“Yes, our whale!” cried Bill. “We harpooned it the other day, and we’ve been hunting for it ever since. We thought we saw a motor boat towing it away to-day, and chased after it just about the time Jack spied you lads in the rowboat hauling something. Jack wanted to take after you, but the rest of us thought the motor boat had our prize, so we lost time until we found it was only a wrecked boat that they were towing. Then we came after you. I wish we’d caught you before you hauled this up on shore, as we’re going to have trouble getting our whale off again.”
“What makes you say that’s your whale?” demanded Andy hotly.
“Because it is,” answered Jack. “We struck it, though it didn’t die right away. Now you folks keep back, and we’ll haul it off. Come on, fellows!” he called to the others in the motor boat. “Lend a hand here, it’s bigger than I thought.”
“That’s not your whale, and you can’t have it!” cried Frank determinedly. “We picked it up at sea, and towed it in. My brother and I saw it several days ago, and it struck one of our boats. It’s our whale, and we intend to keep it.”
“Get out of the way!” roughly cried the man called Bill. “We haven’t time to bother with you,” and he elbowed Frank to one side.
CHAPTER XI
A FIRE ON BOARD
Surprise at the bold claim of their rivals held the three boys almost spellbound for a moment. The possibility that someone should seek to get possession of the whale they had brought ashore after such labor, and almost as soon as they landed, had never occurred to them. Yet the fishermen seemed determined, for one of them began casting off Bob’s anchor line, and several more of the burly chaps, in their long rubber boots, leaped overboard from the boat, and waded ashore.
“What had we better do?” asked Andy of his brother. “Are you going to let them take our whale?”
“Not much!” exclaimed Frank, with a determined tightening of his lips. “I’m going to fight every inch. They shan’t take it away.”
“Let’s appeal to the crowd,” suggested Andy. “Tell ’em just how we found the whale, and they won’t let these men take it away from us.”