But in order to insure the speediest end to the voyage, they all
agreed to another thing--namely, not to sing out for whales,
in case any should be discovered. For, spite of her leak,
and spite of all her other perils, the Town-Ho still maintained her
mast-heads, and her captain was just as willing to lower for a fish
that moment, as on the day his craft first struck the cruising ground;
and Radney the mate was quite as ready to change his berth for a boat,
and with his bandaged mouth seek to gag in death the vital jaw
of the whale.
"But though the Lakeman had induced the seamen to adopt this
sort of passiveness in their conduct, he kept his own counsel
(at least till all was over) concerning his own proper and private
revenge upon the man who had stung him in the ventricles of his heart.
He was in Radney the chief mate's watch; and as if the infatuated
man sought to run more than half way to meet his doom, after the
scene at the rigging, he insisted, against the express counsel
of the captain, upon resuming the head of his watch at night.
Upon this, and one or two other circumstances, Steelkilt systematically
built the plan of his revenge.
"During the night, Radney had an unseaman-like way of sitting
on the bulwarks of the quarterdeck, and leaning his arm upon
the gunwale of the boat which was hoisted up there, a little
above the ship's side.
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