"Orders is orders," he said at last, "an' if the skipper said you could go, why, I reckon that ends it. An' if you're goin' anyway, you're safer in the big boat than in the 'prams.' Tumble in."
Colin clambered into the double-ended boat with its high prow and stern and settled himself down excitedly.
"I never really believed I'd get the chance to see any whale-spearing," he said. "Whaling with a cannon is only a make-believe. Now, this is something like!"
"Foolishness I calls it," put in one of the younger sailors. "Why don't the skipper put in somewhere an' get the gun put to rights? An' Hank is just as likely to fix that gun so as he'll
blow some of us up with it when he does get it goin'."
"Always croakin', Gloomy," said the old gunner. "Blowin' you up would be no great loss. You'd ought to be glad to see what whalin' was like when your betters was at it."
"I'm glad," said Colin, as he pulled steadily at his long oar, "that we did wrench the gun-frame when that heavy sea came aboard."
"I don't see it," said the gunner; "mebbe you'll think presently that you'd ha' done better to be satisfied with readin' about whalin' in those books of yours."
"Well, it got me the chance to see the fun!" responded Colin.
"That wouldn't have been enough to start this business a-goin' if it hadn't been that the Gull was an old whalin'-ship before they put steam into her. The little bits of whalin'-steamers they build now only carry a little pram or two, nothin' like this boat you're in now. The Gull's one of the old-timers."