“Well, Winsloe, how goes it? Are all the other boats back?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Winsloe, “and nobody hurt to speak of but yourself. But you’ve had a pretty bad time, sir, an’ I guess you don’t know that it’s the thick end of a week since you was brought aboard. You’ll be glad to know, an’ I think it’ll do you more good than all the doctors’ stuff in the world, that we’ve cut in five whale, an’ I’m figurin’ that there’s between four an’ five hundred bar’l of oil very nearly ready to run down. So we ain’t done so mighty bad after all.”
The effect upon the wounded man was magical. His eyes sparkled, and he even made one effort to rise, but Winsloe put out a restraining hand. “Well,” the captain cried in quite a strong voice, “I feel like shoutin’ ‘Glory Hallelujah!’ If that ain’t great! But say, you ain’t told me how long this job took ye?”
“It’s just seven days to an hour since we started, an’ pretty late in the day it was, for Christmas was mighty slow in getting down to us, bein’ handicapped by your two whale——”
“Two whale,” almost yelled the skipper. “D’ye mean t’ say that we saved two?”
“Yes, sir, that’s a true bill. I ain’t heard all about it, but Merritt can tell ye, or Christmas. They was on in that piece, I was about six mile to looard, an’ wonderin’ pretty bad what all the waitin’ meant. An’ before I go, sir, as I don’t think you orter be tried too much, I wanter say that these yer new harponeers of ours is the whole thing. I don’t want no better men, an’ I ain’t goin’ t’ wear mournin’ fer Pepe and Louis any longer. Both at strikin’ whale and steerin’ boat they’re the limit, an’ as fer work, well, they suit me, an’ I ain’t the easiest man to please in the matter o’ cuttin’ in an’ tryin’ out. Now do try and get a sleep agen, sir, an’ don’t put in any time worryin’, because everythin’s goin’ jist as it orter.” And he slipped on deck.
But in spite of the mate’s cheery words he was far from satisfied with the condition of things. Both Merritt and C. B., though neither of them made any complaint, showed unmistakable signs of the enormous strain that had been put upon them lately, C. B. especially, who was, as we know, hardly convalescent when the pressure began. Besides that, the other members of the captain’s boat’s crew were hardly fit to go on much longer, although with rare fortitude they had stuck to their task until work was almost done, and then were given lighter jobs—in fact, the general routine of the ship was relaxed in view of the recent great effort. So when Mr. Winsloe took his usual rough sights for position and found that they were only about a couple of days’ sail with the present wind from the Bonin Islands, he determined to steer for them, and in the absence of any positive command on the part of the captain, to go in and take a few days’ rest.
And as, in any case, he was not going out of his way, he shaped his course for Peel Island and carried sail to the fair wind then blowing, with the object of making as much headway as possible, although under ordinary circumstances, being now really in the great northern haunt of the cachalot, he would have been in the usual cruising trim which I have described as being pursued on the offshore ground. But much to his relief the captain, though still remaining very weak, kept his faculties and a clear head, so that when Winsloe broached the subject to him of making for Port Lloyd in order to give the crew and himself a chance to recover, he gave the plan an emphatic sanction. “For,” he said, “I ain’t as young as I uster be, an’ a smash up such as I’ve had ain’t calculated to make me feel any spryer. And although I’ve got no shadow of doubt as to your ability t’ carry on, Winsloe, t’ the end of the chapter, I really should feel happier with the kellick down in the ten fathom hole. Moreover, tain’t as if we ain’t earned a rest. That last catch of ours hez pulled our average up bully.”
It was therefore with a light heart that Winsloe saw the bold outlines of Peel Island standing out against the clear blue of the sky on the third morning after the above conversation, and he noted with much satisfaction how cheerful all hands seemed to be at the prospect of a few days in harbour anywhere, whether it was possible to get any of the so-called luxuries usually craved by sailors or not. Only two of the crew had been there before, one of them being Merritt, and he showed interest almost amounting to enthusiasm as he described the wonders of the unique harbour to C. B. It was also, he said, almost like his native place to him, for there he would certainly find some people of the same strange mixture of races as he was himself, Chinese, Japanese, Spaniards, Italians, Kanakas, and Americans having settled in the strange place at different times, and their descendants being now fairly numerous.