Mr. Ham stopped grinning and looked angry. "Pass over your tubs," he
ordered; and Dan'l's men obeyed. Mr. Ham took the fresh line to
Willis....
He was no more than just in time. "The black devil's still going,"
Willis said. "Second tub's all but gone...."
"Bound for hell, more'n like," Mr. Ham agreed. "Hold him."
Dan'l's line was running out by this time; for Willis had worked
quickly.... And still the whale went down.... Mr. Ham stood by,
waiting.... The line ran out steadily; the whale showed no signs of
rising. The bow of Willis's boat was held down within inches of the
water by the strain he kept upon the line. One tub was emptied; he began
to look anxious.... And the whale kept going down.
Mr. Ham said abruptly: "There.... Pass over your line. He'll be gone on
you, first you know."
Willis looked at the smoking line.... And reluctantly, he surrendered.
With no more than seconds to spare, the end of his line was made fast to
the cut end of Mr. Ham's, and the whale continued to go down. He had
taken all the line of two boats--and wanted more.
"He's hungry," Mr. Ham grinned, watching the running rope. "Gone down
for supper, likely."
And a moment later, his eyes lighting:
"There.... Getting tired.... Or struck bottom, maybe."
They could all see that the line had slackened. The bow of Mr. Ham's
boat rode at a normal level; the line hung loose. And the mate turned
around and bellowed to his men:
"Haul in."
They began to take in the line, hand over hand; it fell in a wide coil
amidships, overlapping the sides, spreading.... A coil that grew and
grew. They worked like mad.... The only way to kill a whale is to pull
up on him until your boat rides against his very flank. All the line
this creature had stolen must be recovered, before he could be slain....
They toiled with racing hands....
Mr. Ham began to look anxiously over the bow, down into the blue water
from which the line came up. "He's near due," he said.
It is one of the curious and fatal habits of a sounding whale to rise
near the spot where he went down. It is as though the creatures followed
a well-known path into the depths and up again. This is not always true;
often a whale that has sounded will take it into his mind to run, will
set off at a double-pace. But in most cases, the whale comes up near
where he disappeared.... The men knew this. Dan'l Tobey, in his sinking
boat, worked away from the neighborhood to give the mate room. So did
Willis. And Mr. Ham, leaning one knee on the bow, peering down into the
water, his lance ready in his hand, waited for the whale to rise....
The line came in.... The nerves of each man tautened.... Mr. Ham said,
over his shoulder: "Silva, you coil t'line. Rest of you get in your
oars. Hold ready...."
He heard the men obey, knew they were ready to maneuver at his
command.... The whale was coming up slowly; the line was still slack,
but the creature should have breached long before....
The mate thought he detected a light pull on the line; it seemed to draw
backward, underneath the boat; and he said softly:
"Pull her around."
The oars dipped; the boat swung slowly on a pivot.... The line now ran
straight down....
Abruptly, Mr. Ham, bending above the water, thought he saw a black bulk
far down and down.... A bulk that seemed to rise.... He watched....
It was ahead of the boat; it became more plainly visible.... He waved
his hand, pointing: "There ..." he said. "There...."
Deep in the water, that black bulk swiftly moved; it darted to one side,
circling, rising.... Mr. Ham saw a flash of white, a huge black head, a
sword-like, saw-toothed jaw.... The big man towered; he flung his left
hand up and back in a tremendous gesture.
"Starn.... Oh, starn all!" he cried.
The oars bent like bows under the fierce thrust of the men as they
backed water.... The boat slid back.... But not in time....
Willis Cox, and the men in his boat, saw the long, narrow under jaw of
the cachalot--a dozen feet long, with the curving teeth of a tiger set
along it--slide up from the water, above the bow of the boat. The bow
lifted as the whale's upper jaw, toothless, rose under it.... The
creature was on its back, biting.... The boat rolled sidewise, the men
were tumbling out....
But that narrow jaw sheared down resistlessly. Through the stout sides
of the boat, crumpling and splintering ribs and planking.... Through
the boat.... And clamped shut as the jaws closed across the thick body
of the mate.... They saw the mate's body swell as a toy balloon swells
under a child's foot.... Then horribly it relaxed and fell away and was
lost in a smother of bloody foam....
* * * * *
Loum, Willis's boat-steerer, swung them alongside the rolling whale. It
was Brander who caught a loop of the loose line; and while the creature
lay quietly, apparently content with what it had done, they hauled
close, and Willis--the boy's face was white, but his hand was
steady--drove home his lance, and drew it forth, and plunged it in,
again and yet again....
The whale seemed to have exhausted its strength. Having killed, it died
easily enough. Spout crimsoned, flukes beat in a last flurry, then the
great black bulk was still....
They picked up the men who had been spilled from the mate's boat. Not a
man hurt, of them all, save only Mr. Ham.
Him they never found; no part of him. The sea took him. No doubt, Faith
thought that night, he would have wished his rough life thus to end.