Chapter 122.00: CHAPTER 120. The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch.

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CHAPTER 120. The Deck Towards the End of the First Night Watch.
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Ahab standing by the helm. Starbuck approaching him.

“We must send down the main-top-sail yard, sir. The band is working loose
and the lee lift is half-stranded. Shall I strike it, sir?”

“Strike nothing; lash it. If I had sky-sail poles, I’d sway them up now.”

“Sir! —in God’s name! —sir?”

“Well.”

“The anchors are working, sir. Shall I get them inboard?”

“Strike nothing, and stir nothing, but lash everything. The wind rises,
but it has not got up to my table-lands yet. Quick, and see to it. —By
masts and keels! He takes me for the hunch-backed skipper of some coasting
smack. Send down my main-top-sail yard! Ho, gluepots! Loftiest trucks were
made for wildest winds, and this brain-truck of mine now sails amid the
cloud-scud. Shall I strike that? Oh, none but cowards send down their
brain-trucks in tempest time. What a hooroosh aloft there! I would e’en
take it for sublime, did I not know that the colic is a noisy malady. Oh,
take medicine, take medicine!”