THE WHITE WHALE 55 
“He say,” said I, “that you came near kill-e that man there, point- 
ing to the still shivering greenhorn. 
“Kill-e,” cried Queequeg, twisting his tattooed face into ah unearthly 
expression of disdain; “ah! him bevy small-e fish-e; Queequeg no kill-e 
so small-e fish-e; Queequeg kill-e big whale!” 
“Look you,” roared the Captain, “I’ll kill-e you , you can- 
nibal, if you try any more of your tricks aboard here; so mind your 
eye.” 
But it so happened just then, that it was nigh time for the Captain 
to mind his own eye. The prodigious strain upon the mainsail had 
parted the weather-sheet, and the tremendous boom was now flying from 
side to side, completely sweeping the entire afterpart of the deck. The 
poor fellow whom Queequeg had handled so roughly, was swept over- 
board ; all hands were in a panic ; and to attempt snatching at the boom 
to stay it, seemed madness. It flew from right to left, and back again, 
almost in one ticking of a watch, and every instant seemed on the point 
of snapping into splinters. Nothing was done, and nothing seemed 
capable of being done ; those on deck rushed towards the bows, and stood 
eyeing the boom as if it were the lower jaw of an exasperated whale. 
In the midst of this consternation, Queequeg dropped deftly to his 
knees, and crawling under the path of the boom, whipped hold of a 
rope, secured one end to the bulwarks, and then flinging the other like 
a lasso, caught it round the boom as it swept over his head, and at the 
next jerk, the spar was that way trapped, and all was safe. The 
schooner was run into the wind, and while the hands were clearing away 
the stern boat, Queequeg, stripped to the waist, darted from the side 
with a long living arc of a leap. For three minutes or more he was 
seen swimming like a dog, throwing his long arms straight out before 
him, and by turns revealing his brawny shoulders through the freezing 
foam. I looked at the grand and glorious fellow, hut saw no one to 
be saved. The greenhorn had gone down. Shooting himself perpen- 
dicularly from the water, Queequeg now took an instant’s glance around 
him, and seeming to see just how matters were, dived down and dis- 
appeared. A few minutes more, and he rose again, one arm still 
striking out, and with the other dragging a lifeless form. The boat 
soon picked them up. The poor bumpkin was restored. All hands 
yoted Queequeg a noble trump ; the Captain begged his pardon. From 
