506 
MOBY DICK; OR 
ways outstretching it with stunsails, like the double- jointed wings of an 
albatross ; the Pequod bore down in the leeward wake of Moby Dick. 
At the well-known, methodical intervals, the whale’s glittering spout 
was regularly announced from the manned mastheads; and when he 
would be reported ao just gone down, Ahab would take the time, and 
then pacing the deck, binnacle-watch in hand, so soon as the last 
second of the allotted hour expired, his voice was heard — “Whose is 
the doubloon now? D’ye see him? and if the reply was, “No, sir!” 
straightway he commanded them to lift him to his perch. In this way 
the day wore on; Ahab, now aloft and motionless; anon, unrestingly 
pacing the planks. 
As he was thus walking, uttering no sound, except to hail the men 
aloft, or to bid them hoist a sail still higher, or to spread one to a 
still greater breadth — thus to and fro pacing, beneath his slouched 
hat, at every turn he passed his own wrecked boat, which had been 
dropped upon the quarter-deck, and lay there reversed; broken bow 
to shattered stern. At last he paused before it; and as in an already 
over-clouded sky fresh troops of clouds will sometimes sail across, so 
over the old man’s face there now stole some such added gloom as this. 
Stubb saw him pause; and perhaps intending, not vainly, though, 
to evince his own unabated fortitude, and thus keep up a valiant place 
in his Captain’s mind, he advanced, and eyeing the wreck exclaimed — 
“The thistle the ass refused ; it pricked his mouth too keenly, sir ; ha ! 
ha!” 
“What soulless thing is this that laughs before a wreck?' Man, 
man! did I not know thee brave as fearless fire (and as mechanical) I 
could swear thou wert. a poltroon. Groan nor laugh should be heard 
before a wreck.” 
“Aye, sir,” said Starbuck, drawing near, “ ’tis a solemn sight ; an 
omen, and an ill one.” 
“Omen? omen? — the dictionary! If the gods think to speak out- 
right to man, they will honourably speak outright; not shake their 
heads, and give an old wife’s darkling hint. — Begone! Ye two are the 
opposite poles of one thing; Starbuck is Stubb reversed, and Stubb is 
Starbuck ; and ye two are all mankind ; and Ahab stands alone among 
the millions of the peopled earth, nor gods nor men his neighbours ! 
