CHAPTER XI
A FIRE ON BOARD
Surprise at the bold claim of their rivals held the three boys almost spellbound for a moment. The possibility that someone should seek to get possession of the whale they had brought ashore after such labor, and almost as soon as they landed, had never occurred to them. Yet the fishermen seemed determined, for one of them began casting off Bob's anchor line, and several more of the burly chaps, in their long rubber boots, leaped overboard from the boat, and waded ashore.
"What had we better do?" asked Andy of his brother. "Are you going to let them take our whale?"
"Not much!" exclaimed Frank, with a determined tightening of his lips.
"I'm going to fight every inch. They shan't take it away."
"Let's appeal to the crowd," suggested Andy. "Tell 'em just how we found the whale, and they won't let these men take it away from us."
Frank looked doubtful as to the wisdom of that course. Meanwhile the men were busily preparing to tow the whale away out to sea in the powerful motor boat.
"If my father was only here," began Bob, "he would know what to do, and what our rights were. There are certain laws about whales and things found at sea, and he'd make these fellows skip out if they were in the wrong."
"Of course they're in the wrong!" cried Andy. "Didn't we see the whale first, and didn't we to it home?"
"But they say they harpooned it," said Bob,