I'll see Mr. Stubb about it."
CHAPTER 126
The Life-Buoy
Steering now south-eastward by Ahab's levelled steel,
and her progress solely determined by Ahab's level log and line;
the Pequod held on her path towards the Equator. Making so long
a passage through such unfrequented waters, descrying no ships,
and ere long, sideways impelled by unvarying trade winds,
over waves monotonously mild; all these seemed the strange calm
things preluding some riotous and desperate scene.
At last, when the ship drew near to the outskirts, as it were,
of the Equatorial fishing-ground, and in the deep darkness that
goes before the dawn, was sailing by a cluster of rocky islets;
the watch--then headed by Flask--was startled by a cry so plaintively
wild and unearthly--like half-articulated wailings of the ghosts
of all Herod's murdered Innocents--that one and all, they started
from their reveries, and for the space of some moments stood,
or sat, or leaned all transfixed by listening, like the carved
Roman slave, while that wild cry remained within hearing.
The Christian or civilized part of the crew said it was mermaids,
and shuddered; but the pagan harpooneers remained unappalled.
Yet the grey Manxman--the oldest mariner of all--declared that
the wild thrilling sounds that were heard, were the voices of newly
drowned men in the sea.
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