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.
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