Page:The land of enchantment (1907, Cassell).djvu/98

 shouted, ‘Starn all!’ and we mariners backed water for our lives. The monster was off like a flash of greased lightning,: a-doing his forty knots an hour easy, and dragged us along after him. Then suddenly, he seemed to change his mind, for, doubling back, he ran at us with his great mouth wide open.”

“Oh, Ben, what did you do?”

“Well, Master Charles, this being so, overboard I jumped, and only just in the nick of time. I heard a snap, like a million crackers let off, and when I clapped my eyes where the boat had been, she’d vanished, along with the mate and six able-bodied mariners, every mother’s son of them down the whale’s jaws. The leviathan was so busy that he didn’t notice yours truly, and so I quietly swam towards him, and, clambering on his back, held on by the harpoon, which I told you was a-sticking up.”

“But, Ben, wasn’t that a very dangerous thing to do?”

“Right you are, Master Charles, but as I wasn’t a fish, nor exactly partial to sharks, and there was no sail in sight, I thought maybe ’twas the best thing to be done.

“Well, the whale made tracks so fast that it a’most took the wind out of my pipes, but for all that I managed to hold on. I was mortal afraid he’d dive, and wondered whatever I should do if he did. Just as I'd taken as long a breath as I could in preparation, sure enough he dove.””

“Dove?” said Charlie in a puzzled tone. “You mean dived, don’t you?”