"What a big fellow!" said Jack, catching the excitement of his elders.
[Illustration: "What a big fellow!">[
"Ah, Jack, my boy," chuckled the captain, "the whale little thinks who are watching him enjoy his breakfast!"
"Yes," said the boatswain; "a dozen such gentlemen as that would freight a craft twice the size of ours; but this one, if only we can get him, will go a good way towards filling our empty barrels."
"Rather rough work, you know," said Dick, "to attack a finback!"
"You are right, Dick," answered the captain; "the boat has yet to be built which is strong enough to resist the flap of a jubarte's tail."
"But the profit is worth the risk, captain, isn't it?"
"You are right again, Dick," replied Captain Hull, and as he spoke, he clambered on to the bowsprit in order that he might get a better view of the whale.
The crew were as eager as their captain. Mounted on the fore-shrouds, they scanned the movements of their coveted prey in the distance, freely descanting upon the profit to be made out of a good finback and declaring that it would be a thousand pities if this chance of filling the casks below should be permitted to be lost.
Captain Hull was perplexed. He bit his nails and knitted his brow.