"He's going to sound!
In stunsails! Down top-gallant-sails! Stand by three boats.
Mr. Starbuck, remember, stay on board, and keep the ship. Helm there!
Luff, luff a point! So; steady, man, steady! There go flukes! No, no;
only black water! All ready the boats there? Stand by, stand by!
Lower me, Mr. Starbuck; lower, lower,--quick, quicker!" and he slid
through the air to the deck.
"He is heading straight to leeward, sir," cried Stubb, "right away
from us; cannot have seen the ship yet."
"Be dumb, man! Stand by the braces! Hard down the helm!--brace up!
Shiver her!--shiver her!--So; well that! Boats, boats!"
Soon all the boats but Starbuck's were dropped; all the boat-sails set--
all the paddles plying; with rippling swiftness, shooting to leeward;
and Ahab heading the onset. A pale, death-glimmer lit up Fedallah's
sunken eyes; a hideous motion gnawed his mouth.
Like noiseless nautilus shells, their light prows sped through the sea;
but only slowly they neared the foe. As they neared him, the ocean grew
still more smooth; seemed drawing a carpet over its waves; seemed a
noon-meadow, so serenely it spread. At length the breathless hunter came
so nigh his seemingly unsuspecting prey, that his entire dazzling hump
was distinctly visible, sliding along the sea as if an isolated thing,
and continually set in a revolving ring of finest, fleecy, greenish foam.
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