HAZARDS AND COMPENSATIONS 207 



of the opposite hill; the headlong, sled-like slide down its other side; — 

 all these, with the cries of the headsmen and harpooners, and the shud- 

 dering gasps of the oarsmen, with the wondrous sight of the ivory 

 Pequod bearing down upon her boats with out-stretched sails, like 

 a wild hen after her screaming brood; all this was thrilling. Not 

 the raw recruit, marching from the bosom of his wife into the fever 

 heat of his first battle; not the dead man's ghost encountering the 

 first unknown phantom in the other world; — neither of these can 

 feel stranger and stronger emotions than that man does, who for the 

 first time finds himself pulling into the charmed, churned circle of 

 the hunted sperm whale. 



The dancing white water made by the chase was now becoming 

 more and more visible, owing to the increasing darkness of the dun 

 cloud-shadows flung upon the sea. The jets of vapor no longer 

 blended, but tilted everywhere to right and left; the whales seemed 

 separating their wakes. The boats were pulled more apart; Starbuck 

 giving chase to three whales running dead to leeward. Our sail was 

 now set, and, with the still rising wind, we rushed along; the boat 

 going with such madness through the water, that the lee oars could 

 scarcely be worked rapidly enough to escape being torn from the row- 

 locks. 



Soon we were running through a sufi^using wide veil of mist; 

 neither ship nor boat to be seen. 



"Give way, men," whispered Starbuck, drawing still further aft 

 the sheet of his sail; "there is time to kill fish yet before the squall 

 comes. There's white water again! — close to! Spring!" 



Soon after, two cries in quick succession on each side of us denoted 

 that the other boats had got fast; but hardly were they overheard, 

 when with a lightning-like hurtling whisper Starbuck said: "Stand up!" 

 and Queequeg, harpoon in hand, sprang to his feet. 



Though not one of the oarsmen was then facing the life and death 

 peril so close to them ahead, yet with their eyes on the intense counte- 

 nance of the mate in the stern of the boat, they knew that the immi- 

 nent instant had come; they heard, too, an enormous wallowing 

 sound as of fifty elephants stirring in their litter. Meanwhile the 

 boat was still booming through the mist, the v/aves curling and hissing 

 around us like the erected crests of enraged serpents. 



"That's his hump. There, there, give it to him ! " whispered Star- 

 buck. 



A short rushing sound leaped out of the boat; it was the darted 

 iron of Queequeg. Then all in one welded commotion came an invis- 

 ible push from astern, while forward the boat seemed striking on a 

 ledge; the sail collapsed and exploded; a gush of scalding vapor shot 

 up near by; something rolled and tumbled like an earthquake beneath 

 us. The whole crew were half sufiFocated as they were tossed helter- 

 skelter into the white curdling cream of the squall. Squall, whale, 



