Before the whales were aware of danger, the boats rushed in among them. Each boatheader singled out a whale, and five boats were quickly fast--two from the _Reindeer_, two from the _Helen Marr_, and Mr. Winchester's boat. Wild turmoil and confusion instantly ensued among the great animals. They went plunging below in alarm and the boats that made no strike at the first onslaught had no chance thereafter. The whales did not stop to investigate the causes of the sudden interruption of their banquet. The sea swallowed them up and we did not see them again. A little later we caught a glimpse of their fountains twinkling against the sky on the far horizon. Mr. Winchester's whale was wriggling about among the jellyfish with jaws widely distended when the boat slipped silently upon it. As the prow bumped against its black skin, Long John drove a harpoon up to the hitches in its back. With a tonite bomb shattered in its vitals, the monster sounded in a smother of foam. In the dynamic violence with which it got under way it literally stood on its head. Its flukes, easily twenty feet from tip to tip, shot at least thirty feet into the air. They swung over to one side, the great body forming a high arch, and struck the sea with a resounding smack. Then they sailed on high again to come down on the other side with another broadside smash. Again they rose like lightning into the air and the whale seemed to slip down perpendicularly into the ocean. It was evident at the outset that the animal was badly wounded. It swam only a short distance below the surface and not rapidly, sending up thousands of bubbles to mark its course. This broad highway of bubbles curved and turned, but Mr. Winchester, who had been smart enough not to lower his sail, followed it as a hound follows the trail of a deer. The boat sailed almost as swiftly as the whale swam and was able to keep almost directly above it. When the whale came to the surface the mate was upon it and Long John's second harpoon stopped it dead in its track. The whale went through no flurry, but died instantly and rolled over on its back. With excitement all about, there was nothing for Mr. Landers or Gabriel to do. So we sat still in the boats and watched the swift incidents of the far-flung battle. One of the whales struck by a boat from the _Reindeer_ breached almost completely out of water as soon as it felt the sting of the harpoon. It floundered down like a falling tower, rolled about for a moment before sinking to a swimming depth, and made off at mad speed. It rose within twenty feet of where our boat lay at a standstill and we could see its wild eye, as big as a saucer, as the injured creature blew up a fountain whose bloody spray fell all over us. The boat it was dragging soon went flashing past us, the crew sitting crouched down and silent. "Swing to him, fellers," shouted Kaiuli, standing up and waving his hat about his head.