"
"Look here, friend," said I, "if you have anything important to tell us,
out with it; but if you are only trying to bamboozle us, you are mistaken
in your game; that's all I have to say."
"And it's said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk up
that way; you are just the man for him--the likes of ye.
Morning to ye, shipmates, morning! Oh! when ye get there,
tell 'em I've concluded not to make one of 'em."
"Ah, my dear fellow, you can't fool us that way--you can't fool us.
It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had
a great secret in him."
"Morning to ye, shipmates, morning."
"Morning it is," said I. "Come along, Queequeg, let's leave this
crazy man. But stop, tell me your name, will you?"
"Elijah."
Elijah! thought I, and we walked away, both commenting,
after each other's fashion, upon this ragged old sailor;
and agreed that he was nothing but a humbug, trying to be a bugbear.
But we had not gone perhaps above a hundred yards, when chancing
to turn a corner, and looking back as I did so, who should be seen
but Elijah following us, though at a distance. Somehow, the sight
of him struck me so, that I said nothing to Queequeg of his
being behind, but passed on with my comrade, anxious to see
whether the stranger would turn the same corner that we did.
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