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"Look, lad! yonder's a sight worth seein'. Shiver my timbers, if he han't got a brace o' 'em on his toastin' fork!" While Ben was speaking, the sword-fish had charged into the middle of the frightened flock.
Competition for food is out of the question, as the Xiphias can find its own supplies without rivalry on the part of its gigantic antagonist; and as to converting the whale itself into food, the sword-fish, from the construction of its mouth and the small size of its teeth, is quite incapable of feeding on animals of such dimensions.
Further on, from the bright red windows of the "Sword-Fish Inn," there came such fervent rays, that it seemed to have melted the packed snow and ice from before the house, for everywhere else the congealed frost lay ten inches thick in a hard, asphaltic pavement, rather weary for me, when I struck my foot against the flinty projections, because from hard, remorseless service the soles of my boots were in a most miserable plight.
The killer, the sword-fish, and the thrasher trouble us at home. The killer fastens to us, and won't be shaken off till he has worried us to death; the sword-fish stabs us with his sword; and the thrasher whips us to death with his own slender, but strong and heavy body.
"Hullo," he exclaimed the next instant, "now you'll see some fighting worth seeing." As he spoke, a form dimly seen, so near to the surface was it, rushed through the water and crashed headlong into the whale. "What is it, another whale?" asked Billy. "No, it's a monster sword-fish," cried Ben, "and they are going to fight."
I put dem down on de middle of de raft, and we damp dem well; den I take de skin of dis fish and put it on de top of dem, doubled many times; den I take some of de dry pieces of blubber, and I pile dem up; den I get some chips from de sword-fish, and fix dem close to de heap; and now I set fire to de heap, and de fish toast; and I give it to Missie Alice and Massa Walter to eat."
Thus assured, Lamar went with the more confidence to the House on the appointed evening, and was placed under the gallery, on the right, where he listened to Roebuck and followed the debate with such enjoyment as an experienced debater feels in these contests, until, as he said, he became aware that a man, with a singularly rich voice and imposing manner, had taken the floor, and was giving Roebuck the most deliberate and tremendous pounding he ever witnessed, "until at last," concluded Lamar, "it dawned on my mind that the sword-fish was getting the worst of it."
Under a glass-case he had examined that piece of osseous structure, described by the showman as the sword of the sword-fish. Under the waves of the tropical Atlantic, but little less translucent than the glass, he had no difficulty in identifying the formidable weapon! While William was gazing upon the strange fish, it was seen all at once to make a rush in the direction of the raft.
This was the query to which neither sailor nor sea-cook could give a reply, either with positive truth or probable conjecture. For full ten minutes it remained unanswered; that is, ten minutes after the sword-fish adventure had ended, and twenty from the time the frigate-bird had been seen to swoop at the flying-fish.
During the interval, while they were waiting for some change in the tactics of the pursuer, hoping that he might get ahead and abandon the pursuit, Ben imparted to his audience several chapters of his experience, in which either albacore or sword-fish, and sometimes both, had figured as the principal actors.
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