226 A YEAR WITH A WHALER 



cake-walk. Gabriel, equally excited, waved his 

 hat. 



" By golly,'* he shouted, " dat mate don't 

 strike him. Dat feesh is all ours. It takes old 

 Gabriel fer kill de whale, by golly." 



When we got back to the brig we looked like 

 snow-powdered Santa Clauses. The spray 

 kicked up in our wild ride behind the Arctic 

 Ocean race horse had wet us from head to foot 

 and, freezing on our fur clothes, had frosted 

 us all over with fine white ice. Mr. Winchester 

 was a good sportsman and paid his bet promptly. 

 Out of his winnings Gabriel gave each man of his 

 boat's crew a plug of tobacco. 



After the whale had been brought alongside 

 the ship and the blubber had been peeled off its 

 body, it fell to the lot of Big Foot Louis to cut 

 in the " old head." It was his first opportunity 

 to show his experience in such work and he was 

 as elated as a boy. He threw off his coat with 

 a theatrical flourish, hitched up his trousers, 

 seized an axe, and with an air of bravado climbed 

 down on the stripped carcass. A little sea had 

 begun to run and the whale was bending sinu- 



