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.
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