Part 2 (1/2)

The sailor who had been standing near the barrel nodded, as he drew his sheath-knife fro it between his teeth, ready to cut the line should a tangle occur, but keeping his hands free to attend to the coils of rope To Colin the seconds were as years while the old whaler held the gun raised and did not fire It seeer, but the old gunner knew the exact moment, and just as the whale was about to 'sound' the back heaved up slightly, revealing the absence of a dorsal fin, and thus deter that it was a devil-whale in truth; at that instant Hank fired

With the sudden pang of the harpoon the whale gave an upward leap for a dive and plunged, throwing the flukes of the tail and almost a third of his body out of water, and sounded to the botto down line at a tre every coil, and though the heavy rope was soaking wet, it began to smoke with the friction as it ran over the bow

[Illustration: WHALE HARPOON GUN LOADED AND BEING TURNED SO AS TO POINT AT THE WHALE

_Photograph by permission of Mr Roy C Andrews_]

[Illustration: FINBACK WHALE BEING STRUCK WITH THE HARPOON; THE INSTANT OF DISCHARGE

A re been used in the effort to catch the exactin the air, the smoke, the head of the harpoon, and the slick on the water as the whale sounded

_Photograph by permission of Mr Roy C Andrews_]

”Fifty fathom!” cried Scotty, as the line flew out

”Sixty!” he called a moment later, and then, i!”

As the pressure of the brake on the line tightened, the boat began to tear through the water, still requiring the paying out of the rope For an instant it slackened and the winch reeled in a little line There was a sudden jerk and then the line fell slack Working like demons, the men made the winch handles fairly fly as the line ca strongly and sounding again

He sulked at the botto up suddenly quite near the boat Scotty had lost no time, and not more than thirty-five fatho un, Hank!” called Scotty ”Want the other line?”

”Got it!” was the brief reply, and Colin saw that the harpoon-gun had been reloaded

”Sounding again!” called Scotty as the rope fell slack

”No!” yelled Hank ”Stand by, all!”

Then suddenly:

”Back oars! Back, you lubbers! Hard as you kno!”

The oars bent like yew-staves

”Back starboard! Hard!”

With the blood rushi+ng to his brain, Colin, as on the starboard side of the boat, threw his whole energy into the back stroke, and the boat spun round like a top into what see center of a submarine volcano, for, with a roar that ray whale spouted not six feet fro Dih the spray and the sharp crack of the explosion sounded in his ear

Catching his breath chokingly, Colin was only conscious of the fact that he was expected to pull and he leapt into the stroke as the six oars shot the boat ahead

Not soon enough, though! For, as the boat plunged fro a suction like a whirlpool into which the craft lurched drunkenly Then the great creature, turning with a speed that seeht down the flukes of his tail in the direction of the boat, snapping off the stroke oar like a pipe-steh his wrist was sharply and painfully wrenched by the blow, made no complaint, but reached out for one of the spare oars the boat always carried

Colin was not so cale, the shock of that treth of the boat had shaken his nerve, and the sudden drenching with the icy waters of Behring Sea had taken his breath away But he was ga at Hank, he saw that the old fighter of the seas had dropped the harpoon-gun and was holding poised the long lance

This was hunting whales with a vengeance!

Thefury, and in a few seconds he caht for the boat