For as the swift monster drags you deeper and deeper into the
frantic shoal, you bid adieu to circumspect life and only exist
in a delirious throb.
As, blind and deaf, the whale plunged forward, as if by sheer power
of speed to rid himself of the iron leech that had fastened to him;
as we thus tore a white gash in the sea, on all sides menaced
as we flew, by the crazed creatures to and fro rushing about us;
our beset boat was like a ship mobbed by ice-isles in a tempest,
and striving to steer through their complicated channels and straits,
knowing not at what moment it may be locked in and crushed.
But not a bit daunted, Queequeg steered us manfully; now sheering
off from this monster directly across our route in advance;
now edging away from that, whose colossal flukes were suspended overhead,
while all the time, Starbuck stood up in the bows, lance in hand,
pricking out of our way whatever whales he could reach by short darts,
for there was no time to make long ones. Nor were the oarsmen
quite idle, though their wonted duty was now altogether dispensed with.
They chiefly attended to the shouting part of the business.
"Out of the way, Commodore!" cried one, to a great dromedary that of
a sudden rose bodily to the surface, and for an instant threatened
to swamp us.
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