The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-03-30

cred Ben.
Like report of gun after touch on trig-
ger he responded. A hundred tons sprang
into activity as lightly as q wildcat meets
its foe. "Starn alp roared Timrod. "For
your lives, starn alp With their very
souls in the strain the crew pushed on
their oars. A maelstrom of binding foam
| encompassed the boat. Whirlpools of an
CRY water spurted vicious gushes over its
side, and 4 deafening rush as though of
Niagara was in Portuguese Johns ears,
while the boat reeled and danced beneath
his feet. But the latent tiger at the bot
tom of his heart was aroused, and he did
not give back an inch. Wiping the
spume from his face with his left hand,
with the right he sought and grasped the
second IRON"
TTmrod at the stern had for a moment
clearer view than his boat steerer, and
now he cried, "See, he's milling!
So it was. The bull had settled in the
water at the prick of the steel, and with
two strokes of his fins and lash of his
tluEes (which had caused the vortex he
was milling turling) his bulk rs though
on pivot, with the effect of bringing his
tail underneath the whaleboat. Timrod
was too old blubbcr hunter not to know
that tremendous engine of destruction
would send the boat and crew so feet in
to the air as though thrown aloft by an
exploding mine. lie gave n great heave
on his long steering oar, and the boat
whirled about. john stood, harpoon up
lifted. His eyes, searching the whirling
eddies in front, saw the flukes of the
whale of the cross, curved like a bow, as
cending from the depths.
The next instant Timrod bent to his
blade again, and the boat again swung
from the rising death. The captain did
his best but even as the bow turned the
great tail came from the sea smoothly,
silently, as though driven by some ire
sistible mechanical force. John gazed at
the black horror in momentary paralysis,
his iron" poised for the dart. Its point
was caught by the corner of the fuke and
tipped as boy jerks his knife in num-
blepeg. The harpoon turned upon its
axis, and John was impaled upon it. In
continuance of the motion the flukes rose
high in the air and then sunk from sight.
Sacred Ben had sounded, and the line
Kissed over Portuguese Johns PROSTATE
body through the checks in the bow.
There is no time for horror in a whale
boat. All is action. The men, scarcely
realizing the tragedy, but knowing the
whale to be fast, peaked their oars. Tim
rod reached for the line and tossed two
fakes from the tub to give play that he
might bring it over the snubbing post in
the stern sheets. 1t coiled through his
hands like kissing serpent, and in the
very act of accomplishing his purpose a
fake leaped into the air and, opening like
the loop Of a cowboys lasso, dropped
over his shoulders. 1t seemed for q Sec
ond that nothing could save him from be-
ing cut in two. But the bow oarsman
happened-by the Almighty's favor-to
see the fatal loop as it sprang in the air.
In heart beat his sheath knife flashed,
and the line was severed before it had
time to nip or become taut on the second
IRON"
The "old man" cast the loosened coil
from his body and settled back in the
stern sheets. "Jonas," he said to the
bow oarsman, Il guess you saved my
bacon. But now look to John. I'm afraid
this cussed whale Of the cross has fixed
him."
Jonas reached to where the body Of the
fourth mate lay on the thwart and turn
ed his face to the sky. On examination
1t was found that the harpoon he had
turned against Sacred Ben had cloven his
own heart in twain.-Independen