“Eric looked forward where the men were working, and looked aft, and then out across the sea; and then he looked at me at last with an appeal in his eyes. ‘Are you calling me “murderer” as she did, Mark?’ he asked. “I shook my head. ‘She’s but a girl,’ I told him. ‘There was no need of killing the cow. But what matter for that? And the other--was no one’s blame.’ “His hand gripped my arm till I winced. ‘You mean it?’ he begged, hungrily. “I clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Forget it all,’ I urged. ‘No harm will come.’ “‘It is not that I’m afraid,’ he told me swiftly; and I saw that I had roused him as I hoped to do. “‘Sure of that?’ I asked. “His eyes flamed. ‘I fear nothing,--except myself,’ he exclaimed. ‘But I hear her word always; and I cannot bear it, Mark.’ “Before more could be said, Cap’n Tobbey came toward us; and Eric laughed as though at some jest of mine. His laughter was not a pleasant thing to hear, and I would have wished to reassure the man. But thereafter he gave me no further opportunity. “I could see the thing was on his mind through the days that followed. He could not forget it; and he took to standing watch at the masthead when there was no need. I asked him once why he did this. “‘To get the scarred bull, Mark,’ he told me. ‘That will end it.’ “‘You’ll never see him again!’ “He shook his head, and smiled grimly. ‘No fear,’ he said. ‘He’s about us.’ “And Eric was right; for the day we were finishing the trying out, the scarred bull was sighted again, this time so near the ship that his mark could be discerned through the glass as he rose to spout. Eric was aloft; and he tumbled down the rigging like a madman, and lowered; but there was a fog, and in the fog the bull was lost for that time. “That was thrice he had been seen; and the fourth time came swiftly. “Eric was never a man to fear or avoid conflict, even with the forces of the universe itself; and after this third appearance of the scarred bull whale, he scarce slept at all, but held himself and his boat’s crew ready for battle the day long. He was aloft from dawn till dark, endlessly scouring the seas for a spout that would reveal the creature which personified to him the thing he was fighting. He became silent, thoughtful; and strength flowed into him and nerved him to a hard and efficient readiness. He was like an athlete in training for a contest, every nerve and muscle tuned. “We sighted the scarred whale for the fourth time on a Sunday morning; a day when the sea was just rippled by the gentlest breezes, when the sun shone warmly and comfortingly upon the world, when the boats danced upon the waves with a soothing and caressing motion. The water was blue as turquoise, and the sky above it; and the two met at the horizon with the sea’s deeper blue below the sky’s, and the whitecaps gleaming like silver in the wind.