Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1941-02-20

ly it darted in again till she thought
the bow would ride up on that huge
body just awash. Richards great
voice was like trumpet.
"Sock him, Pip!"
She saw Big Pip, knee braced il.
the clumsy cleat, the heavy harpoon
poised, drive it in and down; and
instantly, before the boat veered
off again, he sank the second iron.
Big Pip swept the loose coils of the
box warp overheard. He and Rich
ard changed places, scrambling
over the oarsmen, who bent low
over the thwarts to let them pass.
By the time Richard was in the bow
and Big Pip at the steering oar,
the whale saw the boat riding there,
and lunged toward them; and the
men swung hard on the oars, and
Big Pip lodged out of the whales
path and in again. Mary saw Rich
ard drive home the lance, deep into
that black side.
Mary saw only smother of con-
fusion, action too swift to follow; but
the men IN the Venturer and in Mat
Forbes boat, watching more wisely,
knowing without seeing what went
on in that fury of torn water, saw
that Richard was as wild with the
heat of battle now as was the whale.
For after desperate minute or
two of this in-and-out fighting, he
closed with his antagonist. Under
his strong commands, the men
hauled in on the line till the boat
was close against the whales side.
Richard reached far over the bow
to grip the line and draw the boat
further forward along the whales
body, and while close alongside,
Richard drove the lance deep and
deep again, searching for that huge
reservoir in which the whale stores
fresh blood for his long stays under
water and which whalemen call the
"life."
The whale could not bite them,
nor could it's flukes strike the boat.
But if it rolled toward them, they
must be crushed under it's body and
left helpless in the water. Big Pip
bawled:
"Ware roll, Cap'n!"
Richard, braced and firm, as
much part Of the boat as though he
were nailed to it, drove his lance
again. Tommy screamed:
''There he rolls!"
But the whale rolled away from
the boat, not toward it; and in so
doing, its under parts were for mo-
ment exposed.
The whale rolled over and over in
smother away from them; and
suddenly it's fukes lifted high and
then it was gone, and the tossed
water began to quiet where it had
disappeared.
Sounded" Tommy cried.
Mary could see the line now snak-
ing out over the bow of the whale
boat, the bow sagging downward
and then rising with jerk as Joe
Sassnet kept a strain on the line
around the loggerhead, yielding only
when he must. Richard in the bow
was leaning forward to look straight
down into the water, lance in hand.
The bow of Richards boat rose
suddenly as the strain upon the line
was eased. "Haul hard!" Big Pip
shouted. Sassnet took line hand over
hand. Richard spoke over his Shout
der, not turning his head, watching
the water under them.
Ready oars!" he said crisply.
Then men poised. Suddenly he cried:
"Starn all! Hard astern!"
The oars bent like bows; the boat
darted backward like squid. Then
for a moment from where Mary
stood on the Venturer's deck, boat
and men were alike blotted out of
sight, hidden behind vast black
column with blunt end which rose
ponderously out of the water, the
white mouth cleaning, the bent jaw
opening and closing in vicious fu-
tility.
That black mass that was the
whales head rose and rose, slow and
slower till it was above the level of
the Venturer's decks, till Mary
thought it would never stop ascend
ing. 1t seemed to poise and hang
for moment, and then ponderous-
ly toppled forward, parting the wa
ter like a pillow; and she saw the
boat safe, secure, beyond the flukes.
Then the whale spouted, and it's
spout now was a thick crimson
cloud; and Mary saw Richard strike
sharp blow at the line with
Ratchet, saw it's free end disappear.
She cried, sick with sudden dis
appointment: "Oh, he's let it go!"
cts dying!" Tommy Hanline told
her, proud of Richard. ''He always
cuts before the furry unless there's
another boat that might get fast.
He don't take chances when there's
no need of it,"
The spout was fountain of blood
as the whale again began to move,
but there was no long furry. Too
much of the creatures strength was
already spent. 1t surged a little
forward, lay still, seemed to turn
half on its side, laboriously righted
itself.
Fin out!" said Tommy Hanline,
and he looked up at Mary with shin
ing eyes.
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