Whale Hunting 233 



increasing darkness of the dim cloud-shadows flung 

 upon the sea. The jets of vapour no longer 

 blended, but tilted everywhere to right and left ; 

 the whales seemed separating their wakes. 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 suffusing 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 a 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, 

 sprung 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 countenance of the 

 mate in the stern of the boat, they knew that the 

 imminent 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 waves curling 

 and hissing around us like the erected crests of 

 enraged serpents. 



" That's his hump. There^ there^ give it to 

 him ! " whispered Starbuck. 



A short rushing sound leaped out of the boat — 

 it was the darted iron of Queequeg. Then all in 

 one welded commotion came an invisible push from 



