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lines; by so doing, irresistibly dragged the more involved boats of Stubb and Flask towards his flukes; dashed them together like two rolling husks on a surf-beaten beach, and then, diving down into the sea, disappeared in a boiling maelstrom, in which, for a space, the odorous cedar chips of the wrecks danced round and round, like the grated nutmeg in a swiftly stirred bowl of punch.

While the two crews were yet circling in the waters, reaching out after the revolving line-tubs, oars, and other floating furniture, while aslope little Flask bobbed up and down like an empty vial, twitching his legs upwards to escape the dreaded jaws of sharks; and Stubb was lustily singing out for some one to ladle him up; and while the old manā€™s lineā€”now partingā€”admitted of his pulling into the creamy pool to rescue whom he could;ā€”in that wild simultaneousness of a thousand concreted perils,ā€”Ahabā€™s yet unstricken boat seemed drawn up towards Heaven by invisible wires,ā€”as, arrow-like, shooting perpendicularly from the sea, the White Whale dashed his broad forehead against its bottom, and sent it, turning over and over, into the air; till it fell againā€”gunwale downwardsā€”and Ahab and his men struggled out from under it, like seals from a seaside cave.

The first uprising momentum of the whaleā€”modifying its direction as he struck the surfaceā€”involuntarily launched him along it, to a little distance from the centre of the destruction he had made; and with his back to it, he now lay for a moment slowly feeling with his flukes from side to side; and whenever a stray oar, bit of plank, the least chip or crumb of the boats touched his skin, his tail swiftly drew back, and came sideways smiting the sea. But soon, as if satisfied that his work for that time was done, he pushed his pleated forehead through the ocean, and trailing after him the intertangled lines, continued his leeward way at a travellerā€™s methodic pace.

As before, the attentive ship having descried the whole fight, again came bearing down to the rescue, and dropping a boat, picked up the floating mariners, tubs, oars and whatever else could be caught at, and safely landed them on her decks. Some sprained shoulders, wrists, and ankles; livid contusions; wrenched harpoons and lances; inextricable intricacies of rope; shattered oars and planks; all these were there; but no fatal or even serious ill seemed to have befallen any one. As with Fedallah the day before, so Ahab was now found grimly clinging to his boatā€™s broken half, which afforded a comparatively easy float; nor did it so exhaust him as the previous dayā€™s mishap.

But when he was helped to the deck, all eyes were fastened upon him; as instead of standing by himself he still half-hung upon the shoulder of Starbuck, who had thus far been the foremost to assist him. His ivory leg had been snapped off, leaving but one short sharp splinter.

ā€œAye, aye, Starbuck, ā€™tis sweet to lean sometimes, be the leaner who he will; and would old Ahab had leaned oftener than he has.ā€

ā€œThe ferrule has not stood, sir,ā€ said the carpenter, now coming up; ā€œI put good work into that leg.ā€

ā€œBut no bones broken, sir, I hope,ā€ said Stubb with true concern.

ā€œAye! and all splintered to pieces, Stubb!ā€”dā€™ye see it.ā€”But even with a broken bone, old Ahab is untouched; and I account no living bone of mine one jot more me, than this dead one thatā€™s lost. Nor white whale, nor man, nor fiend, can so much as graze old Ahab in his own proper and inaccessible being. Can any lead touch yonder floor, any mast scrape yonder roof?ā€”Aloft there! which way?ā€

ā€œDead to leeward, sir.ā€

ā€œUp helm, then; pile on the sail again, ship keepers! down the rest of the spare boats and rig themā€”Mr. Starbuck away, and muster the boatā€™s crews.ā€

ā€œLet me first help thee towards the bulwarks, sir.ā€

ā€œOh, oh, oh! how this splinter gores me now! Accursed fate! that the unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate!ā€

ā€œSir?ā€

ā€œMy body, man, not thee. Give me something for a caneā€”there, that shivered lance will do. Muster the men. Surely I have not seen him yet. By heaven it cannot be!ā€”missing?ā€”quick! call them all.ā€

The old manā€™s hinted thought was true. Upon mustering the company, the Parsee was not there.

ā€œThe Parsee!ā€ cried Stubbā€”ā€œhe must have been caught inā€”ā€”ā€

ā€œThe black vomit wrench thee!ā€”run all of ye above, alow, cabin, forecastleā€”find himā€”not goneā€”not gone!ā€

But quickly they returned to him with the tidings that the Parsee was nowhere to be found.

ā€œAye, sir,ā€ said Stubbā€”ā€œcaught among the tangles of your lineā€”I thought I saw him dragging under.ā€

ā€œMy line! my line? Gone?ā€”gone? What means that little word?ā€”What death-knell rings in it, that old Ahab shakes as if he were the belfry. The harpoon, too!ā€”toss over the litter there,ā€”dā€™ye see it?ā€”the forged iron, men, the white whaleā€™sā€”no, no, no,ā€”blistered fool; this hand did dart it!ā€”ā€™tis in the fish!ā€”Aloft there! keep him nailedā€”quick!ā€”all hands to the rigging of the boatsā€”collect the oarsā€”harpooneers! the irons, the irons!ā€”hoist the royals higherā€”a pull on all the sheets!ā€”helm there! steady, steady for your life! Iā€™ll ten times girdle the unmeasured globe; yea and dive straight through it, but Iā€™ll slay him yet!ā€

ā€œGreat God! but for one single instant show thyself,ā€ cried Starbuck; ā€œnever, never wilt thou capture him, old manā€”In Jesusā€™ name no more of this, thatā€™s worse than devilā€™s madness. Two days chased; twice stove to splinters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil shadow goneā€”all good angels mobbing thee with warnings:ā€”what more wouldst thou have?ā€”Shall we keep chasing this murderous fish till he swamps the last man? Shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the sea? Shall we be towed by him to the infernal world? Oh, oh,ā€”Impiety and blasphemy to hunt him more!ā€

ā€œStarbuck, of late Iā€™ve felt strangely moved to thee; ever since that hour we both sawā€”thou knowā€™st what, in one anotherā€™s eyes. But in this matter of the whale, be the front of thy face to me as the palm of this handā€”a lipless, unfeatured blank. Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. This whole actā€™s immutably decreed. ā€™Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fatesā€™ lieutenant; I act under orders. Look thou, underling! that thou obeyest mine.ā€”Stand round me, men. Ye see an old man cut down to the stump; leaning on a shivered lance; propped up on a lonely foot. ā€™Tis Ahabā€”his bodyā€™s part; but Ahabā€™s soulā€™s a centipede, that moves upon a hundred legs. I feel strained, half stranded, as ropes that tow dismasted frigates in a gale; and I may look so. But ere I break, yeā€™ll hear me crack; and till ye hear that, know that Ahabā€™s hawser tows his purpose yet. Believe ye, men, in the things called omens? Then laugh aloud, and cry encore! For ere they drown, drowning things will twice rise to the surface; then rise again, to sink for evermore. So with Moby Dickā€”two days heā€™s floatedā€”to-morrow will be the third. Aye, men, heā€™ll rise once more,ā€”but only to spout his last! Dā€™ye feel brave men, brave?ā€

ā€œAs fearless fire,ā€ cried Stubb.

ā€œAnd as mechanical,ā€ muttered Ahab. Then as the men went forward, he muttered on:ā€”ā€œThe things called omens! And yesterday I talked the same to Starbuck there, concerning my broken boat. Oh! how valiantly I seek to drive out of othersā€™ hearts whatā€™s clinched so fast in mine!ā€”The Parseeā€”the Parsee!ā€”gone, gone? and he was to go before:ā€”but still was to be seen again ere I could perishā€”Howā€™s that?ā€”Thereā€™s a riddle now might baffle all the lawyers backed by the ghosts of the whole line of judges:ā€”like a hawkā€™s beak it pecks my brain. Iā€™ll, Iā€™ll solve it, though!ā€

When dusk descended, the whale was still in sight to leeward.

So once more the sail was shortened, and everything passed nearly as on the previous night; only, the sound of hammers, and the hum of the grindstone was heard till nearly daylight, as the men toiled by lanterns in the complete and careful rigging of the spare boats and sharpening their fresh weapons for the morrow. Meantime, of the broken keel of Ahabā€™s wrecked craft the carpenter made him another leg; while still as on the night before, slouched Ahab stood fixed within his scuttle; his hid, heliotrope glance anticipatingly gone backward on its dial; sat due eastward for the earliest sun.

CHAPTER CXXXV.
THE CHASEā€”THIRD DAY

The morning of the third day dawned fair and fresh, and once more the solitary night-man at the fore-mast-head was relieved by crowds of the daylight look-outs, who dotted every mast and almost every spar.

ā€œDā€™ye see him?ā€ cried Ahab; but the whale was not yet in sight.

ā€œIn his infallible wake, though; but follow that wake, thatā€™s all. Helm there; steady, as thou goest, and hast been going. What a lovely day again; were it a new-made world, and made for a summer-house to the angels, and this morning the first of its throwing open to them, a fairer day could not dawn upon that world. Hereā€™s food for thought, had Ahab time to think; but Ahab never thinks; he only feels, feels, feels; thatā€™s tingling enough for mortal man! to thinkā€™s audacity. God only has that right and privilege. Thinking is, or ought to be, a coolness and a calmness; and our poor hearts throb, and our poor brains beat too much for that. And yet, Iā€™ve sometimes thought my brain was very calmā€”frozen calm, this old skull cracks so, like a glass in which the contents turned to ice, and shiver it. And still this hair is growing now; this moment growing, and heat must breed it; but no, itā€™s like that sort of common grass that will grow anywhere, between the earthy clefts of Greenland ice or in Vesuvius lava. How the wild winds blow it; they whip it about me as the torn shreds of split sails lash the tossed ship they cling to. A vile wind that has no doubt blown ere this through prison corridors and cells, and wards of hospitals, and ventilated them, and now comes blowing hither as innocent as fleeces. Out upon it!ā€”itā€™s tainted. Were I the wind, Iā€™d blow no more on such a wicked, miserable world. Iā€™d crawl somewhere to a cave, and slink there. And yet, ā€™tis a noble and heroic thing, the wind! who ever conquered it? In every fight it has the last and bitterest blow. Run tilting at it, and you but run through it. Ha! a coward wind that strikes stark naked men, but will not stand to receive a single blow. Even Ahab is a braver thingā€”a nobler thing than that. Would now the wind but had a body; but all the things that most exasperate and outrage mortal man, all these things are bodiless, but only bodiless as objects, not as agents. Thereā€™s a most special, a most cunning, oh, a most malicious difference! And yet, I say again, and swear it now, that thereā€™s something all glorious and gracious in the wind. These warm Trade Winds, at least, that in the clear heavens blow straight on, in strong and steadfast, vigorous mildness; and veer not from their mark, however the baser currents of the sea may turn and tack, and mightiest Mississippies of the land swift and swerve about, uncertain where to go at last. And by the eternal Poles! these same Trades that so directly blow my good ship on; these Trades, or something like themā€”something so unchangeable, and full as strong, blow my keeled soul along! To it! Aloft there! What dā€™ye see?ā€

ā€œNothing, sir.ā€

ā€œNothing! and noon at hand! The doubloon goes a-begging! See the sun! Aye, aye, it must be so. Iā€™ve oversailed him. How, got the start? Aye, heā€™s chasing me now; not I, himā€”thatā€™s bad; I might have known it, too. Fool! the linesā€”the harpoons heā€™s towing. Aye, aye, I have run him by last night. About! about! Come down, all of ye, but the regular look outs! Man the braces!ā€

Steering as she had done, the wind had been somewhat on the Pequodā€™s quarter, so that now being pointed in the reverse direction, the braced ship sailed hard upon the breeze as she rechurned the cream in her own white wake.

ā€œAgainst the wind he now steers for the open jaw,ā€ murmured Starbuck to himself, as he coiled the new-hauled main-brace upon the rail. ā€œGod keep us, but already my bones feel damp within me, and from the inside wet my flesh. I misdoubt me that I disobey my God in obeying him!ā€

ā€œStand by to sway me up!ā€ cried Ahab, advancing to the hempen basket. ā€œWe should meet him soon.ā€

ā€œAye, aye, sir,ā€ and straightway Starbuck did Ahabā€™s bidding, and once more Ahab swung on high.

A whole hour now passed; gold-beaten out to ages. Time itself now held long breaths with keen suspense. But at last, some

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