123. CHAPTER CXXIII.
THE MUSKET.
During the most violent shocks of the Typhoon, the man at
the Pequod's jaw-bone tiller had several times been reelingly
hurled to the deck by its spasmodic motions, even though preventer
tackles had been attached to it—for they were slack—
because some play to the tiller was indispensable.
In a severe gale like this, while the ship is but a tossed shuttlecock
to the blast, it is by no means uncommon to see the needles
in the compasses, at intervals, go round and round. It was
thus with the Pequod's; at almost every shock the helmsman
had not failed to notice the whirling velocity with which they
revolved upon the cards; it is a sight that hardly any one can
behold without some sort of unwonted emotion.
Some hours after midnight, the Typhoon abated so much, that
through the strenuous exertions of Starbuck and Stubb—one
engaged forward and the other aft—the shivered remnants of
the jib and fore and main-top-sails were cut adrift from the spars,
and went eddying away to leeward, like the feathers of an albatross,
which sometimes are cast to the winds when that storm-tossed
bird is on the wing.
The three corresponding new sails were now bent and reefed,
and a storm-trysail was set further aft; so that the ship soon
went through the water with some precision again; and the
course—for the present, East-south-east—which he was to steer,
if practicable, was once more given to the helmsman. For
during the violence of the gale, he had only steered according
to its vicissitudes. But as he was now bringing the ship as
near her course as possible, watching the compass meanwhile,
lo! a good sign! the wind seemed coming round astern; aye,
the foul breeze became fair!
Instantly the yards were squared, to the lively song of “Ho!
the fair wind! oh-he-yo, cheerly, men!” the crew singing for
joy, that so promising an event should so soon have falsified
the evil portents preceding it.
In compliance with the standing order of his commander—
to report immediately, and at any one of the twenty-four hours,
any decided change in the affairs of the deck,—Starbuck had
no sooner trimmed the yards to the breeze—however reluctantly
and gloomily,—than he mechanically went below to apprise
Captain Ahab of the circumstance.
Ere knocking at his state-room, he involuntarily paused
before it a moment. The cabin lamp—taking long swings this
way and that—was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows
upon the old man's bolted door,—a thin one, with fixed blinds
inserted, in place of upper panels. The isolated subterraneousness
of the cabin made a certain humming silence to reign there,
though it was hooped round by all the roar of the elements.
The loaded muskets in the rack were shiningly revealed, as
they stood upright against the forward bulkhead. Starbuck
was an honest, upright man; but out of Starbuck's heart,
at that instant when he saw the muskets, there strangely
evolved an evil thought; but so blent with its neutral or
good accompaniments that for the instant he hardly knew it for
itself.
“He would have shot me once,” he murmured, “yes, there's
the very musket that he pointed at me;—that one with the studded
stock; let me touch it—lift it. Strange, that I, who have handled
so many deadly lances, strange, that I should shake so now.
Loaded? I must see. Aye, aye; and powder in the pan;—that's
not good. Best spill it?—wait. I'll cure myself of this. I'll hold
the musket boldly while I think.—I come to report a fair wind
to him. But how fair? Fair for death and doom,—that's fair
for Moby Dick. It's a fair wind that's only fair for that
accursed fish.—The very tube he pointed at me!—the very
one; this one—I hold it here; he would have killed me
with the very thing I handle now.—Aye and he would fain
kill all his crew. Does he not say he will not strike his spars
to any gale? Has he not dashed his heavenly quadrant? and
in these same perilous seas, gropes he not his way by mere
dead reckoning of the error-abounding log? and in this very
Typhoon, did he not swear that he would have no lightning-rods?
But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered
to drag a whole ship's company down to doom with him?
—Yes, it would make him the wilful murderer of thirty
men and more, if this ship come to any deadly harm; and come
to deadly harm, my soul swears this ship will, if Ahab have his
way. If, then, he were this instant—put aside, that crime would
not be his. Ha! is he muttering in his sleep? Yes, just there,
—in there, he's sleeping. Sleeping? aye, but still alive, and
soon awake again. I can't withstand thee, then, old man.
Not reasoning; not remonstrance; not entreaty wilt thou
hearken to; all this thou scornest. Flat obedience to thy own
flat commands, this is all thou breathest. Aye, and say'st the
men have vow'd thy vow; say'st all of us are Ahabs. Great
God forbid!—But is there no other way? no lawful way?—
Make him a prisoner to be taken home? What! hope to wrest
this old man's living power from his own living hands? Only
a fool would try it. Say he were pinioned even; knotted all
over with ropes and hawsers; chained down to ring-bolts on
this cabin floor; he would be more hideous than a caged tiger,
then. I could not endure the sight; could not possibly fly his
howlings; all comfort, sleep itself, inestimable reason would
leave me on the long intolerable voyage. What, then, remains?
The land is hundreds of leagues away, and locked Japan the
nearest. I stand alone here upon an open sea, with two oceans
and a whole continent between me and law.—Aye, aye, 'tis so.
—Is heaven a murderer when its lightning strikes a would-be
murderer in his bed, tindering sheets and skin together?—And
would I be a murderer, then, if” — and slowly, stealthily,
and half sideways looking, he placed the loaded musket's end
against the door.
“On this level, Ahab's hammock swings within; his head
this way. A touch, and Starbuck may survive to hug his wife
and child again.—Oh Mary! Mary!—boy! boy! boy!—But
if I wake thee not to death, old man, who can tell to what
unsounded deeps Starbuck's body this day week may sink, with
all the crew! Great God, where art thou? Shall I? shall
I? — The wind has gone down and shifted, sir; the
fore and main topsails are reefed and set; she heads her
course.”
“Stern all! Oh Moby Dick, I clutch thy heart at last!”
Such were the sounds that now came hurtling from out the
old man's tormented sleep, as if Starbuck's voice had caused the
long dumb dream to speak.
The yet levelled musket shook like a drunkard's arm against
the panel; Starbuck seemed wrestling with an angel; but turning
from the door, he placed the death-tube in its rack, and left
the place.
“He's too sound asleep, Mr. Stubb; go thou down, and
wake him, and tell him. I must see to the deck here. Thou
know'st what to say.”
