CHAPTER 73

  Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk Over Him

  It must be borne in mind that all this time we have a Sperm

Whale's prodigious head hanging to the Pequod's side. But we must

let it continue hanging there a while till we can get a chance to

attend to it. For the present other matters press, and the best we can

do now for the head, is to pray heaven the tackles may hold.

  Now, during the past night and forenoon, the Pequod had gradually

drifted into a sea, which, by its occasional patches of yellow brit,

gave unusual tokens of the vicinity of Right Whales, a species of

the Leviathan that but few supposed to be at this particular time

lurking anywhere near. And though all hands commonly disdained the

capture of those inferior creatures; and though the Pequod was not

commissioned to cruise for them at all, and though she had passed

numbers of them near the Crozetts without lowering a boat; yet now

that a Sperm Whale had been brought alongside and beheaded, to the

surprise of all, the announcement was made that a Right Whale should

be captured that day, if opportunity offered.

  Nor was this long wanting. Tall spouts were seen to leeward; and two

boats, Stubb's and Flask's, were detached in pursuit. Pulling

further and further away, they at last became almost invisible to

the men at the masthead. But suddenly in the distance, they saw a

great heap of tumultuous white water, and soon after news came from

aloft that one or both the boats must be fast. An interval passed

and the boats were in plain sight, in the act of being dragged right

towards the ship by the towing whale. So close did the monster come to

the hull, that at first it seemed as if he meant it malice; but

suddenly going down in a maelstrom, within three rods of the planks,

he wholly disappeared from view, as if diving under the keel. "Cut,

cut!" was the cry from the ship to the boats, which, for one

instant, seemed on the point of being brought with a deadly dash

against the vessel's side. But having plenty of line yet in the

tubs, and the whale not sounding very rapidly, they paid out abundance

of rope, and at the same time pulled with all their might so as to get

ahead of the ship. For a few minutes the struggle was intensely

critical; for while they still slacked out the tightened line in one

direction, and still plied their oars in another, the contending

strain threatened to take them under. But it was only a few feet

advance they sought to gain. And they stuck to it till they did gain

it; when instantly, a swift tremor was felt running like lightning

along the keel, as the strained line, scraping beneath the ship,

suddenly rose to view under her bows, snapping and quivering; and so

flinging off its drippings, that the drops fell like bits of broken

glass on the water, while the whale beyond also rose to sight, and

once more the boats were free to fly. But the fagged whale abated

his speed, and blindly altering his course, went round the stern of

the ship towing the two boats after him, so that they performed a

complete circuit.

  Meantime, they hauled more and more upon their lines, till close

flanking him on both sides, Stubb answered Flask with lance for lance;

and thus round and round the Pequod the battle went, while the

multitudes of sharks that had before swum round the Sperm Whale's

body, rushed to the fresh blood that was spilled, thirstily drinking

at every new gash, as the eager Israelites did at the new bursting

fountains that poured from the smitten rock.

  At last his spout grew thick, and with a frightful roll and vomit,

he turned upon his back a corpse.

  While the two headsmen were engaged in making fast cords to his

flukes, and in other ways getting the mass in readiness for towing,

some conversation ensued between them.

  "I wonder what the old man wants with this lump of foul lard,"

said Stubb, not without some disgust at the thought of having to do

with so ignoble a leviathan.

  "Wants with it?" said Flask, coiling some spare line in the boat's

bow, "did you never hear that the ship which but once has a Sperm

Whale's head hoisted on her starboard side, and at the same time a

Right Whale's on the larboard; did you never hear, Stubb, that that

ship can never afterwards capsize?"

  "Why not?

  "I don't know, but I heard that gamboge ghost of a Fedallah saying

so, and he seems to know all about ships' charms. But I sometimes

think he'll charm the ship to no good at last. I don't half like

that chap, Stubb. Did you ever notice how that tusk of his is a sort

of carved into a snake's head, Stubb?"

  "Sink him! I never look at him at all; but if ever I get a chance of

a dark night, and he standing hard by the bulwarks, and no one by;

look down there, Flask"- pointing into the sea with a peculiar

motion of both hands- "Aye, will I! Flask, I take that Fedallah to

be the devil in disguise. Do you believe that cock and bull story

about his having been stowed away on board ship? He's the devil, I

say. The reason why you don't see his tail, is because he tucks it

up out of sight; he carries it coiled away in his pocket, I guess.

Blast him! now that I think of it, he's always wanting oakum to

stuff into the toes of his boots."

  "He sleeps in his boots, don't he? He hasn't got any hammock; but

I've seen him lay of nights in a coil of rigging."

  "No doubt, and it's because of his cursed tail; he coils it down, do

ye see, in the eye of the rigging."

  "What's the old man have so much to do with him for?"

  "Striking up a swap or a bargain, I suppose."

  "Bargain?- about what?"

  "Why, do ye see, the old man is hard bent after that White Whale,

and the devil there is trying to come round him, and get him to swap

away his silver watch, or his soul, or something of that sort, and

then he'll surrender Moby Dick."

  "Pooh! Stubb, you are skylarking; how can Fedallah do that?"

  "I don't know, Flask, but the devil is a curious chap, and a

wicked one, I tell ye. Why, they say as how he went a sauntering

into the old flag-ship once, switching his tail about devilish easy

and gentlemanlike, and inquiring if the old governor was at home.

Well, he was at home, and asked the devil what he wanted. The devil,

switching his hoofs, up and says, 'I want John.' 'What for?' says

the old governor. 'What business is that of yours,' says the devil,

getting mad,- 'I want to use him.' 'Take him,' says the governor-

and by the Lord, Flask, if the devil didn't give John the Asiatic

cholera before he got through with him, I'll eat this whale in one

mouthful. But look sharp- ain't you all ready there? Well, then,

pull ahead, and let's get the whale alongside."

  "I think I remember some such story as you were telling," said

Flask, when at last the two boats were slowly advancing with their

burden towards the ship, "but I can't remember where."

  "Three Spaniards? Adventures of those three bloody-minded

soladoes? Did ye read it there, Flask? I guess ye did?"

  "No: never saw such a book; heard of it, though. But now, tell me,

Stubb, do you suppose that that devil you was speaking of just now,

was the same you say is now on board the Pequod?"

  "Am I the same man that helped kill this whale? Doesn't the devil

live for ever; who ever heard that the devil was dead? Did you ever

see any parson a wearing mourning for the devil? And if the devil

has a latch-key to get into the admiral's cabin, don't you suppose

he can crawl into a porthole? Tell me that, Mr. Flask?"

  "How old do you suppose Fedallah is, Stubb?"

  "Do you see that mainmast there?" pointing to the ship; "well,

that's the figure one; now take all the hoops in the Pequod's hold,

and string along in a row with that mast, for oughts, do you see;

well, that wouldn't begin to be Fedallah's age. Nor all the coopers in

creation couldn't show hoops enough to make oughts enough."

  "But see here, Stubb, I thought you a little boasted just now,

that you meant to give Fedallah a sea-toss, if you got a good

chance. Now, if he's so old as all those hoops of yours come to, and

if he is going to live for ever, what good will it do to pitch him

overboard- tell me that?

  "Give him a good ducking, anyhow."

  "But he'd crawl back."

  "Duck him again; and keep ducking him."

  "Suppose he should take it into his head to duck you, though- yes,

and drown you- what then?"

  "I should like to see him try it; I'd give him such a pair of

black eyes that he wouldn't dare to show his face in the admiral's

cabin again for a long while, let alone down in the orlop there, where

he lives, and hereabouts on the upper decks where he sneaks so much.

Damn the devil, Flask; so you suppose I'm afraid of the devil? Who's

afraid of him, except the old governor who daresn't catch him and

put him in double-darbies, as he deserves, but lets him go about

kidnapping people; aye, and signed a bond with him, that all the

people the devil kidnapped, he'd roast for him? There's a governor!"

  "Do you suppose Fedallah wants to kidnap Captain Ahab?"

  "Do I suppose it? You'll know it before long, Flask. But I am

going now to keep a sharp look-out on him; and if I see anything

very suspicious going on, I'll just take him by the nape of his

neck, and say- Look here, Beelzebub, you don't do it; and if he

makes any fuss, by the Lord I'll make a grab into his pocket for his

tail, take it to the capstan, and give him such a wrenching and

heaving, that his tail will come short off at the stump- do you see;

and then, I rather guess when he finds himself docked in that queer

fashion, he'll sneak off without the poor satisfaction of feeling

his tail between his legs."

  "And what will you do with the tail, Stubb?"

  "Do with it? Sell it for an ox whip when we get home;- what else?"

  "Now, do you mean what you say, and have been saying all along,

Stubb?"

  "Mean or not mean, here we are at the ship."

  The boats were here halled, to tow the whale on the larboard side,

where fluke chains and other necessaries were already prepared for

securing him.

  "Didn't I tell you so?" said Flask; "yes, you'll soon see this right

whale's head hoisted up opposite that parmacety's."

  In good time, Flask's saying proved true. As before, the Pequod

steeply leaned over towards the sperm whale's head, now, by the

counterpoise of both heads, she regained her even keel; though

sorely strained, you may well believe. So, when on one side you

hoist in Locke's head, you go over that way; but now, on the other

side, hoist in Kant's and you come back again; but in very poor

plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye

foolish! throw all these thunder-heads overboard, and then you will

float light and right.

  In disposing of the body of a right whale, when brought alongside

the ship, the same preliminary proceedings commonly take place as in

the case of a sperm whale; only, in the latter instance, the head is

cut off whole, but in the former the lips and tongue are separately

removed and hoisted on deck, with all the well known black bone

attached to what is called the crown-piece. But nothing like this,

in the present case, had been done. The carcases of both whales had

dropped astern; and the head-laden ship not a little resembled a

mule carrying a pair of overburdening panniers.

  Meantime, Fedallah was calmly eyeing the right whale's head, and

ever and anon glancing from the deep wrinkles there to the lines in

his own hand. And Ahab chanced so to stand, that the Parsee occupied

his shadow; while, if the Parsee's shadow was there at all it seemed

only to blend with, and lengthen Ahab's. As the crew toiled on,

Laplandish speculations were bandied among them, concerning all

these passing things.