But when the swift Pequod, with a fresh leading wind, was herself
in hot chase; how very kind of these tawny philanthropists
to assist in speeding her on to her own chosen pursuit,--
mere riding-whips and rowels to her, that they were.
As with glass under arm, Ahab to-and-fro paced the deck;
in his forward turn beholding the monsters he chased,
and in the after one the bloodthirsty pirates chasing him;
some such fancy as the above seemed his. And when he glanced
upon the green walls of the watery defile in which the ship
was then sailing, and bethought him that through that gate lay
the route to his vengeance, and beheld, how that through that same
gate he was now both chasing and being chased to his deadly end;
and not only that, but a herd of remorseless wild pirates
and inhuman atheistical devils were infernally cheering him
on with their curses;--when all these conceits had passed
through his brain, Ahab's brow was left gaunt and ribbed,
like the black sand beach after some stormy tide has been gnawing it,
without being able to drag the firm thing from its place.
But thoughts like these troubled very few of the reckless crew; and when,
after steadily dropping and dropping the pirates astern, the Pequod
at last shot by the vivid green Cockatoo Point on the Sumatra side,
emerging at last upon the broad waters beyond; then, the harpooneers
seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining upon
the ship, than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained
upon the Malays.
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