The mate of the boat merely ignored our captain and gave orders to attach the tow-line. The men obeyed as if they were unaware that there were claimants of the whale in the neighborhood. Captain Gamans was exasperated and shouted, “My ship’s harpoons are in that whale, and I claim the whole carcass, bone and all.” “Keep on claiming,” replied the mate. “I can see the line attached to the harpoon, and I’m going to keep on claiming my ship’s property, and I’m going to have it, too.” “How are you going to get it?” inquired the mate, who now looked defiance, and kept changing the lance from one hand to the other, as if he was about to use it for some other purpose than on the bowhead’s body. “I’m going to cut out them harpoons and examine them myself.” “No, you’re not.” “We’ll see about it. You know what the usage is—you see our vessel there working up from the leeward. What does that mean? Here are our two boats in the open sea. What does that mean? Here’s a whale with fresh harpoons in him. What does that mean? And the whale killed by the boat of another vessel, for there’s your vessel to the windward bearing down on us. What does that mean?” “What are you, a lawyer? You talk as if you was making an argument to a jury, but there’s only six men in the boat and that’s only half a jury.” This produced a laugh, and our captain was now furious. “Did you hear what I said?” he shrieked. “No, I didn’t. I was calculatin’ how much this old fellow would stow down and how much bone he would yield. Then I was figurin’ how much the whole thing would bring in money. Then I was makin’ out what we men in this boat would get on our lays. When a man’s usin’ his mind on heavy matters, he ain’t got no time to attend to little things.” Our boat was between the captain’s and that of the stranger. Captain Gamans called out, “Lakeum, back water and give me a chance.” I saw that Lakeum did not want to comply, but the command was from his superior, and he was bound to obey. Lakeum gave the order in a slow tone, and we oarsmen responded with more alacrity, for we wanted to see what the outcome would be. As the captain’s boat advanced, he exclaimed: “Now I’m going to show you the harpoons of my ship in that whale.” “No, you ain’t.” “There they are,” declared the captain, “and the short warps attached to them.” “You can’t prove it,” roared the stranger. “We’ll see if I can’t,” retorted the captain. The bow of our boat touched the stranger’s on the port side, near the stern. Each man brandished his lance, and it looked like a battle, which might result perhaps in a tragedy, when a voice rang out: “Jessup, put up your lance. I’ll handle this matter.” In our excitement we were not aware that a boat had been approaching, and now, as we heard the sharp command and turned to look at the craft, we rightly inferred that it belonged to the vessel bearing down on us from the windward.