354 
MOBY DICK; OR 
As if too long lurking behind the headlands, till the Pequod should 
fairly have entered the straits, these rascally Asiatics were now in hot 
pursuit, to make up for their over-cautious delay. But when the 
swift Pequod , with a fresh leading wind, was herself in hot chase; 
how very kind of these tawny philanthropists to assist in speeding 
her on to her own chosen pursuit, — mere riding-whips and rowels to 
her, that they were. As with glass under arm, Ahab to and fro 
paced the deck ; in his forward turn beholding the monsters he chased, 
and in the after one the bloodthirsty pirates chasing him; some such 
fancy as the above seemed his. And when he glanced upon the green 
walls of the watery defile in which the ship was then sailing, and be- 
thought him that through that gate lay the route to his vengeance, 
and beheld, how that through that same gate he was now both chasing 
and being chased to his deadly end; and not only that, but a herd of 
remorseless wild pirates and inhuman atheistical devils were infernally 
cheering them on with their curses; — when all these conceits had 
passed through his brain, Ahab’s brow was left gaunt and ribbed, 
like the black sand beach after some stormy tide has been gnawing it, 
without being able to drag the firm thing from its place. 
But thoughts like these troubled very few of the reckless crew; and 
when, after steadily dropping and dropping the pirates astern, the 
Pequod at last shot by the vivid green Cockatoo Point on the Sumatra 
side, emerging at last upon the broad waters beyond; then, the har- 
pooneers seemed more to grieve that the swift whales had been gaining 
upon the ship, than to rejoice that the ship had so victoriously gained 
upon the Malays. But still driving on in the wake of the whales, at 
length they seemed abating their speed; gradually the ship neared 
them; and the wind now dying away, word was passed to spring to 
the boats. But no sooner did the herd, by some presumed wonderful 
instinct of the Sperm Whale, become notified of the three keels that 
were after them, — though as yet a mile in their rear, — than they 
rallied again, and forming in close ranks and battalions, so that their 
spouts all looked like flashing lines of stacked bayonets, moved on with 
redoubled velocity. 
Stripped to our shirts and drawers, we sprang to the white-ash, and 
after severals hours’ pulling were almost disposed to renounce the 
chase, when a general pausing commotion among the whales gave 
