The unerring spade, having done its office, pitched upon the deck beyond, and its sharp blade entered a full inch into the planking. "Mate! thou art redeemed from the very jaws of death!" shouted Seth. "I thank thee for the well-aimed blow," replied the mate. He rose on the instant, and threw the headless body over into the sea, and hurled the head after it high into the air. It descended into the canoe of the chief; and as he held it up by the hair before his followers, a shout of fury and revenge was raised by the savage host. It was plain, by the conduct of the savages, that they were more than ever infuriated at their repeated discomfitures and it was equally apparent to Macy that it would be unavailing to wage the war much longer. His means of defence, all but a few well-tried lances, were exhausted; and he discovered several of his harpoons in the hands of his enemies, which had been cut loose from their fastenings, and withdrawn from the bodies of the slain. The act of the mate, in throwing over the head of the decapitated warrior, had unexpectedly created a diversion among the natives; and they ceased, by common consent, from their attack upon the ship, to listen to an angry harangue from their chief. Macy descended to his cabin. He reappeared in a moment with a weapon in his hand, heretofore forgotten. It was a musket (and the only one on board), which he had occasionally used on former voyages for a fowlingpiece. He had barely time to charge the gun, and to slip a bullet into the barrel, before the war-whoop was again raised. 66 They come once more !" cried Macy. posts, men—and quail not. 66 To your Look to your irons, and be careful to keep them well in hand. We have lost too many already: but, by the favour of Providence, who hath written that the battle is not always to the strong,' we will send a hundred more of the cannibals. to their long account before we yield !” 66 Ay, ay! never fear for us!" shouted the men, cheerfully. "Brave hearts !" said Macy. "Your day's work has been a bloody one may God grant us deliverance from this unlooked-for danger!---And now," said Macy, addressing unconsciously his solitary gun, "fail me not in this strait-for thou hast never failed me yet, even when pointed against the swift sea-fowl on the wing!" The canoe of the chief led the van of the attack this time; and his followers, seeing the immense number of their slain brethren floating around them, and that no impression had as yet been made upon the ship, although her sides bristled with arrows, were fain to avail themselves of his experience and encouraging example. Macy now showed his body over the railing of the quarter. The chief instantly stood up in his approaching canoe, and, elevating his long javelin, he shook the pole of his lance in the air, in a menacing attitude, as if trying its elastic strength before hurling it at the unprotected body of Seth. The captain suffered the canoe to come within half musket-shot of the ship, when he levelled his piece with a steady aim. It flashed! and instantly the savage chief, in the act of speeding his lance at Seth, fell dead into the arms of his attendants. The ball had entered his heart. The report of the gun, and the unaccountable condition of their leader, appalled the invaders. Many of them jumped tumultuously into the water, to escape the vengeance of the lightning tube, and the displeasure of their deity, whose interposition, and whose warning voice, they believed, were exerted against them. The panic-struck savages fled to their island in con fusion, uttering horrid shrieks, and shouting their dissonant war-cries in disappointed rage. The coast was now clear, and no time was to be lost. The kedge was tried; and, to the unbounded joy of all on board, the ship yielded slowly to the pull upon the hawser. She floated once more freely in her element! Her sails were set, and a light breeze wafted the stately vessel safely through the channel of coral rocks, and away for ever from these inhospitable shores. CHAPTER X. Where is that loved one now, Far-far o'er the flood! The Prophecy: Chap. vii., vol. i. Ir took many days for the Grampus to regain her lost ground. She had been driven so far to the westward, and had wandered among so many isles unknown to the navigators of the day, that her commander deemed it prudent to return by slow stages; and at night either to heave-to, or to arrest her ordinary progress, by shortening the canvass to the fewest possible sails. He was thus necessarily obliged to feel his way among those groups that, at a subsequent day, appeared upon the charts under the names of "the Navigator's," and "the Society Islands," and the "Marquesas." By the time that Seth was able to work his ship into the harbour of Charles's Island (one of the Gallipagos), the time appointed for his meeting Coleman had ́expired. It was therefore with much gratification that he found his consort had arrived before him, and was still waiting at anchor within the harbour; for much of his whaling apparatus, and all his best provisions, were exhausted, and he was running short of water. The supplies from the Leviathan would be welcome and seasonable; and what with the expected grunters, and fowl, and vegetables from the coast, and the terrapin from the island, the captain of the Grampus hoped to furnish the means of refreshing his men, after their long and arduous toils, and to recruit them thoroughly for whaling operations. It was his intention, therefore, after dividing the pro visions between the two ships, to remain at anchor for a few days, to allow his crew time for recreation, as well as to take in a supply of turtle. Upon hailing the Leviathan, as the Grampus dropped her anchor, Seth had been answered by the mate of the former, and duly informed that Jonathan was on board and well; but to his inquiries about provisions, the mate made some unsatisfactory reply, and desired Seth to come on board the Leviathan. The anchor of the Grampus was no sooner cast, than Macy manned his boat and boarded the Leviathan. To his surprise, when he mounted the deck, he found that Jonathan was not there to receive him, nor to offer those little courtesies, and make those inquiries after his welfare, which are usual upon such occasions, and especially between those who consort together in their business. There is but little ceremony in whale-ships; but Macy at least expected, from his previous intimacy with Coleman, and from the fact that he had been so long and unaccountably away, that the latter would be anxious to ask after the particulars of his voyage. Seth walked aft, and was about to enter the cabin, when the well-remembered tones of Coleman's violin struck upon his ear. It might be nothing more than a freak of his brother captain, who, as we have elsewhere hinted, had the reputation of being an odd fish. But Seth was still more surprised when he found Jonathan snugly stowed in his berth, sawing away in his recumbent position, and not deigning to notice the presence of his visiter. Macy stood motionless for a time, but at last his patience gave way, and he hailed the violinist rather crustily, in the midst of his performance. "Hello!" no answer. "Jonathan!" still no reply. "I say-Captain Coleman !" "I hear thee," said Jonathan, at last; but the fiddle still went on. "What the devil is the meaning of this foolery ?" exclaimed Macy. |