“When Eric saw that he was cheated of the battle he had craved, a fury seized him. He shouted hoarsely to his boatsteerer, and the man swung them in alongside the whale. The great mother had not stirred, save for a trembling shudder of her whole bulk when the irons seized upon her. The calf was fighting to escape, but the mother’s great fin pinioned it against her side, soothingly, assuringly, as though she promised it should be safe there.
“Eric lifted his lance and pierced the mother, driving home the slender steel into the great body; and he withdrew it, and prodded the vitals of the whale again and again, with a desperate energy, pouring out the fire of his own strength in his efforts.
“It was like piercing butter with a hatpin; and this dull acquiescence on the creature’s part only whetted Eric’s blind rage. When at last the great flukes lifted once, his heart leaped with the hope that at the end there might come the struggle and the opposition for which he hungered; but agony had lifted the flukes, and the bursting heart of the mother brought them gently down again, never even disturbing the little creature at her side.
“She died; a thrust killed the calf. The boat sheered out; and then the boatsteerer shouted a warning from the stern.
“Eric whirled and saw a great bull whale just emerging from the depths; and the whale headed for them furiously.
“I do not say the creature was the dead cow’s mate. It would not be strange if this was so; but it need not be asserted. I do not say the bull attacked the boat. He was badly gallied, he was running blindly.
“But whatever the explanation, he charged them; and Eric shouted triumphantly at thought that here was the adversary he had desired.
“The boatsteerer swung the boat about to meet the onrush; and Eric snatched a harpoon. They swerved out of the path of the bull. As he roared past them in a smother of foam, Eric sent the harpoon home.
“But the next instant the smashing flukes struck them, and the boat’s whole bottom was driven away. Eric chopped the line loose to save them; and in ten seconds from the appearance of the bull, they were to their necks in water, the boat beneath them.
“The bull charged on and disappeared. I lowered and went after the men in the water; and we got them aboard. Eric was reacting from his fury now; he was shamed at what he had done; and he looked back once at the body of the cow, about which sharks were already fighting, with something like apology in his eyes.