460 
MOBY DICK; OR 
log and by line ; these shall conduct me, and show me my place on the 
sea. Aye,” lighting from the boat to the deck, “thus I trample on 
thee, thou paltry thing that feebly pointest on high; thus I split and 
destroy thee!” 
As the frantic old man thus spoke and thus trampled with his live 
and dead feet, a sneering triumph that seemed meant for Ahab, and 
a fatalistic despair that seemed meant for himself — these passed over 
the mute, motionless Parsee’s face. Unobserved he rose and glided 
away; while, awestruck by the aspect of their commander, the sea- 
men clustered together on the. forecastle, till Ahab, troubledly pacing 
the deck, shouted out — “To the braces! Up helm! — square in!” 
In an instant the yards swung round ; and as the ship half wheeled 
upon her heel, her three firm-seated graceful masts erectly poised upon 
her long, ribbed hull, seemed as the three Horatii pirouetting on one 
sufficient steed. 
Standing between the knight-head Starbuck watched the Pequod’s 
tumultuous way, and Ahab’s also, as he went lurching along the deck. 
“I have sat before the dense coal fire and watched it all aglow, full 
of its tormented flaming life; and I have seen it wane at last, down, 
down, to dumbest dust. Old man of oceans! of all this fiery life of 
thine, what will at length remain but one little heap of ashes !” 
“Aye,” cried Stubb, “but sea-coal ashes — mind ye that, Mr. Star- 
buck — sea-coal, not your common charcoal. Well, well ; I heard Ahab 
mutter, ‘Here some one thrusts these cards into these old hands of mine ; 
swears that I must play them and no others/ And damn me, Ahab, 
but thou actest right ; live in the game, and die in it 1” 
CHAPTER CXVIII 
THE CANDLES 
Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs: the tiger of Bengal 
crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent 
but basket the deadliest thunders : gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that 
never swept the tame northern lands. So, too, it is, that in these 
resplendent Japanese seas the mariner encounters the direst of all 
