"Mr. Grafton," said he, "they'll gally the whale if they come pulling over him when he is about coming up. I think we are far enough, and would like to lie still where we are. But we must get rid of these four boats, and if it's _pulling_ they want, they shall have it. Do you take your oars and pull hard right on in the same direction we have been going. The whale won't be up for twenty minutes yet, and no harm will be done. Speak to Mr. Dunham as you pass, and tell him to pull ahead too. This will toll those four boats off, so that they will lose the scent. But keep your eyes on me when the whale comes up." The strange boats come on, and seeing two of us pulling with might and main, while the third had apparently abandoned the chase, three of them followed the lead of the majority, and "gave way," with a laudable ambition to outpull us, which we were quite willing to allow them to do, while the fourth hove up to speak the old man. He inquired the name of our ship, and reported himself as first officer of ship Bermondsey, of London. The captain, he said, was on board, not being in the habit of going in the boat himself. He asked Captain Upton what he thought of the chance for the whale. "Well," said our captain, "I don't think I shall chase him any further. I shall let my mates try him a spell, but I don't think much of my chance, for I see that your boats pull so much faster than mine, they will have a long start of them before the whale comes up again." "O, yes sir," said John Bull, "our boats can houtpull any bl----y boats on the ground." "No doubt of it; indeed I can see that myself," said the old man, seeing how eagerly his flattery was swallowed. "Well, pull ahead, boys!" said the English mate, "and let's show them fellows how we can pass them." The result was, fifteen minutes later we were about a mile from the spot where we received orders to pull; the English boats a smart mile and a half, except the mate who was just triumphantly passing us; the whale up within a ship's length of the old man, and he just shooting alongside of him. Our shouts of laughter as we laid round to pull to the assistance of the fast boat, gave the English mate the first intimation of the Yankee trick by which he had been humbugged. An hour later the breeze struck us, and we hauled the largest whale of our season's work alongside, while the Bermondsey down tacks and stood away from us, in spite of our signals inviting communication. CHAPTER XXI. RADACK CHAIN.--WATERING AT OCEAN ISLAND.--INCIDENTS OF THE RUN TO SYDNEY, N. S. W.