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CHAPTER 123 . 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 anyone 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 - ye - ho , 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 .
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