"Yes; your man at the mast-head must have been a poor seaman not to have missed the sails."
"All, that's one of your shore-going ideas, now. You know nothing whatever about it. I'll tell you where the sails were, master Charley."
"Well, I should like to know."
"The spray, then, that he dashed up with a pair of fins that were close to his head, was in such a quantity, and so white, that they looked just like sails."
"Oh!"
"Ah! you may say 'oh!' but we all saw him—the whole ship's crew; and we sailed alongside of him for some time, till he got tired of us, and suddenly dived down, making such a vortex in the water, that the ship shook again, and seemed for about a minute as if she was inclined to follow him to the bottom of the sea."
"And what do you suppose it was, uncle?"
"How should I know?"
"Did you ever see it again?"
"Never; though others have caught a glimpse of him now and then in the same ocean, but never came so near him as we did, that ever I heard of, at all events. They may have done so."