We gave him a dozen, and then a dozen more. He nodded to the Prince, who took in his oar swiftly and silently, and stood up. The black head of the whale shot by, and Mr. Brown threw all his weight on the oar, bringing the boat’s head around. “Give it to him!” he cried. “Stern all!” The Prince had darted; he threw his second iron just as we bumped terrifically into the body of the whale. Then we backed off as the flukes went into the air, came down on the surface thunderously, and swept from side to side. Again his flukes went up, and the whale sounded. He sounded at great speed and the line whistled out of the tub. I confess that I was afraid of it as the coils writhed past my hands and pounded a tattoo on my oar. One tub was out. There had been no time for Mr. Brown and the Prince to change places, and a “drug” was being bent on to the end of the line in the second tub, as fast as the men could work. It was no sooner fast than it was whisked out of their hands and overboard. Mr. Brown smiled slowly. “Well,” he said, “that was soon settled. Looks as if the joke was on us. Guess we ’d better have let him alone.” The whale had gone off with two irons, two tubs of line, and a drug. The chance was that we should never see any of them again, for it was almost too dark to see anything, and it would be pitch-black in half an hour. We turned and pulled easily toward the ship, which was showing a light, two miles to windward. The boat lanterns were set before we had gone far. We had made perhaps half the distance to the ship when we heard, out of the darkness ahead, shouts and commands and a commotion in the water that was more than the wash of the sea. Mr. Brown peered ahead. He could not make out much. “Stand up, Tony,” he said, “and see what you make it. By the sounds it ’s Mr. Baker, and he ’s fast.” {336} The Prince stood up. Those black men have a strange faculty of seeing in the dark. He reported that it was Mr. Baker fast to a whale, and he thought it was our whale. By this time we were almost up with the commotion. Mr. Brown headed us over that way, and we pulled harder. As soon as we were within hail he called out, asking if the whale had irons in him. I could not see what the state of affairs was, for I had to keep my eyes astern; but I judged from the sounds that Mr. Baker was close alongside, and was lancing, or just about to. The answer was that the whale had irons in him. “Those irons are mine,” Mr. Brown shouted, “and I want to kill him!” I was surprised, for I did not see then, and I do not see now, why it should be any pleasure to a man like Mr. Brown to pump a lance up and down in the in’ards of a whale. If it had been Mr. Baker I could have understood it. Between grunts and curses Mr. Baker replied that it was too late, for he had just attended to that matter, and we had better go astern a little, as the whale was going into his flurry.