to sink for evermore. So with Moby Dick--two days he's floated--tomorrow
will be the third. Aye, men, he'll rise once more,--but only to spout
his last! D'ye feel brave men, brave?"
"As fearless fire," cried Stubb.
"And as mechanical," muttered Ahab. Then as the men went forward, he
muttered on: "The things called omens! And yesterday I talked the same
to Starbuck there, concerning my broken boat. Oh! how valiantly I seek
to drive out of others' hearts what's clinched so fast in mine!--The
Parsee--the Parsee!--gone, gone? and he was to go before:--but still was
to be seen again ere I could perish--How's that?--There's a riddle now
might baffle all the lawyers backed by the ghosts of the whole line
of judges:--like a hawk's beak it pecks my brain. I'LL, I'LL solve it,
though!"
When dusk descended, the whale was still in sight to leeward.
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