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"Come on board this way!" called Captain Zim; and once more the hoarse whistle of the steamer boomed out into the fog. Needless to say, the three boys now were on deck, and they leaned over the rail as there appeared at the foot of the rope-ladder a big dory with two native oarsmen, and a stout, grizzled man, whom the ship's company announced to be Pete Piamon, the pilot for that coast.
Then as the ship passed on it slowly sank from sight, even as the school of whales, diving and breaching, also fell astern, still pursued by their savage enemies. "Well," said Captain Zim, "I've sailed these waters thirty years, but that's the first time I ever struck a whale." "I've promised these boys plenty of exciting things," commented Uncle Dick.
"How are you, Pete?" said Captain Zim. "Can we take her in? I'm late and in an awful hurry." Pete grinned. "All the time you ban in awful hurry, Captain Zim. Dis fog awful tick. Yas, we shall take her in if you say so and maybe so pile her up on de rock. You don' min' dat, eh?" "Where's the revenue-cutter Bennington lying, Pete?" asked Uncle Dick. "Inside, beyond de town."
Going down the river, Zim Smith, who was quite a talker, told the story of the goose in my presence and in the presence of a crowd. I was terribly mortified, and informed his brother that "Zim was making fun of me." He laughed and mollified my feelings so far as to say, "Zim is only talking and means nothing by it." "In fact, he thinks you are a great boy."
At one moment a bomb-head of 105 millimeters, which we knew by its shape and the color of its explosion, fell on us and just grazed us. In fact, we often see enormous shells exploding. It is very curious. On our return we met Captain Gerard, and my observer told him that I had astounding nerve; zim, boum boum!
Her curiosity increased every minute as she went step by step towards the sea, until when she had gone scarcely a hundred paces she stopped short and said, "I must know what is inside this sack before I go any farther. I will take just one tiny little peep, and He will never know it." Very carefully she untied the neck of the sack. Buzz! Whirr! Hum! Zim!
I won't ask you to put down one of the ship's boats." Pete looked at Captain Zim, who answered: "Oh, all right, if you're in such a hurry; though you might wait and let us all go in together. How are you going to get all of your hand luggage and all four of you into that dory, though?" "You couldn't spare us a ship's boat?" "Sure I can," answered obliging Captain Zim.
She tells Bessy about the Old Squire. She says "He do be a real old skinflint, the Old Zquire a be!" But she thinks it "zim as if 'twas having ne'er a wife nor child for to keep the natur' in 'un, so his heart do zim to shrivel, like they walnuts Butler tells us of as a zets down for desart. The Old Zquire he mostly eats ne'er a one now's teeth be so bad.
Even as he spoke there came a heavy jar which almost stopped the ocean vessel. Her steel-shod bow had struck the whale full in the middle of the body. "Caught him square amidships," sung out Captain Zim from his station. "I guess we finished what the killers began!" The great creature lay for an instant stunned on the surface of the water, its vast body bent as though its back were broken.
Zim Smith was there, a rollicking devil-may-care fellow, and I believed he alone was the match for all of the Indians east of the Cascade Mountains. A careful guard was maintained, however, our horses kept near at hand, and we anxiously awaited results. Several days thus passed. The Smiths and Driskols seriously discussing the situation.
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