The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-01
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of it had upset him. It was mid afternoon and a hot sun, and the water had that coppery, slimy, slick look it gets in a calm. If 'twa mt for the wind it gets the ocean would be a stinking pool Of a place. The long waits for a whale to come up was always hardest on my nerves. p'ticularly when I was young CT. I'd always get to wondering where he'd rise, and who'd get fast, and whether he'd fight or go easy. and whether we'd have stove boats and no bother. Whales are uncer- tain. I've seem them lie and take the lance and go out with no more than a ripple of flukes-more p'ticu- | larly cows with calves under their fins. Once in awhile an old bull will do the same.
 Then again he'll whirl around and smash boats with his flukes or splinter them between his jaws, and leave every man of you swimming midst the wreckage-or worst off. I wondered now what would happen when this fellow finished his sup | per; and I thought of Red Simpson bigness of the whale-he'd stick to his promise and mount the beast | And about that time the mates boat shot away from us, and we saw the | big fellows spouts quarter Of a | mile away.
 He waited for us. spouting slow | and regular as a clock ticks. Half asleep, he was. and lying so low In | the water that the slow swells broke clear over him, his shiny back from | head to hump showing in between. l He lay right awash as we made for | him. lem Mace was on hand to take | chances with a long cast. and as r mn nT, hn for eli T nf !, h la 1 from him, I saw his boat was right on top of the big fellow. They fair rubbed sides, the boat and the whale l before Jem shouted to Pitchpole 1 Dawson:
 Peak oars now, and-let him have it."
 Dawson dropped his oar in a whiff, whirled, set his knee in the rest grabbed the iron from its rack, and with all the heaving power of arms and back and thigh, drove 1t down and home into that low-rolling carcass.
 Jem sheered the boat off as the slack line went overheard. and for a l space there was hush upon the waters while we wanted for the I whale to run. It was coming up by | tten, hopeful of getting home an iron 1 for good measure. Jem had started 1 forward in his boat to change places with Pitchpole; but when the whale still lay there like he hadn't felt the ! barb, Jem yelled:
 Take the lance, Dawson. Stick him."
 And with that he turned back
 again and grabbed the steering oar | and twisted the boat onto the whale. 1 Pitchpole grabbed up a lance where
 it lay ready to his hand, and drove
 it home and drew it out and thrust
 l.,
 of the whale, and across q rod of 1 open water, Pitchpole left fly the i third time, and the razor edged probe
 socked home into the whale like a spear.
 And that try found the life. the | great blood reservoir of the beast.
 Before, he had widowed duly In the
 wash of the swell, but not now. A
 minute later l was glad we were | clear of him.
 For as the lance pierced him the
 monster rose up ous of the deep with | the water roaring under the failing
 of his fins and flukes. Up he came
 like a tremendous cask suddenly re- l leased; and he came up, rolling over
 and over sidewise toward the mates
 boat, spurred into blind endeavor to | be rid of the dreadful torment that
 had found him out.
 Jem had no chance to dodge You l can avoid a whale that comes head
 on-sometimes. But you can't get | out of the way of 60-foot steam
 roller that comes mile minute at
 you. It made a fearful mess. When | Pitchpole had sent home the iron.
 he had cast loose the slack line; and
 the water between the whale and the
 boat must have been full of the | tangle of 1t.
 When the whale, rolling like an
 1 a a Q Ia h.
 Jem and Dawson standing, the others | in their seats; and it crunched them
 down out of sight, while the whale
 went over the boat like a typhoon.
 As he rolled over them the whale
 sank, and a second later he came up
 with dart like strain surging out | of Hoosac Tunnel, and he came up
 running. His first fright was fury
 now; while his spout, like pure | blood. streaked back a long the
 length of him In a crimson river And 1t was when he came up like