ON TEE *' LINE'' GROUNDS. 219 



good job. Suddenly I caught sight of the ship right 

 ahead. We were still flying along, so that in a short 

 time we were comparatively close to her. My heart 

 beat high, and I burned to distinguish myself under 

 the friendly and appreciative eye of the skipper. 



None of the other boats were in sight, from our level 

 at least, so that I had a reasonable hope of being able 

 to finish my game, with all the glory thereunto attaching, 

 unshared by any other of my fellow-officers. As we ran 

 quite closely past the ship, calling on the crew to haul 

 up for all they were worth, we managed actually to 

 squeeze past the cow, and I got in a really deadly blow. 

 The point of the lance entered just between the fin and 

 the eye, but higher up, missing the broad plate of the 

 shoulder-blade, and sinking its whole four feet over the 

 hitches right down into the animal's vitals. Then, for 

 the first time, he threw up his flukes, thrashing them from 

 side to side almost round to his head, and raising such 

 a turmoil that we were half full of water in a moment. 

 But Samuela was so quick at the steer-oar, so lithe and 

 forceful, and withal appeared so to anticipate every 

 move of mine, that there seemed hardly any danger. 



After a few moments of this tremendous exertion, our 

 victim settled down, leaving the water deeply stained 

 with his gushing blood. With him disappeared his con- 

 stant companion, the faithful cow, who had never left 

 his side a minute since we first got fast. Down, down 

 they went, until my line began to look very low, and I 

 was compelled to make signals to the ship for more. We 

 had hardly elevated the oars, when down dropped the 

 last boat with four men in her, arriving by my side 

 in a few minutes with two fresh tubs of tow-line. 

 We took them on board, and the boat returned again. 



