“For a quarter of an hour,” said Peter, who was telling me the story, “I did n’t know whether there was going to be a fight or not, but I rather thought there was. Mr. Baker and the mate of the Battles—he was one of the mates, I s’pose—had it back and forth across the back of the whale, and they both got pretty mad. Mr. Baker said they were first up. “ ‘You were not!’ said the Battles’ mate. ‘I was first up. But what has that to do with it anyway? Our iron struck first.’ “ ‘Like hell,’ said Mr. Baker. ‘Macy’s iron struck first. Whale ’s ours. I ’d swear to it.’ “ ‘No doubt,’ said the Battles’ mate; ‘but that don’t make it so.’ ‘What d’ ye mean?’ said Mr. Baker. ‘Call me a liar, do you?’ {161} “ ‘I ’ll call you anything you like!’ said the Battles’ mate. ‘I ’ll call you thief if you take this whale. It ’s ours.’ “Mr. Baker gave him back as good as he sent, and they got madder and madder. Just as I thought they were going to get in a fight over it, Mr. Baker began to cool down, and the Battles’ mate began to cool down too. We were two boats to his one, and if we chose to just take the whale, he could n’t prevent us, and he knew it. Mr. Baker did n’t want to do it that way, and he knew well enough what the old man would think of it. “ ‘Tell you what,’ he said. ‘We don’t want to fight about it. That would n’t do you any good, nor me either, though we could do what we pleased if it came to a fight. We ’ll see Cap’n Coffin and fix it up with him.’ “ ‘Fix it up with me, here and now,’ said the Battles’ mate. ‘You can’t see Cap’n Coffin. He ’s confined to his cabin.’ “ ‘Confined to his cabin!’ said Mr. Baker. ‘What ’s the matter with him?’ “ ‘Nothing much,’ said the Battles’ mate. ‘Sticks in his cabin, and won’t see anybody.’ “ ‘That ’s queer,’ said Mr. Baker. ‘How does he give his orders?’ “ ‘Instructions in writing to be left on the cabin table every morning. No business of yours, but I don’t mind telling you.’ “ ‘Queer!’ said Mr. Baker. ‘Very queer.’ “It is mighty queer too, when you come to think of it,” said Peter. “But I don’t know the rights of it. “The Battles’ mate was impatient. ‘Well,’ he says, ‘what ’you got to say?’ “Mr. Baker kind o’ smiled. ‘Fair division,’ he says; ‘we ’ll take the blubber, and you take the carcass.’ “ ‘_What!_’ roars the Battles’ mate. ‘What the—’ Then his eye falls on the whale, and travels over it, what you {162} can see of it, and that ain’t much. He scratched his head, his eye travelling over the whale from end to end. ‘ I ’ll take you,’ he says quietly. ‘The carcass to be whole, and to be delivered at our side. Does the carcass include the case?’ “ ‘The carcass does _not_ include the case,’ said Mr. Baker, very sarcastic. He had been looking the whale over. ‘Don’t you think you ’ve got enough?’ “ ‘I ’ll take a chance,’ said the Battles’ mate, smiling. ‘Delivered at our side, remember.’