"'Cross your arms, sir; throw back your head. Now, repeat after me.
As soon as Steelkilt leaves me, I swear to beach this boat
on yonder island, and remain there six days. If I do not,
may lightning strike me!'
"'A pretty scholar,' laughed the Lakeman. 'Adios, Senor!'
and leaping into the sea, he swam back to his comrades.
"Watching the boat till it was fairly beached, and drawn up to the roots
of the cocoa-nut trees, Steelkilt made sail again, and in due time arrived
at Tahiti, his own place of destination. There, luck befriended him;
two ships were about to sail for France, and were providentially
in want of precisely that number of men which the sailor headed.
They embarked, and so for ever got the start of their former captain,
had he been at all minded to work them legal retribution.
"Some ten days after the French ships sailed, the whale-boat arrived,
and the captain was forced to enlist some of the more
civilized Tahitians, who had been somewhat used to the sea.
Chartering a small native schooner, he returned with them to his vessel;
and finding all right there, again resumed his cruisings.
"Where Steelkilt now is, gentlemen, none know; but upon the island
of Nantucket, the widow of Radney still turns to the sea which refuses
to give up its dead; still in dreams sees the awful white whale
that destroyed him.
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