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Melville, Herman, 1819-1891

"Moby Dick: or, the White Whale"


In a few minutes the scuttle was opened, and, bound hand and foot,
the still struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air
by his perfidious allies, who at once claimed the honor
of securing a man who had been fully ripe for murder.
But all these were collared, and dragged along the deck like
dead cattle; and, side by side, were seized up into the mizzen rigging,
like three quarters of meat, and there they hung till morning.
'Damn ye,' cried the Captain, pacing to and fro before them,
'the vultures would not touch ye, ye villains!'
"At sunrise he summoned all hands; and separating those who had rebelled
from those who had taken no part in the mutiny, he told the former
that he had a good mind to flog them all round--thought, upon the while,
he would do so--he ought to--justice demanded it; but for the present,
considering their timely surrender, he would let them go with a reprimand,
which he accordingly administered in the vernacular.
"'But as for you, ye carrion rogues,' turning to the three men
in the rigging--'for you, I mean to mince ye up for the try-pots;'
and, seizing a rope, he applied it with all his might to the backs
of the two traitors, till they yelled no more, but lifelessly hung
their heads sideways, as the two crucified thieves are drawn.


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