178 TEE CRUISE OF TEE " CACEALOT." 



the broadside it struck us, sending every soul but me 

 flying out of the wreckage as if fired from catapults. 

 I did not go because my foot was jammed somehow in 

 the well of the boat, but the wrench nearly pulled my 

 thigh-bone out of its socket. I had hardly released my 

 foot, when, towering above me, came the colossal head 

 of the great creature, as he ploughed through the 

 bundle of debris that had just been a boat. There 

 was an appalling roar of water in my ears, and darkness 

 that might be felt all around. Yet, in the midst of it 

 all, one thought predominated as clearly as if I had 

 been turning it over in my mind in the quiet of my 

 bunk aboard — " What if he should swallow me ? " Nor 

 to this day can I understand how I escaped the portals 

 of his gullet, which of course gaped wide as a church 

 door. But the agony of holding my breath soon over- 

 powered every other feeling and thought, till just as 

 something was going to snap inside my head I rose to 

 the surface. I was surrounded by a welter of bloody 

 froth, which made it impossible for me to see ; but oh, 

 the air was sweet ! 



I struck out blindly, instinctively, although I could 

 feel so strong an eddy that voluntary progress was out 

 of the question. My hand touched and clung to a rope, 

 which immediately towed me in some direction — I 

 neither knew nor cared whither. Soon the motion 

 ceased, and, with a seaman's instinct, I began to haul 

 myself along by the rope I grasped, although no definite 

 idea was in my mind as to where it was attached. 

 Presently I came butt up against something solid, the 

 feel of which gathered all my scattered wits into a 

 compact knub of dread. It was the whale ! " Any port 

 in a storm," I murmured, beginning to haul away again 



