CHAPTER VIII Treachery and its Consequences
There are few pleasures in life comparable with the contemplation of the successful results of a tremendous struggle with overwhelming odds in company with your fellows, whether you be leader or follower. And I know of no circumstance where this is more fully exemplified than in the precious rest-time enjoyed by a boat’s crew immediately after the death of a whale. No matter how bad the treatment of the men on board the ship may have been, how utterly weary of the life everybody may feel, or how brutal officer and harponeer, the sense of having successfully finished the combat draws them all together for a time, and the smoke which is then permitted is essentially in the nature of a pipe of peace.
In the present case everybody was full of sa
