126 THE WHALE HUNTERS 



wallowing brown flank. Jamie's arm flashed twice and 

 two harpoons went deep into the unsuspecting Leviathan. 

 He threw clear from the bows the few coils of 'stray line' 

 and at Thomas's 'Stern all!' the oarsmen backed the boat 

 away from the whale. 



The whale arched its hump, threw up its flukes and 

 sounded. The Hne sped out of the tub, round the logger- 

 head, between the two banks of oarsmen and over the 

 looms of their oars and out through the fairlead in the bow. 



Hodge's boat shot past Thomas's and fastened a 

 harpoon to another of the whales just as they were all 

 diving out of danger; all, that is, with the exception of an 

 old bull, which, in the excitement of the moment, Thomas 

 had failed to notice was following in the wake of the main 

 school. It was not until he felt the steering oar being 

 knocked from his grasp that he saw the wrinkled head of 

 the big fellow in the act of sounding under his boat's 

 stern. For a second the broad tail-flukes cast their 

 shadow over the boat; then as they entered the sea the 

 tip of the nearest one touched the boat — only the tip — 

 but it was enough to put the craft on her beam ends. Two 

 of the midships oarsmen were thrown into the sea and 

 when the boat righted herself she was a quarter full of 

 water and the starboard gunwale was smashed. 



The whale-line was still being taken down by the har- 

 pooned whale and Thomas dare not check too severely 

 round the loggerhead for fear of having the bows pulled 

 under. He reached out and helped one of the men from 

 the water. The other, alas was not to be seen. 



'Bale with anything you can find,' he yelled, 'and keep 

 clear of the snags in the line,' for the neat coils of the 

 whale-Hne had been thrown askew in their tub by the 

 water that had entered it, and he knew of many cases in 

 which a fouled line had caught a man by a limb and 

 whipped him out over the bows. 



With only a few coils still left to run out Thomas 



