He was up in an instant, not waiting to perform the almost superfluous ceremony of dressing, and there we both stood, so intensely absorbed in the interest of the exciting spectacle that the little craft was almost left to take care of herself.
The whale had got very nearly straight ahead of us by this time, and not more than half a mile distant Bob went forward, and stood leaning against the mast, to get a somewhat better view. Suddenly, the chase bore sharply up, and dashed away at tremendous speed in exactly the opposite direction to that which he had been pursuing before. Almost at the same instant Bob shrieked in a shrill unnatural tone of voice:
“Luff! Harry—luff! round with her for the Lord’s sake! Oh, my God!”
Down went the helm, and up flew the little Lily into the wind, and I was just stooping to let go the head-sheets (which led aft), when I caught a glimpse of Bob’s face, white and drawn with horror, and his eyes—almost starting out of his head—staring fixedly at something apparently broad on our starboard bow.
I looked, naturally, in the same direction myself, and never to my dying day shall I forget the frightful, appalling object which met my gaze.
At a distance of not more than three cables’ lengths from us, rushing through the water at a speed equal to that of a railway train, and lashing the water into foam with the rapid movement of his huge convolutions, a monstrous serpent appeared, darting towards the wretched persecuted whale.
His vast head and fully twenty feet of his body towered nearly erect above the water, and I believe I am not exaggerating, nay, that I am within the mark when I say that the remaining portion of his body, to the tail, was at least six times that length.
His head was shaped much like that of a python, and his enormous jaws, which he frequently opened, disclosed a formidable array of strong sharp fangs. His body was of a deep dead brown, broadly marked with irregular stripes and rings of pale stone-colour; and he emitted a strong musky odour, which, even at our distance from him, was almost overpowering.
Once, when he was closest to us, he turned his head in our direction, and for one dread moment he paused, seeming to gather his folds together as though about to dart upon us, and the bitterness of a frightful death thrilled through me.
The next instant he sped on once more at still greater speed, and before another minute passed the whale was overtaken.