Not the raw recruit, marching from the bosom of his wife into
the fever heat of his first battle; not the dead man's ghost
encountering the first unknown phantom in the other world;--
neither of these can feel stranger and stronger emotions than
that man does, who for the first time finds himself pulling
into the charmed, churned circle of the hunted sperm whale.
The dancing white water made by the chase was now becoming more
and more visible, owing to the increasing darkness of the dun
cloud-shadows flung upon the sea. The jets of vapor no longer blended,
but tilted everywhere to right and left; the whales seemed
separating their wakes. The boats were pulled more apart;
Starbuck giving chase to three whales running dead to leeward.
Our sail was now set, and, with the still rising wind, we rushed along;
the boat going with such madness through the water, that the lee
oars could scarcely be worked rapidly enough to escape being torn
from the row-locks.
Soon we were running through a suffusing wide veil of mist;
neither ship nor boat to be seen.
"Give way, men," whispered Starbuck, drawing still further aft the sheet
of his sail; "there is time to kill a fish yet before the squall comes.
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