The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-01

I improved on them by just the dif-. 1 ference between a half a ton or so of | horse and a hundred tons CT so of ! whale. He'd swim in a racing circle l for a minute. then go zig-zaggingl
 around, shaking the great head of | him like he'd shake 1t off-ltke al
 trout fighting for the llne-then heal | fairly gallop through the water inl ! a smother and turmoil of spray and blood and froth. And every lttlel
 while we'd catch enc glimpse of that. | rag of humanity a sticking to him..
 He couldn't hold on through all
 that l says. He must be caught
 In the line"
 But anyway, there he was. Once inI
 so often. you come across whaisl that dies extra hard. This was onel
 of them; and the worst came at thei
 end
 Our stove boat was like grand stand seat to see it all. And thel
 whale hung close to us. I could seeI
 him weakening; and all of sud-l
 den he whirled and come our way, and without thinking l yelled; "Starn all. Oh starn all"
 | A lot of good that did, with u1i
 under water to our noses; if he'd kept coming he'd have splintered us liksi rock splinters glass. 1 For a minute 1t looked like he'di do just that. Head out he came. and hell for leather. And then, when het was five-siX rods away, 1 saw him settle in the water and l knew what was coming.
 The next minute he was gone un- der, out of sight; and the minute aft-l
 CT that, uplifting himself to the sky as though for mercy in the agony of giving up hls life, with one tre-i
 mendous, final stroke of his great, flulles he flung his whole, gigantiol bulk clear of the sea.
 l,t l ,1 | most above our heads; and for a, space that was like eternity the stu pendOus mass of him hung suspend ed there. Then down he fell and struck the surging swell with & cracking, battering uproar and an impact that sent over us a wave which bore us down and down tin 1 thought we would never see sun again. When I had kicked free of the boat and gasped and clawed and fought my way to the air, a%1 breathed, there was the whales great
 carcass. lifeless now, surging slowly past under the momentum Of his last, | terrific effort to shake off the ironS
 that drained his life away.
 The wrecked boat and my men 1 drifted to the surface; and then, with | in arms length, came floating by that l section of the whale where his hump | lies. The leviathan had turned on his ! side. so that his hump was toward l me; and just above 1t l saw the mans J figure stretched limp as old clothes. l saw, the same moment, that a ( moose in the line foot from my l harpoon had caught his arm and held | him there. One whip of my knife | freed him; and we dragged him across 1 our knees in the wreck of our boat.
 My profane relief to hold even his,
 lifeless body safe again was surgins | from my lips when as l turned the | body, face uppermost, to give the 1 breath of life a chance. l saw
 The man who had ridden the whale l in it's furry was not the cowboy- | but PitchpolG Dawson, his tormen- i tor.
 Once explained the thing was
 simple. When the whale rolled over | the mates boat Red Simpson forgot any thought he may have had of | trying the outrageous feat to which l Pitchpole had melted him. But by a
 strange and ironic circumstances. a
 moose in the loose line floating in 1 the water, caught Pitchpole's arm at
 the elbow and frightened there. | Through that tremendous furry he ! had struggled to free himself, till his
 merciful senses left him. Instinct
 kept the breath in his body during | those periods when he was totally l immersed. His stout jackets sleeve
 saved his arm from anything worse
 than tremendous strain and chaf- | ing. The tough fiber of the man
 asserted Itself; and by the time the
 ship came up and we had hoisted
 him to the deck, he was able to stand
 erect, though wearily.
 l Red Simpson, however. during
 those minutes when from the second
 mates boat he had watched the
 whales manner of dying had fully
 comprehended the strenuous nature
 of the joke Pitchpole had planned
 for him. I could not blame the
 man when. as he came face to face | with Pitchpole on the deck. he
 evened things. For from within his
 water-soaked garments he produced that treasured belt, emblem of his
 hard won championship. and pressed
 1t into Pitchpole's shaky hands.
 Take 1t, pal" said Red Simpson,
 all too heartily. Take it. You've
 earned it. I'll take a chance at | bronco busting; but as whale buster, l take off my hat to you"