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

all my life They're dull pack" With that, Simpson was all right ly het up, and he let go all fluking. "Lemme tell you" he said. Tn the tournament at Cheyenne, where I rode for this belt, there was one little black horse. Just a little horse it was; and it looked all rusty like a circuit riders old frock coat The first man to top this little horse, he got careless, and the little horse just hashed him all up in the barb wire at the end of the corrol. He won't never even walk again-much less ride. And there was a leg broke, and two collar bones, and the man that fought it out with me for the belt would ha' been killed if he hadn't pulled leather"
 I looked to see what Pitchpole would say to that, and l saw in his eye that he had thought of some thing. He started to say it, and then he saw me listening and he swallowed his word, l did not guess Old Man himself could not have blamed me For 1t was not a thought that would have come to another man than Pitchpole. He was red headed like Simpson, and such men are unaccountable. Had I been older and wiser, it may be that when Ab- ner Warden came to me from the fo'c'sle with words in his mouth, l would have lent him a more at tentive ear. But Abner was a timor- ous young man, and l, being young, feared to be set down for as timor- ous as he.
 Mister Howsley," he said, in a confidential tone and with a watch ful fear In his eye, there's thing you should know"
 This was days later. We were slooping on a dead swell in a dead Ca I'm r1d mi Chief Officer Mace was out in his boat with Pitchpole Dawson in the bow and Red Simpson next to him, teaching the new hand the way of his oar' and how, to let the whale line run clear when the iron went home, so that his arm should not rip from its socket, or he himself dive after the whale.
 Abner's eye turned toward this boat and l told him Justify:
 whisper We're honest here"
 Abner jenked a thumb toward the mates boat. T ca'lated you might just tip the word to MT. Mace, sir" What word .a. am ! to tip to him"
 It's Dawson, sir" he tells me. Dawson and the new man. Pitch pole, sir, is a telling that Simpson things for no good" And with that he let go all and 1 got the yarn.
 A pOOleTb you WILL uIueISldnQ, Is neither fish nor fowl. He is neither officer nor man. He hunks and eats in the cabin, but he has no official status. A harpooner is apt to be an unaccountable man, and his irons are properly his sweet hearts. Most harpoonerS are Island CTS of one sort or another. Pitch pole was an exception and a notable one. He got his name from the fact that at pitch polling, the most diff cult sort of a job in whaling, he was expert beyond belief.
 When you are fast to a whale, your effort is to pull alongside and prod your lance into him till you find his life. But times, a whale will not sound when stricken, but will 1lee-and when you are lowed be- hind fast-swimming whale, you might better try to pull alongside one of those new oil-burning de- stroyers at 30 knots. Any extra pull will draw the iron and your whale boat Is loose. In such cases the officer in the boat will take his lance and heave it at the flying back to him after each cast, till a dart finds the whales life and the the spout turns red Then you drop back and watch the furry and the thing Is done.
 Dawson was master hand at that; WHerelore rem Mace, stead of chang ing ends to lance the whale himself, was like as not, come a good chance, to tell Dawson to try his luck; and any sort of luck meant dry killing and an easy time arr around.
 But that comes later; and it's only sos you may understand. Just now, Abner was telling how Pitchpole come on Red Simpson and little knot of men in their watch on deck. and listened spell to Simpson S yarns about his horses, and then broke in:
 Simpson, man, you make a power of bother about this hoss-riding of yours"
 And why wouldn't F" says Simp- son. "Ain't I the champeen bronco buster of the woolly west? You've see my belt. Amt I got right to talk?"
 IT reckon" says Pitchpole, slow. that you never see whale rode"
 Simpson. with the men looking