The object of their united reconnoissance was the same which, but a few
moments before, had occupied the attention of the sailor. They were
standing on the dead body of a whale that had been killed by harpoons.
Where were the people who had harpooned it?
After scanning the horizon with the same careful scrutiny as before, the
sailor once more turned his attention to the huge leviathan, on whose
back they were borne.
Several objects not before seen now attracted the attention of himself
and companion. The tall flag, known among whalers by the name of
"whift," was not the only evidence of the manner in which the _cachalot_
had met its death. Two large harpoons were seen sticking out of its
side, their iron arrows buried up to the socket in its blubber; while
from the thick wooden shanks, protruding beyond the skin, were lines
extending into the water, at the ends of which were large blocks of wood
floating like buoys upon the surface of the sea.
Ben identified the latter as the "drogues," that form part of the
equipment of a regular whale-ship. He knew them well, and their use.
Before becoming a man-o'-war's-man, he had handled the harpoon; and was
perfectly _au fait_ to all connected with the calling of a whaler.
"Yes," resumed he, on recognising the implements of his _ci-devant_
profession, "it ha' been jest as I said. A whaler 'a been over this
ground, and killed the spermacety. Maybe I'm wrong about that," he
added, after reflecting a short while. "I may be wrong about the ship
being over this very ground. I don't like the look o' them drogues."
"De drogue?" inquired the Coromantee. "Dem block o' wood dat am
driffin' about? Wha' for you no like dem, Massa Brace?"
"But for their bein' thear I could say for sartin a ship had been here."
"Must a' been!" asserted Snowball. "If no', how you count for de
presence ob de flag and de hapoons?"
"Ah!" answered the sailor, with something like a sigh; "they kud a' got
thear, without the men as throwed 'em bein' anywhere near this. You
know nothin' o' whalin', Snowy."
This speech put Snowball in a quandary.
"You see, nigger," continued the sailor, "the presence o' them drogues
indercates that the whale warn't dead when the boats left her." (The
_ci-devant_ whaler followed the fashion of his former associates, in
speaking of the whale, among whom the epicene gender of the animal is
always feminine.) "She must a' been still alive," continued he, "and the
drogues were put thear to hinder her from makin' much way through the
water. In coorse there must a' been a school o' the spermacetys; and
the crew o' the whaler didn't want to lose time with this 'un, which
they had wounded. For that reason they have struck her with this pair
o' drogued harpoons; and stuck this whift into her back. On fust seein'
that, I war inclined to think different. You see the whift be stickin'
a'most straight up, an' how could that a' been done by them in the
boats? If the whale hadn't a' been dead, nobody would a' dared to a
clombed on to her an' fix the flag that way."
"You are right dar," interrupted Snowball.
"No," rejoined the sailor, "I ain't. I thought I war; but I war wrong,
as you be now, Snowy. You see the flag-spear ain't straight into the
back o' the anymal. It's to one side, though it now stand nearly on
top; because the body o' the whale be canted over a bit. A first-rate
`_heads-man_' o' a whale-boat could easily a' throwed it that way from
the bottom o' his boat, and that's the way it ha' been done."
"Spose 'im hab been jest dat way," assented Snowball. "But wha' matter
'bout dat? De whale have been kill all de same."
"What matter? Everything do it matter."
"'Splain, Massa Brace!"
"Don't ye see, nigger, that if the spermacety had been dispatched while
the boats were about it, it would prove that the whale-ship must a' been
here while they were a killin' the creature; an' that would go far to
prove that she couldn't be a great ways off now."
"So dat wud,--so im wud, fo' sa'tin sure."
"Well, Snowy, as the case stands, thear be no sartinty where the whaler
be at this time. The anymal, after being drogued, may a' sweemed many a
mile from the place where she war first harpooned. I've knowed 'em to
go a score o' knots afore they pulled up; an' this bein' a' old bull,--
one o' the biggest spermacetys I ever see,--she must a sweemed to the
full o' that distance afore givin' in. If that's been so, thear ain't
much chance o' eyther her or we bein' overhauled by the whaler."
As the sailor ceased speaking he once more directed his glance over the
ocean; which, after another minute and careful scrutiny of the horizon,
fell back upon the body of the whale, with the same expression of
disappointment that before had been observable.