But I had no hand
in shipping that ivory arm there; that thing is against all rule"--
pointing at it with the marlingspike--"that is the captain's work,
not mine; he ordered the carpenter to make it; he had that club-hammer
there put to the end, to knock some one's brains out with, I suppose,
as he tried mine once. He flies into diabolical passions sometimes.
Do ye see this dent, sir"--removing his hat, and brushing aside his hair,
and exposing a bowl-like cavity in his skull, but which bore not
the slightest scarry trace, or any token of ever having been a wound--
"Well, the captain there will tell you how that came there; he knows."
"No, I don't," said the captain, "but his mother did;
he was born with it. Oh, you solemn rogue, you--you Bunger!
was there ever such another Bunger in the watery world?
Bunger, when you die, you ought to die in pickle, you dog;
you should be preserved to future ages, you rascal."
"What became of the White Whale?" now cried Ahab, who thus far had been
impatiently listening to this byeplay between the two Englishmen.
"Oh!" cried the one-armed captain, Oh, yes! Well; after he sounded,
we didn't see him again for some time; in fact, as I before hinted,
I didn't then know what whale it was that had served me such a trick,
till some time afterwards, when coming back to the Line, we heard
about Moby Dick--as some call him--and then I knew it was he.
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