When I returned to a consciousness of external things, I was for some time perfectly still, looking at the sky, totally unable to realize what had happened or where I was.  Presently the smiling, pleasant face of Samuel bent over me.  Meeting my gratified look of recognition, he set up a perfect yell of delight.  “So glad, so glad you blonga life!  No go Davy Jonesy dis time, hay?” I put my hand out to help myself to a sitting posture, and touched blubber.  That startled me so that I sprung up as if shot.  Then I took in the situation at a glance.  There were all my poor fellows with me, stranded upon the top of our late antagonist, but no sign of the boat to be seen.  Bewildered at the state of affairs, I looked appealingly from one to the other for an explanation.  I got it from Abner, who said, laconically, “When yew fired thet ole gun, I guess it mus’ have bin loaded fer bear, fer ye jest tumbled clar head over heels backwards outen the boat.  Et that very same moment I suspicion the bomb busted in his belly, fer he went clean rampageous loony.  He rolled right over an’ over to’rds us, n’ befo’ we c’d rightly see wat wuz comin’, we cu’dnt see anythin’ ‘tall; we wuz all grabbin’ at nothin’, some’rs underneath the whale.  When I come to the top, I lit eout fer the fust thing I c’d see to lay holt of, which wuz old squarhead himself, deader ‘n pork.  I guess thet ar bomb o’ yourn kinder upset his commissary department.  Anyway, I climed up onto him, ’n bime-by the rest ov us histed themselves alongside ov me.  Sam Weller here; he cum last, towin’ you ’long with him.  I don’no whar he foun’ ye, but ye was very near a goner, ’n’s full o’ pickle as ye c’d hold.”  I turned a grateful eye upon my dusky harpooner, who had saved my life, but was now apparently blissfully unconscious of having done anything meritorious.

Behold us, then, a half-drowned row of scarecrows perched, like some new species of dilapidated birds, upon the side of our late foe.  The sun was not so furiously hot as usual, for masses of rain-laden NIMBI were filling the sky, so that we were comparatively free from the awful roasting we might have expected:  nor was our position as precarious for a while as would be thought.  True, we had only one harpoon, with its still fast line, to hold on by; but the side of the whale was somehow hollowed, so that, in spite of the incessant movement imparted to the carcass by the swell, we sat fairly safe, with our feet in the said hollow.  We discussed the situation in all its bearings, unable to extract more than the faintest gleam of hope from any aspect of the case.  The only reasonable chance we had was, that the skipper had almost certainly taken our bearings, and would, we were sure, be anxiously seeking us on the course thus indicated.  Meanwhile, we were ravenously hungry and thirsty.  Samuela and Polly set to work with their sheath-knives, and soon excavated a space in the blubber to enable them to reach the