But the added power of the boat did not equal
the added power of the whale, for he seemed to have treble-banked
his every fin; swimming with a velocity which plainly showed,
that if now, under these circumstances, pushed on, the chase
would prove an indefinitely prolonged, if not a hopeless one;
nor could any crew endure for so long a period, such an unintermitted,
intense straining at the oar; a thing barely tolerable only in some one
brief vicissitude. The ship itself, then, as it sometimes happens,
offered the most promising intermediate means of overtaking the chase.
Accordingly, the boats now made for her, and were soon swayed up
to their cranes--the two parts of the wrecked boat having been
previously secured by her--and then hoisting everything to her side,
and stacking her canvas high up, and sideways outstretching it
with stunsails, like the double-jointed wings of an albatross;
the Pequod bore down in the leeward wake of Moby Dick. At the well known,
methodic intervals, the whale's glittering spout was regularly
announced from the manned mast-heads; and when he would be reported
as just gone down, Ahab would take the time, and then pacing the deck,
binnacle-watch in hand, so soon as the last second of the allotted
hour expired, his voice was heard.
Pages:
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883