Clapping the glasses to his eyes, he swung about in a slow circle. Due south, he steadied and grew rigid. He saw the low bore of water which marked the presence of some animal beneath the surface. He closed his lips in a hard, firm line; his face cleared; his arms grew rigid as bars of steel. He waited with every muscle tense. Then, and suddenly, he lowered the glasses, leaned far out over the edge of the crow's-nest, and called loudly: "A blow! A blow! There she blows!"
[CHAPTER XII—THE MANNER OF MAN]
The ship shook with the running of many men. The mate sprang to the shrouds and shaded his eyes.
"Where away?" called up Cushner.
"Direct to the south'ard! Right over that floe! There she blows again. There she blows!"
For a second time a bore of white water showed. This was followed by a plume of soft spray which spurted up into the frosty air and vanished to leeward. The whale was rising for breath.
"All 'ands to the boats!" This order was given by Whitehouse who stood at the top of the lee poop steps.
There sounded a rush along the deck, and a snarl of excited men tumbled over each other in their haste to reach the boats. It was for all the world like being submarined in war time.
Stirling scowled down on the untrained crew, then glanced toward the little skipper. He feared that the noise would gally the quarry; a whale has remarkable hearing in certain circumstances. The Ice Pilot had known of failure to fasten with a harpoon on account of the striking of a paddle against the inner skin of a boat.
He called a warning and pointed toward the sea where last a spout had shown. The crew heeded this call, and stood silent by the falls of each boat.