The Golden Harpoon — page 29: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER. George Wills, a native of Nantucket, sailed from New Bedford in the whaler “ Comus,” on the 18th of September, 18—. Being a strong, active young man, and an excellent sailor, he was soon promoted from a foremast hand to the position of harpooner in the mate’s boat. In due course of time the vessel arrived upon the whaling grounds, in the Okhotsk Sea, where there was no lack of opportunities for the new boat-steerer to try his skill in wielding the barbed iron. Much to his own satisfaction and that of the first officer, he proved as expert in this work as he was in handling the marline- spike and the oar. One morning the four boats were got ready for one of those protracted whale-hunts so common in the North-west. The crews were provided with a plentiful stock of provisions and fresh-water, as they intended to remain absent from the ship for several days. George Wills, being very partial to expeditions of this kind, was in excellent spirits. Little did he imagine the gloomy fate in store for him. At five o'clock, a.m., the boats were lowered; and after pulling about fifteen miles from the ship, the crews sighted whales in a large floe to leeward. The eight vessels were soon in the ice, and separating, each gave chase to a whale. Before long the mate’s boat was within five fathoms of a huge bow-head. “Stand up, George!” “Ay, ay, sir!” “Give it to him!” But before the harpooner could dart, he re- ceived a blow upon the breast from the wkale’s ponderous flukes, and fell over the gunwale— dead ! “Ay, ay, he’s gone, sure enough—poor Wills!” exclaimed the mate, as the men dragged the body into the boat. “I don’t know where I shall find another like him. There blows! -there blows! right ahead of us! Put the body in the ice, men, and do it quickly but gently. Heaven have mercy upon the poor fellow’s soul ! There blows! blows! blows! Lively with that body, lads, it’s high time we were after that whale! We'll come back and pick up the corpse after we've captured that ‘oil-butt! Heaven pity Wills’s poor old mother! Come, men, bear a hand there; one hundred barrels a-waiting for us to come and take ’em. Poor Wills !—he’s gone to that ‘boom’ from which no man returns! What d’ye say, men, are you ready ?” The men having by this time placed the body upon a shelf of ice, sprang into the boat and seized their paddles. The whale was overtaken and fastened to; but after it had towed the boat a long distance, the line became “foul” and the mate was obliged to cut. A thick fog having risen in the meantime, he was unable to find the spot where the body of George Wills had been left. After pulling in many different directions for a number of hours, he gave up the search. On the next day, the fog having cleared, the search was continued, but without | happen. success. The body was never found by the crew of the “Comus,” and, as the reader already knows, it was only mere chance that directed the footsteps of Marline to the ice-tomb con- taining the fleshless remains. Leaving him to muse upon his melancholy discovery, while pur- suing his way towards the ark, we will now return to Stump. al CHAPTER X. AN UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER.—CONCLUSION. | TARING at the deserted boat with open —y), mouth and distended eyes, the ship- keeper remained for a few moments as motionless as though he had been frozen to the ice beneath his feet. Then, in a voice tremu- lous with emotion, he shouted the young girl’s name, again and again; but there came no re- sponse. Nothing was to be heard save the surging of the water round the sides and in the hollows of the ice, together with the light pat- tering of the falling rain. © “Heaven help the poor thing—Heaven help her, wherever she may be!” groaned Stump. “Tt can’t be possible that she became so anxious-like as to start off to look for her lover herself after I left her, or I should have met her. I shall never forgive myself for leaving her alone—no, never. ‘There’s sumething always happening to women—sickness or some- thing else—and I ought to have remembered that and stuck close by her side.” He moved off, passing from berg to berg, and shouting the name of the lost girl as he pro- ceeded. But he was soon obliged to sit down to compose himself, for he loved Alice with an affection fully equal to that which a kind father feels for an only daughter, and \her prolonged absence inspired him with emotions of grief such as he had never before experienced. “She isn’t lost—no, no, it can’t be!” he burst forth. “She is a good gal, and Provi- dence watches over them kind. She is young, and yet I’ve never known her to laugh at my pigtail—not that there’s anything about it to laugh at for that matter—like some of her sex that I’ve come across in my wanderings. Ay, ay, she’s an angel, and Heaven will take care of her.” - At that moment he heard a shout, which he recognised as that of his chum, and his response soon brought the yomte man to his side. “Where is she? Where is Alice? She is not where we left her!” “ Heaven only knows!” replied Stump. “I’ve been a-calling her and searching for her in vain ever since my return.” The young harpooner compressed his lips tightly. His head drooped, and his tall frame trembled, so great was his agitation. “Stump,” he at length said, in a hoarse voice, “what can have become of her? Per- haps she has slipped into the water and been drowned !” “No, no!” cried Stump, “that last couldn't She is too careful for that, you may depend upon it. One of the boats couldn't have come and taken her away, neither.” COMmIchHoo KS (Oo)