He declared that a whale must be near.
Soon that peculiar odor, sometimes to a great distance given
forth by the living sperm whale, was palpable to all the watch;
nor was any mariner surprised when, after inspecting the compass,
and then the dog-vane, and then ascertaining the precise bearing
of the odor as nearly as possible, Ahab rapidly ordered the ship's
course to be slightly altered, and the sail to be shortened.
The acute policy dictating these movements was sufficiently
vindicated at daybreak, by the sight of a long sleek
on the sea directly and lengthwise ahead, smooth as oil,
and resembling in the pleated watery wrinkles bordering it,
the polished metallic-like marks of some swift tide-rip, at
the mouth of a deep, rapid stream.
"Man the mast-heads! Call all hands!"
Thundering with the butts of three clubbed handspikes on
the forecastle deck, Daggoo roused the sleepers with such
judgment claps that they seemed to exhale from the scuttle,
so instantaneously did they appear with their clothes
in their hands.
"What d'ye see?" cried Ahab, flattening his face to the sky.
"Nothing, nothing sir!" was the sound hailing down in reply.
"T'gallant sails!--stunsails! alow and aloft, and on both sides!"
All sail being set, he now cast loose the life-line, reserved
for swaying him to the main royal-mast head; and in a few moments
they were hoisting him thither, when, while but two thirds
of the way aloft, and while peering ahead through the horizontal
vacancy between the main-top-sail and top-gallant-sail, he raised
a gull-like cry in the air.
Pages:
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871