Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1941-02-27
CHAPTER XI-Continued

CHAPTER X-COntinued
p
Richards boat was near the dead
whale, moving to and fro, Richard
standing high in the bow and point
ing this way and that to guide Pip
at the stearing oar; and Mary could
see now and then man lean over
side and pick something up out of
the water with both hands. Mary
looked around for information. Pc
ter was aft; but Isaiah was here
with them, his elbows on the rail,
squirting at the boats yonder. Mary
asked him what they were doing.
'fMat's cutting hole in the small
SOS he can tow her in"
81 mean, what's Richard picking
up?"
ooh, might be grease" he sug-
gested. "You see it sometimes,
where whales costive."
Mary, looking down into Richards
boat, saw that it was half full OF
some strange stuff, noisome in ap-
pearance, a mass of gouts and
chunks and fragments deep gray in
color, from which an unpleasant
odor rose. The stuff was piled
around the feet of the men, the
whole whaleboat messed with it.
Peter came here beside them; and
he called down to his brother:
"What's all that curry, Dick?"
Richard looked up at them with
calm eyes; but then his own ex-
citement made him grin like a
proud, triumphant boy. He threw
up his hand. Greasy luck today,
Peter. It's ambergris!" he cried.
Mary remembered vaguely hav-
ing heard someone at some time
speak of "ambergris." She had an
obscure impression that is was valu-
able, and she decided now with an
amused grimace that it must be, or
Richard would not have brought this
boatload of in-smelling stuff back to
the Venturer. He leaped to the
deck beside them, dripping with his
exertions, and drunk with the hot
taste of victory; and as the men
swung the whaleboat aboard he
spoke to Peter.
"What's ambergris good for, Rich
ard? 1t smells awful"
Richard chuckled reassuringly.
"It'u get over that as soon as it
dries out. They use it to make
perfumes!"
"Where does ambergris come
from?"
II guess nobody knows just what
it is. A whale gets rid of it while
he's dying, just the way trout will
clean out it's stomach on the hook.
You'll see chunks of squid half as
big as man floating around a whale
after he's fin out and sometimes
you find ambergris the same way"
Mary watched him, her eyes still
as woodland pools, remembering
what she had seen this tall young
man do while ago. When he came
toward her again, she could not face
him, and like one waking she looked
around, and realized for the first
time that George was no longer
here beside her. She saw him by
the cabin skylight aft.
Richard returned past her. SCOT
to 60 get dry" he said. She fol-
lowed him toward where George
stood; and George stopped Richard,
said in unstinted praise:
''That's the finest thing I ever saw
or heard of, Cap'n Corr"
Richard flushed with pleasure
and Mary linked her arm through
her husbands and held tight to it,
and echoed: "Did you ever see any,
thing so wonderful?"
Richard grinned. "It was pref
ty good fight" he admitted.
ut was great" George agreed.
II didn't take full breath for ten
minutes" He smiled. eff that's
whaling, Cap'n Corr, I'll stick to the
ministry"
Richard chuckled in shy pleasure.
"Shucks, most times it's like beef
ing steer. Nine whales out of ten
just make a little run and then
take it.; and the bowheads don't
even do that"
"a bowhead killed Uncle Tom,''
Mary remembered.
"Oh, sometimes they'll act bad"
The business of cutting in the dead
whale was pushed at top speed to
beat the threat of weather. Mary
watched the long spades slice
through blubber and flesh and gristle
as easily as hot butter. Peter, she
saw, was shrewd and skilful at this
business.
Mary watched the whole opera
ton, from the first cut into the black
carcass SCARED white by the sharks.
The sharp blades the men used fas-
cinated her. Hiram was kept busy
grinding them, Tommy turning for
him. She and George watched pro-
ceedings together; and once when
Richard stopped near them, she
said:
Cali these spades and harpoons
and lances are pretty deadly, aren't
they. l should think you'd be nerv-
Gus, having them around"
"Well, they're our TOOLS" he re-
minded her. eve get used to them"
And he said:
"You know, Peters the best l
ever saw on the cutting stage" She
L. IL, b