Then, one day, as Tom swept his eyes about the vast circle of restless water, he caught a glimpse of a faint, indistinct mist rising a few feet above the sea, like the spray from a breaking wave. The next moment, a vast, black object lifted for an instant in the trough of a sea and, at the top of his lungs, Tom shouted: “There she blows!”
Scarcely were the words uttered, when all was excitement below and Cap’n Pem’s voice bellowed, “Where away?”
“About three points on the port bow,” shouted Tom.
Then followed a moment of breathless waiting, with all eyes strained in the direction Tom had indicated, until once more the tiny column of vapor rose in air and the whale’s flukes showed for a brief moment before he sounded.
CHAPTER IV
A NARROW ESCAPE
No sooner had the whale been sighted than all was bustle and hurry. Orders rang out sharply and rapidly; the men sprang to their tasks; the great yards swung and the bark was hove-to; and, in an incredibly short space of time, two boats had been lowered and were fairly racing across the waves, propelled by the five huge oars in each.
The two boys were woefully disappointed at not being allowed in the boats; but they realized that they would only be in the way, and that in the serious and dangerous attack on the whale, they had no place. From their perch on the crosstrees, however, they had a splendid view of all that was going on, and watched, fascinated, as the boats rapidly drew near the whale which was now swimming lazily along the surface of the sea. Presently, the boys saw the Portuguese boat steerer in Cap’n Pem’s boat, draw in his oar and step to the bow of the boat where, with hair tossing in the wind and naked to the waist, he stood with the heavy harpoon, or “iron,” poised and ready to strike. To the waiting boys it seemed as if the boat was about to bump into the immense, black bulk of the whale which rose, like the bottom of a capsized ship, far above the tiny boat. Closer and closer drew the little craft, the boys with bated breath watching every move and expecting each instant to see the iron dart forward and bury itself in the monster, when, without warning, the enormous flukes rose high in air, the whale disappeared in a boil of green and white foam, and with a crash that reached the boys’ ears, the mighty flukes struck the sea and hid the boat in a shower of spray.
“Sounded, by gum!” shouted Captain Edwards from the poop.
“Yah, he bane sound!” echoed the cooper. “But aye tank Mr. Potter bane get him yust da same.”
The two boats now rested motionless, waiting for the reappearance of the whale, every man with bent back ready to give way the instant their quarry “breached”; the boat steerers in the bows standing like bronze statues, and old Cap’n Pem in one boat and the second mate in the other grasping their enormous steering oars and peering intently ahead. Even before the boys saw the faint column of vapor that marked the rising whale, they saw the mate’s boat leap forward, and as the bulk of the creature’s body broke through the water, the iron flashed forward and buried itself in the whale’s side.