CHAPTER 36

  The Quarter-Deck

  (Enter Ahab: Then, all)

  It was not a great while after the affair of the pipe, that one

morning shortly after breakfast, Ahab, as was his wont, ascended the

cabin-gangway to the deck. There most sea-captains usually walk at

that hour, as country gentlemen, after the same meal, take a few turns

in the garden.

  Soon his steady, ivory stride was heard, as to and fro he paced

his old rounds, upon planks so familiar to his tread, that they were

all over dented, like geological stones, with the peculiar mark of his

walk. Did you fixedly gaze, too, upon that ribbed and dented brow;

there also, you would see still stranger foot-prints- the

foot-prints of his one unsleeping, ever-pacing thought.

  But on the occasion in question, those dents looked deeper, even

as his nervous step that morning left a deeper mark. And, so full of

his thought was Ahab, that at every uniform turn that he made, now

at the main-mast and now at the binnacle, you could almost see that

thought turn in him as he turned, and pace in him as he paced; so

completely possessing him, indeed, that it all but seemed the inward

mould of every outer movement.

  "D'ye mark him, Flask?" whispered Stubb; "the chick that's in him

pecks the shell. 'Twill soon be out."

  The hours wore on;- Ahab now shut up within his cabin; anon,

pacing the deck, with the same intense bigotry of purpose in his

aspect.

  It drew near the close of day. Suddenly he came to a halt by the

bulwarks, and inserting his bone leg into the auger-hole there, and

with one hand grasping a shroud, he ordered Starbuck to send everybody

aft.

  "Sir!" said the mate, astonished at an order seldom or never given

on ship-board except in some extraordinary case.

  "Send everybody aft," repeated Ahab. "Mast-heads, there! come down!"

  When the entire ship's company were assembled, and with curious

and not wholly unapprehensive faces, were eyeing him, for he looked

not unlike the weather horizon when a storm is coming up, Ahab,

after rapidly glancing over the bulwarks, and then darting his eyes

among the crew, started from his standpoint; and as though not a

soul were nigh him resumed his heavy turns upon the deck. With bent

head and half-slouched hat he continued to pace, unmindful of the

wondering whispering among the men; till Stubb cautiously whispered to

Flask, that Ahab must have summoned them there for the purpose of

witnessing a pedestrian feat. But this did not last long. Vehemently

pausing, he cried:-

  "What do ye do when ye see a whale, men?"

  "Sing out for him!" was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of

clubbed voices.

  "Good!" cried Ahab, with a wild approval in his tones; observing the

hearty animation into which his unexpected question had so

magnetically thrown them.

  "And what do ye next, men?"

  "Lower away, and after him!"

  "And what tune is it ye pull to, men?"

  "A dead whale or a stove boat!"

  More and more strangely and fiercely glad and approving, grew the

countenance of the old man at every shout; while the mariners began to

gaze curiously at each other, as if marvelling how it was that they

themselves became so excited at such seemingly purposeless questions.

  But, they were all eagerness again, as Ahab, now half-revolving in

his pivot-hole, with one hand reaching high up a shroud, and

tightly, almost convulsively grasping it, addressed them thus:-

  "All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give orders about a

white whale. Look ye! d'ye see this Spanish ounce of gold?"- holding

up a broad bright coin to the sun- "it is a sixteen dollar piece, men.

D'ye see it? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top-maul."

  While the mate was getting the hammer, Ahab, without speaking, was

slowly rubbing the gold piece against the skirts of his jacket, as

if to heighten its lustre, and without using any words was meanwhile

lowly humming to himself, producing a sound so strangely muffled and

inarticulate that it seemed the mechanical humming of the wheels of

his vitality in him.

  Receiving the top-maul from Starbuck, he advanced towards the

main-mast with the hammer uplifted in one hand, exhibiting the gold

with the other, and with a high raised voice exclaiming: "Whosoever of

ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked

jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three

holes punctured in his starboard fluke- look ye, whosoever of ye

raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my

boys!"

  "Huzza! huzza!" cried the seamen, as with swinging tarpaulins they

hailed the act of nailing the gold to the mast.

  "It's a white whale, I say," resumed Ahab, as he threw down the

topmaul: "a white whale. Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for

white water; if ye see but a bubble, sing out."

  All this while Tashtego, Daggoo, and Queequeg had looked on with

even more intense interest and surprise than the rest, and at the

mention of the wrinkled brow and crooked jaw they had started as if

each was separately touched by some specific recollection.

  "Captain Ahab," said Tashtego, "that white whale must be the same

that some call Moby Dick."

  "Moby Dick?" shouted Ahab. "Do ye know the white whale then, Tash?"

  "Does he fan-tail a little curious, sir, before he goes down?"

said the Gay-Header deliberately.

  "And has he a curious spout, too," said Daggoo, "very bushy, even

for a parmacetty, and mighty quick, Captain Ahab?"

  "And he have one, two, three- oh! good many iron in him hide, too,

Captain," cried Queequeg disjointedly, "all twiske-tee be-twisk,

like him- him-" faltering hard for a word, and screwing his hand round

and round as though uncorking a bottle- "like him- him-"

  "Corkscrew!" cried Ahab, "aye, Queequeg, the harpoons lie all

twisted and wrenched in him; aye, Daggoo, his spout is a big one, like

a whole shock of wheat, and white as a pile of our Nantucket wool

after the great annual sheep-shearing; aye, Tashtego, and he fan-tails

like a split jib in a squall. Death and devils! men, it is Moby Dick

ye have seen- Moby Dick- Moby Dick!"

  "Captain Ahab," said Starbuck, who, with Stubb and Flask, had thus

far been eyeing his superior with increasing surprise, but at last

seemed struck with a thought which somewhat explained all the

wonder. "Captain Ahab, I have heard of Moby Dick- but it was not

Moby Dick that took off thy leg?"

  "Who told thee that?" cried Ahab; then pausing, "Aye, Starbuck; aye,

my hearties all round; it was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick

that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye," he

shouted with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a

heart-stricken moose; "Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that

razeed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day!"

Then tossing both arms, with measureless imprecations he shouted

out: "Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the

Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames

before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to

chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of

earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, men,

will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye do look brave."

  "Aye, aye!" shouted the harpooneers and seamen, running closer to

the excited old man: "A sharp eye for the white whale; a sharp lance

for Moby Dick!"

  "God bless ye," he seemed to half sob and half shout. "God bless ye,

men. Steward! go draw the great measure of grog. But what's this

long face about, Mr. Starbuck; wilt thou not chase the white whale!

art not game for Moby Dick?"

  "I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws of Death too,

Captain Ahab, if it fairly comes in the way of the business we follow;

but I came here to hunt whales, not my commander's vengeance. How many

barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain

Ahab? it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market."

  "Nantucket market! Hoot! But come closer, Starbuck; thou requirest a

little lower layer. If money's to be the measurer, man, and the

accountants have computed their great counting-house the globe, by

girdling it with guineas, one to every three parts of an inch; then,

let me tell thee, that my vengeance will fetch a great premium here!"

  "He smites his chest," whispered Stubb, "what's that for? methinks

it rings most vast, but hollow."

  "Vengeance on a dumb brute!" cried Starbuck, "that simply smote thee

from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing,

Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous."

  "Hark ye yet again- the little lower layer. All visible objects,

man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event- in the living

act, the undoubted deed- there, some unknown but still reasoning thing

puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning

mask. If man will strike, strike though the mask! How can the prisoner

reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white

whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's

naught beyond. But 'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him

outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That

inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale

agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon

him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it

insulted me. For could the sun do that, then could I do the other;

since there is ever a sort of fair play herein, jealousy presiding

over all creations. But not my master, man, is even that fair play.

Who's over me? Truth hath no confines. Take off thine eye! more

intolerable than fiends' glarings is a doltish stare! So, so; thou

reddenest and palest; my heat has melted thee to anger-glow. But

look ye, Starbuck, what is said in heat, that thing unsays itself.

There are men from whom warm words are small indignity. I meant not to

incense thee. Let it go. Look! see yonder Turkish cheeks of spotted

tawn- living, breathing pictures painted by the sun. The Pagan

leopards- the unrecking and unworshipping things, that live; and seek,

and give no reasons for the torrid life they feel! The crew, man,

the crew! Are they not one and all with Ahab, in this matter of the

whale? See Stubb! he laughs! See yonder Chilian! he snorts to think of

it. Stand up amid the general hurricane, thy one tost sapling

cannot, Starbuck! And what is it? Reckon it. 'Tis but to help strike a

fin; no wondrous feat for Starbuck. What is it more? From this one

poor hunt, then, the best lance out of all Nantucket, surely he will

not hang back, when every foremast-hand has clutched a whetstone.

Ah! constrainings seize thee; I see! the billow lifts thee! Speak, but

speak!- Aye, aye! thy silence, then, that voices thee. (Aside)

Something shot from my dilated nostrils, he has inhaled it in his

lungs. Starbuck now is mine; cannot oppose me now, without rebellion."

  "God keep me!- keep us all!" murmured Starbuck, lowly.

  But in his joy at the enchanted, tacit acquiescence of the mate,

Ahab did not hear his foreboding invocation; nor yet the low laugh

from the hold; nor yet the presaging vibrations of the winds in the

cordage; nor yet the hollow flap of the sails against the masts, as

for a moment their hearts sank in. For again Starbuck's downcast

eyes lighted up with the stubbornness of life; the subterranean

laugh died away; the winds blew on; the sails filled out; the ship

heaved and rolled as before. Ah, ye admonitions and warnings! why stay

ye not when ye come? But rather are ye predictions than warnings, ye

shadows! Yet not so much predictions from without, as verifications of

the fore-going things within. For with little external to constrain

us, the innermost necessities in our being, these still drive us on.

  "The measure! the measure!" cried Ahab.

  Receiving the brimming pewter, and turning to the harpooneers, he

ordered them to produce their weapons. Then ranging them before him

near the capstan, with their harpoons in their hands, while his

three mates stood at his side with their lances, and the rest of the

ship's company formed a circle round the group; he stood for an

instant searchingly eyeing every man of his crew. But those wild

eyes met his, as the bloodshot eves of the prairie wolves meet the eye

of their leader, ere he rushes on at their head in the trail of the

bison; but, alas! only to fall into the hidden snare of the Indian.

  "Drink and pass!" he cried, handing the heavy charged flagon to

the nearest seaman. "The crew alone now drink. Round with it, round!

Short draughts- long swallows, men; 'tis hot as Satan's hoof. So,

so; it goes round excellently. It spiralizes in ye; forks out at the

serpent-snapping eye. Well done; almost drained. That way it went,

this way it comes. Hand it me- here's a hollow! Men, ye seem the

years; so brimming life is gulped and gone. Steward, refill!

  "Attend now, my braves. I have mustered ye all round this capstan;

and ye mates, flank me with your lances; and ye harpooneers, stand

there with your irons; and ye, stout mariners, ring me in, that I

may in some sort revive a noble custom of my fishermen fathers

before me. O men, you will yet see that- Ha! boy, come back? bad

pennies come not sooner. Hand it me. Why, now, this pewter had run

brimming again, wert not thou St. Vitus' imp- away, thou ague!

  "Advance, ye mates! Cross your lances full before me. Well done! Let

me touch the axis." So saying, with extended arm, he grasped the three

level, radiating lances at their crossed centre; while so doing,

suddenly and nervously twitched them; meanwhile glancing intently from

Starbuck to Stubb; from Stubb to Flask. It seemed as though, by some

nameless, interior volition, he would fain have shocked into them

the same fiery emotion accumulated within the Leyden jar of his own

magnetic life. The three mates quailed before his strong, sustained,

and mystic aspect. Stubb and Flask looked sideways from him; the

honest eye of Starbuck fell downright.

  "In vain!" cried Ahab; "but, maybe, 'tis well. For did ye three

but once take the full-forced shock, then mine own electric thing,

that had perhaps expired from out me. Perchance, too, it would have

dropped ye dead. Perchance ye need it not. Down lances! And now, ye

mates, I do appoint ye three cupbearers to my three pagan kinsmen

there- yon three most honorable gentlemen and noblemen, my valiant

harpooneers. Disdain the task? What, when the great Pope washes the

feet of beggars, using his tiara for ewer? Oh, my sweet cardinals!

your own condescension, that shall bend ye to it. I do not order ye;

ye will it. Cut your seizings and draw the poles, ye harpooneers!"

  Silently obeying the order, the three harpooneers now stood with the

detached iron part of their harpoons, some three feet long, held,

barbs up, before him.

  "Stab me not with that keen steel! Cant them; cant them over! know

ye not the goblet end? Turn up the socket! So, so; now, ye

cup-bearers, advance. The irons! take them; hold them while I fill!"

Forthwith, slowly going from one officer to the other, he brimmed

the harpoon sockets with the fiery waters from the pewter.

  "Now, three to three, ye stand. Commend the murderous chalices!

Bestow them, ye who are now made parties to this indissoluble

league. Ha! Starbuck! but the deed is done! Yon ratifying sun now

waits to sit upon it. Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear, ye men

that man the deathful whaleboat's bow- Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us

all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!" The long, barbed steel

goblets were lifted; and to cries and maledictions against the white

whale, the spirits were simultaneously quaffed down with a hiss.

Starbuck paled, and turned, and shivered. Once more, and finally,

the replenished pewter went the rounds among the frantic crew; when,

waving his free hand to them, they all dispersed; and Ahab retired

within his cabin.