Evening in the North 291 



forwards from the wildly thrashing screws. But this time it was soon 

 over. 



The Vikna's engines died away and she drifted slowly backwards 

 while the spume flattened out around her and great floods of beau- 

 tiful ruby-red blood swirled among it, forming little whorls and 

 curlicues. Something bumped against her hull, and Captain Olsen 

 let out a shout. Everybody but the engineer left his post, and all 

 other hands emerged from holes in the metal monster. They all 

 gathered on the starboard bow and peered over. Something vast and 

 shiny wallowed there just below the waves which washed uncon- 

 cernedly over its curved bulk. 



After a time the main-deck winch rattled once more as it reeled 



in the slack on the line and drew the dead monster hard against the 



o 



Vikna's plates. Then two seamen lowered a loop of steel cable from 

 a block suspended from a davit aft, and after a bit of angling they 

 set a subsidiary winch into action and the vast, batlike tail flukes of 

 the whale appeared above the waves. Seizing flensing knives with 

 long handles like those used of old, the seamen jabbed away until 

 both flukes were sheered off close to the stem of the animal's tail. 

 Then a strong length of chain was Hnked round this stub, and the 

 whole set free. A4eantime the mate had gone overboard on to the 

 forward part of the body of the beast and thrust a long pipe with a 

 razor-sharp cutting end — hke a huge hypodermic — into its vitals. 

 To the upper end of this an ordinary hose pipe was now screwed 

 and then, with a violent hiss, compressed air. was turned on. The 

 whale immediately began to inflate Hke a vast balloon, and as it did 

 so, it slowly rolled over so that its glistening, white, fluted belly 

 came uppermost. Ten minutes later, the mate planted a steel pole 

 with a red and black flag on top of the thing, just as if he were claim- 

 ing some newly discovered island for some stupid empire. Then 

 he jumped back inboard, the bell clanged once more, and the Vikna 

 charged oflF at a tangent at full speed. 



The Boy had watched all this from aloft. Nobody had as much as 

 glanced up at him, let alone called to him. And now, as the gray brute 

 upon which he rode rushed away from the great, pathetic, wallow- 

 ing corpse, what did he see straight ahead? Four more gentle foun- 

 tains rising from the waves. For the second time that morning he 

 yelled below in strident Gaelic, and then it all began again. 



