244 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



in her bow holding a harpoon at the ready. They pushed in among 

 the masses of seaweed, followed by the whaleboat. Some monu- 

 mental risks were taken by whalemen, but none could ever have 

 been more dubious than this, as immediately became apparent. 



First, the dinghy became fast in the weed; then the whaleboat 

 tried to maneuver around her both to lend a hand and to make haste 

 into the clearer shallow water beyond towards the shore, but she 

 ran afoul of something and nearly keeled over. Thinking this to be 

 a sand bar, the cook helpfully unshipped his scull and jabbed it 

 downward with the idea of punting, but it went right down un- 

 expectedly so that he fell clean overboard. Everybody was very ex- 

 cited and the other men roared with laughter. This produced the 

 most extraordinary and unexpected response. 



The whole sea and the kelp all around them suddenly rose up in 

 small mountains, one of which showered spray upon them and then, 

 as the shiny strands of weed slipped from it, resolved itself into a 

 horribly corpselike, mottled, gray mass. This swung around before 

 anybody really knew what was happening and charged the whale- 

 boat, hitting it squarely amidships and splintering the gunwale. Then, 

 surprisingly, it backed off and charged the dinghy. 



Captain Nathan was ready for it, and yelling encouragement to 

 the other boat's crew not to take to the water, he lunged forward 

 with the harpoon and every ounce of strength at his command. Red 

 blood spurted skyward in a great jet, and the hideous gray mass 

 plunged beneath the boat. Then the cook's head appeared between 

 the two boats. His mouth opened and he gave vent to a high-pitched 

 scream which was cut off short as he was abruptly jerked below the 

 surface. Meanwhile, the whaleboat had filled with water and rested 

 completely awash, held up by the kelp, with the men sitting stupidly, 

 submerged up to their waists. And thus the tableau held for almost 

 a minute while nothing happened except the singing of the line as it 

 rushed out through the cleat abaft the dinghy, with which the old 

 Chinese was wrestling manfully, cursing in his own language. Then 

 things changed. 



With a roaring noise the bull whale, for such it was, came up di- 

 rectly under the waterlogged whaleboat and well-nigh cracked its 

 skull on the unexpected weight thereof. It shattered the keel and 

 threw most of the remaining men into the water, where they imme- 



