"Spring, men, do! they're all swimming for it! Peak your oar, Bunker, and stand by to lend them a hand! Don't look for the whale now! Two--three--four--five--O God! where's Mr. Johnson?" The oath must have been overlooked by the recording angel. The third mate had sunk to rise no more till the great day of reckoning. The whole head of the boat, as far as the bow-thwart, was crushed to splinters by the fearful blow; and the bowman seemed to have escaped by a miracle. The half-drowned men were pulled into the other two boats; and the line was found to be cut, but no one seemed clearly to know how, when, or by whom. Anxious eyes peered round, hoping against hope, to see the head of the lost man; but a moment's reflection served to convince Captain Upton of the impossibility of his having escaped. He was silent for a short space after he stood by the side of his mate; then pointing significantly at the crushed fragments of the boat's bow, "He must have been killed instantly, Mr. Grafton," he said, and a tear started from the eye of the strong man, and was lost among the briny drops that were streaming from every thread of his clothing. Father Grafton answered only by a nod of assent, showing his full conviction of the worst. A moment and the captain was himself again! he had paid the tribute of a full heart, and was once more the whaling captain, alive to the emergency of the moment. "Pull ahead, and pick up the wreck! We'll save all the craft we can, Mr. Dunham, but never mind the boat. We must let her go, and bear a hand aboard--it's breezing on all the time, and I expect we shall have it harder to-night. Don't stop for small matters; save the oars and line--boat's sail if you can. Set your waif, Mr. Grafton, for the ship--never mind, he's coming; I see her falling off now. Lay off a little from the wreck, boys; don't, for Heaven's sake, stave another boat now. There, that'll do; stand by to pull ahead. What's 'Cooper' running so far for? I wonder if he'll think to come to on the starboard tack, so as to hoist these boats to leeward. Yes! all right! there he braces up his mizzen topsail! Pull ahead, and let's get snug before night!" The Arethusa came flying up to the wind with her topsails run down on the caps, and the jib at the boom-end slatting at a furious rate, as the overloaded boats pulled alongside under her lee. "Keep your tackles up clear till we give the word! Look out on deck for some of this lumber! Bear a hand--what are you all staring at?" for the ship-keepers seemed to be paralyzed with dread, at not seeing the third mate in either of the boats. "Light out now, all but two to hook on! Here, come to the falls, everybody, and stand by to run the boat up. Now's your time, Mr. Grafton--hook on--all ready, Bunker? _Fore and aft!_ Quick, boys, and take her out of water!"