And not only this, but to that
ever-contracting, dropping circle ashore, who for any reason,
possessed the privilege of a less banned approach to him;
to that timid circle the above hinted casualty--remaining, as it did,
moodily unaccounted for by Ahab--invested itself with terrors,
not entirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails.
So that, through their zeal for him, they had all conspired, so far
as in them lay, to muffle up the knowledge of this thing from others;
and hence it was, that not till a considerable interval had elapsed,
did it transpire upon the Pequod's decks.
But be all this as it may; let the unseen, ambiguous synod
in the air, or the vindictive princes and potentates of fire,
have to do or not with earthly Ahab, yet, in this present
matter of his leg, he took plain practical procedures;--
he called the carpenter.
And when that functionary appeared before him, he bade him without
delay set about making a new leg, and directed the mates to see him
supplied with all the studs and joists of jaw-ivory (Sperm Whale)
which had thus far been accumulated on the voyage, in order that a careful
selection of the stoutest, clearest-grained stuff might be secured.
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