to shreds; his distended eyes turned full upon old
Ahab.

The harpoon dropped from his hand.

"Befooled, befooled!"--drawing in a long lean breath--"Aye, Parsee! I
see thee again.--Aye, and thou goest before; and this, this then is the
hearse that thou didst promise. But I hold thee to the last letter of
thy word. Where is the second hearse? Away, mates, to the ship! those
boats are useless now; repair them if ye can in time, and return to me;
if not, Ahab is enough to die--Down, men! the first thing that but
offers to jump from this boat I stand in, that thing I harpoon. Ye are
not other men, but my arms and my legs; and so obey me.--Where's the
whale? gone down again?"

But he looked too nigh the boat; for as if bent upon escaping with the
corpse he bore, and as if the particular place of the last encounter
had been but a stage in his leeward voyage, Moby Dick was now again
steadily swimming forward; and had almost passed the ship,--which thus
far had been sailing in the contrary direction to him, though for the
present her headway had been stopped. He seemed swimming with his
utmost velocity, and now only intent upon pursuing his own straight
path in the sea.

"Oh! Ahab," cried Starbuck, "not too late is it, even now, the third
day, to desist. See! Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou,
that madly seekest him!"

Setting sail to the rising wind, the lonely boat was swiftly impelled
to leeward, by both oars and canvas. And at last when Ahab was sliding
by the vessel, so near as plainly to distinguish Starbuck's face as he
leaned over the rail, he hailed him to turn the vessel about, and
follow him, not too swiftly, at a judicious interval. Glancing
upwards, he saw Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo, eagerly mounting to the
three mast-heads; while the oarsmen were rocking in the two staved
boats which had but just been hoisted to the side, and were busily at
work in repairing them. One after the other, through the portholes, as
he sped, he also caught flying glimpses of Stubb and Flack, busying
themselves on deck among bundles of new irons and lances. As he saw
all this; as he heard the hammers in the broken boats! far other
hammers seemed driving a nail into his heart. But he rallied. And now
marking that the vane or flag was gone from the mainmast-head, he
shouted to Tashtego, who had just gained that perch, to descend again
for another flag, and a hammer and nails, and so nail it to the mast.