404 
MOBY DICK; OR 
ning parts of the tackle. Soon he was carefully swung inside the high 
bulwarks, and gently landed upon the capstan head. With his ivory 
arm frankly thrust forth in welcome, the other captain advanced, 
and Ahab, putting out his ivory leg, and crossing the ivory arm (like 
two sword-fish blades) cried out in his walrus way, “Aye, aye, hearty ! 
let us shake bones together! — an arm and a leg! — an arm that never 
can shrink d’ye see ; and a leg that never can run. Where didst thou 
see the White Whale ? — how long ago ?” 
“The White Whale,” said the Englishman, pointing his ivory arm 
towards the east, and taking a rueful sight along it, as if it had been 
a telescope; “there I saw him, on the Line, last season.” 
“And he took that arm off, did he ?” asked Ahab, now sliding down 
from the capstan, and resting on the Englishman’s shoulder, as he 
did so. 
“Aye, he was the cause of it, at least ; and that leg, too ?” 
“Spin me the yarn,” said Ahab ; “how was it ?” 
“It was the first time in my life I ever cruised on the Line,” began 
the Englishman. “I was ignorant of the White Whale at that time. 
Well, one day we lowered for a pod of four or five whales, and my 
boat fastened to one of them; a regular circus horse he was, too, that 
went milling and milling round so, that my boat’s crew could only 
trim dish, by sitting all their sterns on the outer gunwale. Presently 
up breaches from the bottom of the sea a bouncing great whale, with 
a milky-white head and hump, all crow’s feet and wrinkles.” 
“It was he, it was he!” cried Ahab, suddenly letting out his sus- 
pended breath. 
“And harpoons sticking in near his starboard fin.” 
“Aye, aye — they were mine — my irons,” cried Ahab exultingly — 
“but on !” 
“Give me a chance, then,” said the Englishman, good-humouredly. 
“Well, this old great-grandfather, with the white head and hump, 
runs all afoam into the pod, and goes to snapping furiously at my fast- 
line.” 
“Aye, I see ! — wanted to part it ; free the fast-fish — an old trick — I 
know him.” 
“How it was exactly,” continued the one-armed commander, “I do 
