234 
MOBY DICK; OR 
“ Thinking murder at hand, and smelling in the dark for the blood, 
he and all his armed mates and harpooneers rushed for the forecastle. 
In a few minutes the scuttle was opened, and, hound hand and foot, 
the still struggling ringleader was shoved up into the air by his per- 
fidious allies, who at once claimed the honour of securing a man 
who had been fully ripe for murder. But all these were collared, and 
dragged along the deck like dead cattle; and, side by side, were seized 
up into the mizzen rigging, like three quarters of meat, and there 
they hung till morning. ‘Damn ye/ cried the Captain, passing to 
and fro before them, ‘the vultures would not touch ye, ye villains !’ 
“At sunrise he summoned all hands; and separating those who 
had rebelled from those who had taken no part in the mutiny, he 
told the former that he had a good mind to flog them all round — 
thought, upon the whole, he would do so — he ought to — justice de- 
manded it; but for the present, considering their timely surrender, 
he would let them go with a reprimand, which he accordingly admin- 
istered in the vernacular. 
“ ‘But as for you, ye carrion rogues/ turning to the three men in 
the rigging — ‘for you I mean to mince ye up for the twy-pots’; and, 
seizing a rope, he applied it with all his might to the backs of the 
two traitors, till they yelled no more, but lifelessly hung their heads 
sideways, as the two crucified thieves are drawn. 
“‘My wrist is sprained with ye!’ he cried, at last; ‘but there is 
still rope enough left for you, my fine bantam, that wouldn’t give up. 
Take that gag from his mouth, and let us hear what he can say 
for himself.’ 
“For a moment the exhausted mutineer made a tremulous motion 
of his cramped jaws, and then painfully twisting round his head, 
said in a sort of hiss, ‘What I say is this — and mind it well — if you 
flog me, I murder you!’ 
“ ‘Say ye so ? then see how ye frightened me’ — and the Captain drew 
off with the rope to strike. 
“ ‘Best not/ hissed the Lakeman. 
“ ‘But I must/ — and the rope was once more drawn back for the 
stroke. 
“Steelkilt here hissed out something, inaudible to all but the Cap- 
