"My line! my line? Gone?--gone? What means that little word?--What
death-knell rings in it, that old Ahab shakes as if he were the belfry.
The harpoon, too!--toss over the litter there,--d'ye see it?--the
forged iron, men, the white whale's--no, no, no,--blistered fool! this
hand did dart it!--'tis in the fish!--Aloft there! Keep him
nailed--Quick!--all hands to the rigging of the boats--collect the
oars--harpooners! the irons, the irons! hoist the royals higher--a pull
on all the sheets! helm there! steady, steady for your life! I'll
ten-times girdle the unmeasured globe; yea and dive straight through
it, but I'll slay him yet!"

"Great God! but for one single instant show thyself," cried Starbuck;
"never, never will thou capture him, old man--In Jesus' name no more of
this, that's worse than devil's madness. Two days chased; twice stove
to splinters; thy very leg once more snatched from under thee; thy evil
shadow gone--all good angles mobbing thee with warnings:--what more
wouldst thou have?--Shall we keep chasing this murdeous fish till he
swamps the last man? Shall we be dragged by him to the bottom of the
sea? Shall we be towed by him to the infernal world? Oh, oh,--Impiety
and blasphemy to hunt him more!"

"Starbuck, of late I've felt strangely moved to thee; ever since that
hour we both saw--thou know'st what, in one another's eyes. But in
this matter of the whale, be the front of thy face to me as the palm of
this hand--a lipless, unfeatured blank. Ahab is for ever Ahab, man.
This whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a
billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I am the Fates'
lieutenant; I act under orders. Look thou, underling! that thou
obeyest mine.--Stand round me, men. Ye see an old man cut down to the
stump; leaning on a shivered lance; propped up on a lonely foot. 'Tis