CHAPTER VII.
AN ADVENTURE OF JACK'S.
"What's that yonder, uncle?" asked Tom.
It was the morning after the adventure with the walrus and the_Northerner_ was steaming steadily on toward Valdez, her next port ofcall on her voyage north. At that place she would take on coal for thefinal stage of her journey to St. Michaels near the mouth of theYukon, where the party would be left after the small steamer had beenput together.
Tom was a great boy to lean against the rail scanning the sea insearch of something that might prove exciting. He had been gazingsteadily against the far horizon for some minutes. Mr. Dacre hastenedto his cabin and came back with a pair of binoculars.
He raised them and looked fixedly in the direction that Tom hadindicated.
"It's a whale," he declared, "or rather a whole school of them, if I'mnot mistaken. They are dead ahead of us. If we keep on this course, weshall run almost squarely into them."
He hastened off to inform the captain and Mr. Chillingworth while Tomset out to find his chums. He found them in the wireless roompracticing on the key. At his news they speedily jumped up and joinedhim in the bow.
Within an hour they came into plain sight of what appeared at first tobe so many giant logs rolling about in the sea. All at once, among the"logs," which of course were the whales, appeared splashes of whitewater. The leviathans swam swiftly here and there as though in fear.
"What's the matter with them?" wondered Tom.
"Maybe it's the ship's coming that has scared them," suggested Jack.
"It's the totem at the bow, mon," declared the Scotch boy solemnly.
The captain leaned over the bridge rail and shouted to them.
"There's a school of killers in among them."
"Killers?"
"Yes, the killer whales. They are the enemies of the other kind andjust naturally take after them when they meet. Watch close now!"
The boys needed no second bidding. Strangely fascinated by theturbulent scene below, they leaned far out to watch the thrashingwater. It was a strange combat of the sea. The monster fish appeared,in their panic at the advent among them of the killers, not to noticethe oncoming steamer.
"Look close now and you'll see tall, upright fins moving about among'em," sung out the captain.
"I see them!" cried Tom. "Are those the killers?"
"That's what. Sea tigers, they ought to call 'em. They're as bad assharks," was the reply.
Mr. Dacre joined the boys. One of the biggest of the whales appearedto be an especial target for the "killers." They pursued itrelentlessly in a body.
"Wow!" cried Tom suddenly, "look at that!" The big whale had leapedclear out of the water, breached, as the whalers call it. Its bodyshone in the sunlight like a burnished surface. They saw its wholeenormous bulk as if it had been a leaping trout.
"He's as big as a house!" cried Jack.
"I've seen houses that were smaller!" laughed Mr. Dacre; "yourbungalow, for example."
Down came the whale again with a splash that sent the spray flying ashigh as the _Northerner's_ mast tops.
"How do they fight the whales?" Tom wanted to know, when theirexcitement over this episode had subsided.
"They tear them with their teeth," replied his uncle. "They get roundthem like dogs worrying a cat. They literally tear the poor creaturesto bits piecemeal."
"Looks like one of the whale hunts that old 'Frozen Face' here musthave had a hand in," said Jack. "Here, old sport, take a look for auldlang syne."
He loosened the lashings that held the totem in place in the bow, andwhile they all laughed, he tilted the old relic till "old FrozenFace," as they called him, actually appeared to be gazing at theconflict raging about them.
"See, the big fellow is acting kind of sleepy!" cried Jack suddenly.
"Yes, he must have got his death warrant," declared Mr. Dacre.
"Look! He's coming right across our bows!" yelled Sandy.
"Hey! Look out, captain, you'll hit him!" roared out Tom.
But even as he spoke, there came a heavy jar that almost stopped thesturdy steamer. Her steel bow had struck the whale amidships withstunning force. The craft appeared to quiver in every rib and frame.
The party on the fore deck, taken by surprise, went over like so manyninepins. They recovered themselves in a jiffy.
"Goodness! Don't run into any more whales! You'll have the ship stovein the first thing you know," cried Mr. Dacre. "I don't think----"
But a shout from Tom checked him.
"Jack! Where's Jack?"
"He was there a minute ago. By the totem."
"I know, but the totem has gone!"
"Great Scott, it must have gone overboard when that shock came andcarried the boy with it."
They darted to the rail where Jack had last been seen. The nextinstant they set up a mingled cheer and groan. The cheer was in tokenthat Jack was alive, the groan was at his precarious position.Clinging to the totem as if it had been a life buoy, the lad wasdrifting rapidly astern, and toward him was advancing the mad turmoilof waters that signified the battle royal raging between the killersand their huge awkward prey.
As he saw his friends, the boy on the floating totem waved his hand ina plucky effort to reassure them. He shouted something encouragingthat they could not catch. But the peril of his position was only tooplain.
Only a short distance separated the killers and their frightenedquarry from the drifting boy. Once in the midst of that seethingturmoil his life would be in grave danger.
It was a moment for action, swift and decisive. Within a few seconds,although to Jack's excited friends it appeared infinitely longer, aboat had been lowered and the steamer's way checked. This latter wasthe more easy to accomplish for the huge carcass impending at her bowhad almost brought her to a standstill.
Manned by two sailors, the boat flew toward the imperiled boy. In thestern, with pale faces, stood Tom and Sandy, side by side with Mr.Dacre and Mr. Chillingworth. All carried rifles. Jack's position was agrave one as the school of whales, pursued by their remorseless foes,rushed down upon him. But those in the boat were in equal danger. Oneflip of those giant tails or a chance collision, and the stout boatwould inevitably be sent to the bottom with a slender chance of itsoccupants being saved.
No wonder that little was said as they rowed swiftly toward Jack andthat many anxious glances were cast at the waters astern, which wereboiling like a maelstrom as the huge bodies of the whales and theirfoes dashed blindly hither and thither!