"Another oar!--another!" shouted Parr, as the whale continued its headlong descent.
"Stand by to cut the line," said Captain Guy with compressed lips.

"No! hold on, hold on!" At this moment, having drawn down more than a thousand fathoms of rope, the whale slackened its speed, and Parr, taking another coil round the loggerhead, held on until the boat was almost dragged under water.

Then the line became loose, and the slack was hauled in rapidly.

Meanwhile Grim's boat had reached the spot, and the men now lay on their oars at some distance ahead, ready to pull the instant the whale should show itself.

Up it came, not twenty yards ahead.