Chapter 12

"God save you, sir!"
"And you, sir! you are welcome."
"Travel you far on, or are you at the furthest?"
"Sir, at the furthest for a week or two."

Shakspeare.

Gardiner and Daggett met, face to face, on the carcase of the whale. Each
struck his lance into the blubber, steadying himself by its handle; and
each eyed the other in a way that betokened feelings awakened to a keen
desire to defend his rights. It is a fault of American character,--a fruit
of the institutions, beyond a doubt,--that renders men unusually
indisposed to give up. This stubbornness of temperament, that so many
mistake for a love of liberty and independence, is productive of much
good, when the parties happen to be right, and of quite as much evil, when
they happen to be wrong. It is ever the wisest, as, indeed, it is the
noblest course, to defer to that which is just, with a perfect reliance on
its being the course pointed out by the finger of infallible wisdom and
truth. He who does this, need feel no concern for his dignity, or for his
success; being certain that it is intended that right shall prevail in the
end, as prevail it will and does. But both our shipmasters were too much
excited to feel the force of these truths; and there they stood, sternly
regarding each other, as if it were their purpose to commence a new
struggle for the possession of the leviathan of the deep.

"Captain Daggett," said Roswell, sharply, "you are too old a whaler not to
know whaling law. My irons were first in this fish; I never have been
loose from it, since it was first struck, and my lance killed it. Under
such circumstances, sir, I am surprised that any man, who knows the usages
among whalers, should have stuck by the creature as you have done."

"It's in my natur', Gar'ner," was the answer. "I stuck by you when you
was dismasted under Hatteras, and I stick by everything that I undertake.
This is what I call Vineyard natur'; and I'm not about to discredit my
native country."

"This is idle talk," returned Roswell, casting a severe glance at the men
in the Vineyard boat, among whom a common smile arose, as if they highly
approved of the reply of their own officer. "You very well know that
Vineyard law cannot settle such a question, but American law. Were you man
enough to take this whale from me, as I trust you are not, on our return
home you could be and would be made to pay smartly for the act. Uncle Sam
has a long arm, with which he sometimes reaches round the whole earth.
Before you proceed any further in this matter, it may be well to remember
that."

Daggett reflected; and it is probable that, as he cooled off from the