CUTTING IN AND TRYING OUT.
THE high-spirited Frank, smarting under a sense of injustice, and
hardly able to bear the pain occasioned by his lacerated hands,
suddenly became very reckless. The captain had no excuse for talking to
him in that style after what he had done. A coward would not have been
likely to take a defeated harpooner's place and plunge an iron into the
first whale he had ever seen, and neither would he have worked as hard
as Frank did to bring the boat into position; and that he _did_ work,
the crimson stains his hands left on the rope abundantly proved.
"I have had this boat alongside that whale three times," said Frank, to
himself, "and if I get her there again she'll stay, unless something
breaks. I'll make all fast; and if the whale goes down and takes us to
the bottom with him, it can't be helped. I'll see who will be the first
to act like a coward, the captain or I."
Had Frank carried this reckless resolve into execution, and had the
whale sounded as soon as the line was made fast, the boat would not
have been emptied of her crew more quickly than she was a moment later.
The whale threw his flukes about in the most spiteful manner, but
finding that he could not reach the boat with them, he gave signs of a
change of tactics which created a panic among all the crew except Frank
and the old boatswain's mate. Frank was not frightened because he did
not understand them--in his case ignorance was bliss--but the sailor
did, and he did not turn white this time either. He was about to be
given an opportunity to make amends for his previous defeat, and he was
ready to improve it.
"He's going to 'mill,'" said he in a low tone as he picked up his
harpoon. "Don't slack an inch till I get a dart at him."
Before Frank could ask an explanation the whale raised his huge head
from the water, dropped his jaw at right angles with his body and
turning as quickly as a flash, started off across the course he had
been pursuing. Frank, who was sitting with face forward so that he
had a fair view of the whale and could see every move he made, stared
at him in amazement; and while awaiting the issue of events with a
calmness that surprised himself, eagerly responded to the harpooner's
entreaty to haul in faster, although he believed that certain death
awaited him. It seemed as if the boat would run squarely into the
whale's mouth.
"Slack that line!" roared the captain, suddenly stopping his swearing
and speaking in an imploring tone of voice. "Slack that line, and may
Heaven have mercy on us! Stern all, for life!"
[Illustration: THE AIR SEEMED TO BE LITERALLY FILLED WITH PIECES OF
PLANKS, HARPOONS, ROPES, AND LANCES.]
Frank dropped the line, which seemed like a coal of fire in his hands,
and the men laid out their strength on the oars till they fairly
snapped. The first stroke stopped the boat's headway and the second
started her on the back track, but not in time to escape the danger
that threatened her. Before Lucas could throw his harpoon the whale's
jaw swept around like a scythe, and striking the boat in the side
overturned her in an instant, smashing in the planks as if they had
been pasteboard, and tumbling those of the crew who did not jump out
into the water.
From the crest of a wave on which he struck, Frank turned to look at
the whale and see what had become of his companions. The monster was
bringing his tail into play now. With one fierce upward sweep of his
huge flukes he lifted the battered boat out of the water, and the
captain, who had clung to the wreck, was going up with it. The air
seemed to be literally filled with pieces of planks, harpoons, ropes
and lances. The crew had all escaped without injury--at least they
were all able to swim, for Frank counted four frightened faces bobbing
about on the waves near him. He had some idea now of the strength and
ferocity a whale could display when he once set about it. He made
up his mind, too, that men must be simply foolhardy to willingly
follow any such business as whaling. Otherwise how could they bring
themselves to engage with such a monster as this, against whose
tremendous power, which he had just seen exerted with such telling
effect, their strength was as nothing?
To say that Frank was frightened would not begin to tell how he felt.
How helpless he was! How completely the waves baffled his mad efforts
to get out of the reach of his dangerous foe, and how like straws they
seemed in the path of the whale which skimmed through them as easily as
a bird passes through the air! Then how frightened everybody else was,
if he might judge by the pale faces he saw about him, and the frantic
attempts the men made to swim away. If those who were accustomed to
such scenes and such dangers were so nearly overcome with terror, it
was time for a novice to show signs of fear.
"Look out, Nelson!" cried Lucas, suddenly. "Look out! He's----"
The old boatswain's mate no doubt meant to say something else, but he
did not stay on top of the water long enough to say it. He ducked
his head and went down like lead, making desperate struggles to go
faster. Frank cast one frightened glance over his shoulder and went
down too. The whale had turned again and was coming directly toward
him, rolling from side to side and slashing from right to left with his
jaw, describing at each stroke a circle thirty-two feet in diameter.
There was no time to swim out of his reach. His only chance for life
was to go below him. How Frank blessed his lucky stars at that moment
that deep diving and swimming long distances under water were two of
his accomplishments! He went as far down as he could, stayed under as
long as he could hold his breath, and came up almost strangled. He was
out of danger. The battered boat was twenty feet away and the whale a
hundred feet still farther off, and moving rapidly toward the ship. The
men were all clinging to the boat to keep themselves afloat, and Frank
swam up and joined them.
All this while the men in the mate's boat had been doing their best
with sail and oars to get near enough to the whale to take part in
the fight, but without success. Now, however, they had an opportunity
offered them, for the whale had doubled on his course, and if he did
not take it into his head to turn again, he would pass their boat
at such a distance that they would have a chance at him with their
harpoons. The mate prepared for it by ordering one man to take down
the sail while the rest still tugged at the oars. He did not even look
toward the disabled boat or ask if the crew wanted assistance.
"These whalemen are a heartless lot," thought Frank. "If I were in
command of that boat I think I should save my shipmates first; but I
suppose that officer thinks we are not worth as much as the whale. Men
can be had any day for the asking, and if a few of them lose their
lives what's the odds? Nobody misses them. But whales are not as plenty
as they used to be, and if one of them is lost it is something to be
sorry for."
Frank's meditations were interrupted and his attention called from the
chase by the actions of one the men near him, who suddenly began to
make desperate efforts to climb into the boat. He persisted in spite of
the angry orders and oaths of the skipper, who stormed and threatened
to no purpose. The man was almost beside himself with fear.
"What has come over him all at once?" asked Frank, of the man at his
side. "He was quiet enough a moment ago."
"He had a narrow escape from a shark once," replied the sailor, "and I
guess he has just thought of it."
"Well, I wish from the bottom of my heart that he hadn't thought of it
at all," said Frank, "or else that I had not asked you any questions,
for I have new cause for alarm now. I wonder if a sailor can turn in
any direction without finding himself confronted by some deadly peril?"
"He might if he's a merchantman, but not if he is a whaler," was the
comforting reply.
"If I had thought of sharks I never could have dived under that whale,"
continued Frank.
"O, 'tain't time for 'em to be on hand yet; but you'll see 'em coming
like a flock of sheep just as soon as that fellow begins to spout
blood."
"Ay, that you will," said another. "I was hanging on to a stove boat
once, just as we are now, and the sharks, I never see the beat of 'em
in all my born days, come up----"
"Well, if they got hold of anybody, I don't want to know it,"
interrupted Frank, with a shudder. "Can't you talk about something
else?"
"Take that!" shouted the captain, who was narrowly watching the chase.
"And that!" he added, a moment afterward. "He's fast again, and we are
sixty barrels of grease ahead."
Frank looked up to see what had called forth these exclamations from
the captain, and was just in time to catch a glimpse of the mate's
harpooner as he threw his second iron into the whale. He had three
harpoons in him now, and Frank gathered from the remarks the men made
that his capture was considered certain. He lashed the water furiously
with his tail, raising an immense pile of spray and foam, and when it
disappeared he was out of sight.
"Now look out for breakers," said Lucas, "for there's no knowing where
he will come up, and he's ugly if he is little. We know that, don't we?"
"Little!" repeated Frank, who remembered that he had compared the beast
to a church-steeple, and estimated his length at one hundred and fifty
feet; "how big is he?"
"The cap'n says sixty barrels."
"I mean, how long is he?"
"O, I don't know. I never took the measure of one. I ain't a tailor."
"Did you ever know of one larger than this?"
"Many a one. I heard of one once that ran a hundred and thirty-five
barrels, but I didn't see him. The biggest one I ever struck or saw
struck turned out a hundred and fifteen barrels."
"Almost twice as large as this one," thought Frank, hardly able to
believe his ears. "Whew! I will never sail another foot in the Tycoon
after we reach the Sandwich Islands. If a youngster can kick up a row
like this, what could a full grown one do? What _wouldn't_ he do if he
got mad?"
Frank was greatly relieved to hear one of the men say at that moment
that the ship was coming down to pick them up. It was anything but
pleasant to be placed in such a situation as that in which he and his
companions were placed just then, immersed to their necks in salt
water, every wave making a clean breach over them, nothing but a
battered boat to keep them afloat, an enraged and ugly whale in close
proximity, and a school of hungry sharks expected to arrive every
moment. On the contrary, it was a situation well calculated to inspire
terror.
The good ship never seemed to move so slowly before, but she came up
with them at last, a boat pulled by two men came out to their relief,
and in ten minutes more the wrecked boat was on deck in possession of
the carpenter, and the exhausted men were in the forecastle, exchanging
their wet clothes for dry ones. When Frank went on deck again the whale
was in his "flurry," which, upon inquiry, he found to be a sailor's
way of saying "death struggle." The mate and his crew had made short
work of him, and Frank came up too late to see the lance used. The
whale was swimming in a circle at a surprising rate of speed, pounding
the sea with his flukes, spouting blood from his blow-hole, and rolling
from side to side as if trying to reach his enemies with his jaw. His
fury increased for a few seconds, then gradually lessened, and finally
the captured monster rolled over and lay motionless on the water.
"Fin out!" cried all the sailors on the Tycoon, which was equivalent
to saying, "he is dead." Then all joined in a yell of triumph, except
Frank. He could not help feeling sorry for the conquered leviathan, who
had battled so strongly for his life, and told himself that it was a
mean business altogether.
"Men who can torture a beast like that to death and feel no remorse
over it, would serve their fellow creatures the same way if they had
a good chance," was what he said to himself. "I know now how it comes
that the captain and his two mates are so brutal. They have practiced
on whales so long that they have no feeling left."
Now came the work of making fast to the whale, which was begun as soon
as the ship was brought alongside of it. Frank did not see how it was
done, for he was kept busy at something else. When he had leisure to
look over the side he found the game secured by a chain, one end of
which was fastened just above the tail, and the other led through a
hawsehole to the bitts. He could see the whole length of him now, and
had it not been for the three harpoons sticking in his back and side,
he could hardly have brought himself to believe that it was the same
whale that smashed his boat. He looked very much smaller, and the
reason was because he had something to compare him with.
And now came the most disagreeable part of a whaleman's duties--the
cutting in and trying out. The first consists in removing the blubber
from the body of the whale, cutting off the head and bailing out the
spermaceti; and the next in rendering out the oil in the try-kettles.
Lucas said that, as the day was far spent, the work ought not to be
commenced until the next morning. The crew could then have a good
night's sleep after their hard work in the boats, and be fresh and
ready for the laborious duties before them; but Captain Barclay thought
differently. He never cared for the comfort of his men, so he ordered
them to begin at once.
How long it took to do the work Frank never knew, for he was too busy
and too completely tired out to keep track of the days. The crew was
so small that every man was required to handle the blubber as it was
hauled aboard by the tackles; and when that was all stowed, and the
carcass cut adrift, the watches were lengthened into six (they were
often nearer eight) hours each, and the trying out began. Frank did
not wonder that the men grew quarrelsome, and that more than one of
them had to be driven to his work with a rope's end, being compelled,
as they were, to work almost twenty hours out of the twenty-four. He
thought often of what he had read concerning the fiendish ingenuity
displayed by the Chinese in inventing modes of torture for those who
disobey their laws, and told himself that some of them must have served
their time in a whale-ship, and there learned by experience the misery
to which a person is subjected when deprived of sleep. Frank would not
have resented a blow himself now, he was too weak and dispirited; but
he would have given all he ever hoped to possess, if he could have lain
down in all the oil and dirt of the blubber-room, and had a good sound
nap. The work was made harder by the captain's great desire to fill up
the hold as soon as possible. He kept the mast-head manned all day by
some of the crew who ought to have been allowed to go below to rest,
and swore at them roundly because they did not raise another whale;
although it is hard to tell what good it would have done if they had
discovered a school of them, for in their exhausted condition they
never could have endured a lengthened struggle with one. Frank often
thought, after it was all over, that the only thing that sustained him
during that week, was the sweet, sound sleep he had every time he
acted as lookout. Seated on the royal yard, a hundred and more feet
in the air, with his back against the stay and a rope passed about
his waist to keep him from falling off, he would slumber like a log,
leaving the whales, if there were any, to spout in peace. The rest of
the crew being equally sleepy and careless, no more whales were raised,
and Frank was glad of it.
"I can't stand this, Mr. Gale," said Frank one day, when the third
officer came into the blubber-room where he was at work, "and I won't."
"You won't?"
"No, sir. I have never done any soldiering since I have been aboard
here, but I shall do it hereafter."
"Do you know that you are talking to the third mate of this ship?"
demanded Mr. Gale, who seemed surprised at Frank's strong language.
"I do, sir, and I am not afraid to speak to you more plainly still."
"Why ain't you?"
"Because I know that you will neither get angry at what I say nor
repeat it."
"Well, I suppose I ought to give you a good blowing-up for your
impudence," said the mate, who had to smile in spite of himself, "but I
can't."
"No, of course you can't. You know I have cause to be down on every
officer of this ship except you, and that I will some day be in a
position to make them smart for it. You know what they have done."
"Well, we'll drop that. It ain't for me to talk about the doings of my
superiors. I came down here to tell you something that'll liven you up
a bit, may be. We shall sight the Islands in a few days, and the old
man is going to put you ashore."
"Good for him," exclaimed Frank, who was wide awake in an instant. "How
about Lucas and Barton?"
"Don't talk so loud. The masts, bulkheads and everything else have ears
in this ship. I don't know about them. He didn't say."
"They must go if I go," said Frank. "I shall need them for witnesses."
"But you mustn't call any witnesses. If you go ashore at Honolulu, you
must keep still and say nothing."
"O, I must! Do you think that's the sort of fellow I am? Must I let a
man kidnap me, carry me away from my friends to some out-of-the-way
part of the world, and then, in order to gain the liberty of which
he has deprived me and which rightfully belongs to me, promise him
that he shall go scot free? Must he be allowed to run at large to try
the same game upon somebody else, and perhaps abuse and maltreat him
until he jumps overboard, as those two men did shortly before you
reached Fr'isco? No, sir! He be jerked as high as the strong arm of
the law can lift him, and that's pretty high. A thousand dollars fine
and a long term in the penitentiary are the rewards that surely await
him, and perhaps he can be tried for manslaughter. I am bound to have
my liberty, Mr. Gale, and I shall get it without entering into any
such agreement as that. If anybody makes promises, it will be Captain
Barclay."
Frank, being thoroughly aroused, clattered away in spite of all the
officer's attempts to interrupt him. He could not have told why he said
what he did toward the last. Perhaps he had a prophetic vision, during
which the thrilling scenes that were so soon to be enacted were plainly
portrayed. At any rate the words came into his mind, and he uttered
them regardless of consequences. He was about to say something more,
but an emphatic and warning gesture from the mate stopped him.
Frank looked up and saw Calamity's sinister face peering down the
hatchway. His first impulse was to knock him over with the handle of
the blubber-knife for playing eavesdropper; but the vacant expression
on the man's countenance induced the hope that perhaps he had only just
come there, and had heard nothing he could make use of.
"Look here," exclaimed Mr. Gale suddenly, doubling up his huge fist
and shaking it at Frank, "I am an officer of this ship and you must
respect me, or I'll teach you manners. Put a 'sir' in when you speak
to me. As for Cap'n Barclay promising you them boots, I reckon you'll
get 'em when this work is done; and if I hand 'em to you you'll get 'em
over your head for your impudence!"
"O, is that you down there, Mr. Gale?" exclaimed Calamity. "It is so
dark I couldn't see you. The captain wants you on deck."
The officer lingered a moment to add a few words to what he had already
said, and then mounted the ladder leading to the deck, while Frank went
on separating the fleshy fibres from the blubber.