as when
first seen. The mist was no longer producing its magnifying effect upon
the vision of our adventurers; but although the carcass of the
_cachalot_ could no more have been mistaken for an island, still was it
an object of enormous dimensions; and might easily have passed for a
great black rock standing several fathoms above the surface of the sea.
It was over twenty yards in length; and, seen sideways from the raft, of
course appeared much longer.
In five minutes after, they were close up to the dead whale; and, the
sail being lowered, the raft was brought to. Ben threw a rope around
one of the pectoral fins; and, after making it fast, the _Catamaran_ lay
moored alongside the _cachalot_, like some diminutive tender attached to
a huge ship of war! There were several reasons why Ben Brace should
mount up to the summit of that mountain of whalebone and blubber; and,
as soon as the raft had been safely secured, he essayed the ascent.
It was not such a trifling feat,--this climbing upon the carcass of the
dead whale. Nor was it to be done without danger. The slippery
epidermis of the huge leviathan,--lubricated as it was with that
unctuous fluid which the skin of the sperm-whale is known to secrete,--
rendered footing upon it extremely insecure.
It might be fancied no great matter for a swimmer like Ben Braco to
slide off: since a fall of a few feet into the water could not cause him
any great bodily hurt. But when the individual forming this fancy has
been told that there was something like a score of sharks prowling
around the carcass, he will obtain a more definite idea of the danger to
which such a fall would have submitted the adventurous seaman.
Ben Brace was the last man to be cowed by a trifling danger, or even one
of magnitude; and partly by Snowball's assistance, and using the
pectoral flipper to which the raft was attached as a stirrup, he
succeeded in mounting upon the back of the defunct monster of the deep.
As soon as he had steadied himself in his new position, a piece of rope
was thrown up to him,--by which Snowball was himself hoisted to the
shoulders of the _cachalot_; and then the two seamen proceeded towards
the tail,--or, as the sailor pronounced it, the "starn" of this peculiar
craft.
A little aft of "midships" a pyramidal lump of fatty substance projected
several feet above the line of the vertebras. It was the spurious or
rudimentary dorsal fin, with which the sperm-whale is provided.
On arriving at this protuberance,--which chanced to be the highest point
on the carcass where the flag was elevated on its slender shaft,--both
came to a halt; and there stood together, gazing around them over the
glittering surface of the sunlit sea.