“it was he, it was he!” cried Ahab.
“And it had harpoons sticking in its fins,” said the English captain.
“Aya, aye – They were mine!” cried Ahab excitedly. “But on with the story.” “Give me a chance, the,” said the Englishman, good-humouredly.
“Well this old whale with the white head and hump, races among the group of whales we were hunting. He started biting at the rope attached to the harpoon I had hit the first whale with.”
“Aye, I see!,” said Ahab. “He wanted to free the whale you had caught. An old trick – I know him.”
“How it is exactly,” continued the one-armed commander, “I don’t know; but, when the white whale bit the rope attached to the other whale, it got stuck in his teeth. When we pulled the rope, we found ourselves on the back of the white whale, not on the one we thought we had caught. Then the white whale jumped out of the water and down on our boat, breaking it in two.
