But in all vessels this broom business is the prescriptive province
of the boys, if boys there be aboard. Besides, it was the stronger
men in the Town-Ho that had been divided into gangs, taking turns
at the pumps; and being the most athletic seaman of them all,
Steelkilt had been regularly assigned captain of one of the gangs;
consequently he should have been freed from any trivial business
not connected with truly nautical duties, such being the case
with his comrades. I mention all these particulars so that you
may understand exactly how this affair stood between the two men.
"But there was more than this: the order about the shovel was almost
as plainly meant to sting and insult Steelkilt, as though Radney
had spat in his face. Any man who has gone sailor in a whale-ship
will understand this; and all this and doubtless much more,
the Lakeman fully comprehended when the mate uttered his command.
But as he sat still for a moment, and as he steadfastly
looked into the mate's malignant eye and perceived the stacks
of powder-casks heaped up in him and the slow-match silently
burning along towards them; as he instinctively saw all this,
that strange forbearance and unwillingness to stir up the deeper
passionateness in any already ireful being--a repugnance most felt,
when felt at all, by really valiant men even when aggrieved--
this nameless phantom feeling, gentlemen, stole over Steelkilt.
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