Only three were left.
"'Better turn to, now?' said the Captain with a heartless jeer.
"'Shut us up again, will ye!' cried Steelkilt.
"Oh! certainly," said the Captain, and the key clicked.
"It was at this point, gentlemen, that enraged by the defection
of seven of his former associates, and stung by the mocking voice
that had last hailed him, and maddened by his long entombment in a place
as black as the bowels of despair; it was then that Steelkilt proposed
to the two Canallers, thus far apparently of one mind with him, to burst
out of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison; and armed
with their keen mincing knives (long, crescentic, heavy implements
with a handle at each end) run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail;
and if by any devilishness of desperation possible, seize the ship.
For himself, he would do this, he said, whether they joined him
or not. That was the last night he should spend in that den.
But the scheme met with no opposition on the part of the other two;
they swore they were ready for that, or for any other mad thing,
for anything in short but a surrender. And what was more, they each
insisted upon being the first man on deck, when the time to make
the rush should come.
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