"Now is the time to joke. I didn't have time to think of a joke a little while ago."
Browning dug himself out of the bottom of the boat, hoisted his huge body to a seat, and drew a deep breath of relief.
"A man who shoots at a whale with a rifle is a thundering fool!" he observed.
"And a man who tells him to shoot is another," laughed Frank.
"That is my first adventure with a whale," said the big Yale man, "and, if I have my way about it, it will be my last."
"Is—is he really gone?" faltered Paula, looking around.
"Yes, Miss Benjamin," assured Frank, "he has departed in the direction of Greenland."
"And he didn't touch the boat?"
"If he had we'd be enjoying a swimming match for the yacht now."
"If he had," said Inza, "some of us would have been killed right away, and the rest of us would have been drowned."