386 NIMBOD OF THE SEA; OR, 



midst ; and spitefully cut the corners of her flukes right and 

 left. In the surge and confusion, two poor fellows went 

 down: we saw no sign of them afterward, and the water 

 was so dark, stained with blood, that we could not see into it. 



"As the whale came feeling around with her nose, she 

 passed close by me. I was afraid of the flukes, and got hold 

 of the warp, or iron pole, or her small, or something, and 

 towed a little way till she slacked speed a little. Then I 

 dove under, so as to clear the flukes, and came up astern of 

 them. I was in good time; for having felt the boat, she 

 turned over and threshed the spot with a number of blows 

 in quick succession, pounding the wreck into splinters. She 

 must have caught sight of me, for she came up on a half 

 breach, and dropped her head on me, and drove me, half 

 stunned, deep under water. Again I came up near the small, 

 and again dove under the flukes. From this time she seemed 

 to keep me in sight. Again and again — the mate told me 

 afterward — she would run her head in the air and fall on my 

 back, bruising and half drowning me as I was driven down 

 in the water. 



" Sometimes I caught hold of the line, or something at- 

 tached to the mad brute, and would hold until a sweep of the 

 flukes would take my long legs and break my hold. The 

 second mate's boat had cut long ago, and watched hei- 

 chance to pick up the surviving crew, but had not been able 

 to reach me ; for when the whale's eye caught the boat, she 

 would dash for it so wickedly that the whole crew became 

 demoralized, owing to the loss of the two men, and the sight, 

 to them, more terrible than to me, perhaps, of the peril the 

 captain was in. To husband my strength, I gave over swim- 

 ming, and, treading water, I faced the danger, and several 

 times by sinking avoided the blow from her head. As a 

 desperate resource, I strove with my pointed sheath-knife to 

 prick her nose : I did all a strong man was in duty bound to 



