“It’s of no use,” said the captain; “it must have gone right on. Look, Steve, how plentiful they are yonder. That’s where we ought to have the boat.”
He pointed to where pretty well a hundred of the great creatures were flapping in and out of the water; but Steve shook his head.
“Be too dangerous,” he said. “Ah, look!”
He started to one side, for at that moment something of a creamy-white suddenly shot out of the water close to the bows of the boat, rose high with a graceful bend, and was curving over to make a plunge down into the depths, when—whish! thud!—the harpoon was thrown; it stuck a short distance behind the creature’s head, and then with one blow the water was sent flying over the occupants of the boat, while the line was running rapidly out of the tub as the white whale disappeared from sight.
Like its relative the leviathan, of fifty or sixty feet in length, which boasts of a mouth big enough to hold a jollyboat and crew, who would doubtless find their quarters exceedingly uncomfortable on account of the forest of whalebone hanging down from the roof, the white whale cannot keep under water long without coming up to breathe; but the one Johannes had so cleverly struck nearly carried out the whole of the line, which Steve watched darting out ring by ring over the bows, till, in spite of the riskiness of the proceeding, the second Norseman seized the end which lay outside the tub, and gave it a hitch round a block in the bows left for the purpose.
“Be ready for a ride, Steve,” said the captain, “if he does not pull us under before they can cut the rope; in that case be ready for a swim.”
“The first for preference,” thought Steve; but neither event occurred, for the rope suddenly ceased running, and as Johannes armed himself with one of the great lances which lay along the thwarts, his companion rapidly hauled in the slack line and laid it in rings once more.
Practice had made the man wonderfully perfect in this duty, and fathom after fathom was laid in, while the whale remained under so long that the captain shouted to Johannes:
“Has the harpoon come out?”
“I don’t know yet, sir; I’m afraid so,” was the reply. “These fish are so tender; they are often lost in this way.”