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“ 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 . ” CHAPTER 124 . The Needle . Next morning the not - yet - subsided sea rolled in long slow billows of mighty bulk , and striving in the Pequod’s gurgling track , pushed her on like giants ’ palms outspread . The strong , unstaggering breeze abounded so , that sky and air seemed vast outbellying sails ; the whole world boomed before the wind . Muffled in the full morning light , the invisible sun was only known by the spread intensity of his place ; where his bayonet rays moved on in stacks . Emblazonings , as of crowned Babylonian kings and queens , reigned over everything . The sea was as a crucible of molten gold , that bubblingly leaps with light and heat . Long maintaining an enchanted silence , Ahab stood apart ; and every time the tetering ship loweringly pitched down her bowsprit , he turned to eye the bright sun’s rays produced ahead ; and when she profoundly settled by the stern , he turned behind , and saw the sun’s rearward place , and how the same yellow rays were blending with his undeviating wake . “ Ha , ha , my ship ! thou mightest well be taken now for the sea - chariot of the sun . Ho , ho ! all ye nations before my prow , I bring the sun to ye ! Yoke on the further billows ; hallo ! a tandem , I drive the sea ! ” But suddenly reined back by some counter thought , he hurried towards the helm , huskily demanding how the ship was heading . “ East - sou - east , sir , ” said the frightened steersman . “ Thou liest ! ” smiting him with his clenched fist . “ Heading East at this hour in the morning , and the sun astern ? ” Upon this every soul was confounded ; for the phenomenon just then observed by Ahab had unaccountably escaped every one else ; but its very blinding palpableness must have been the cause . Thrusting his head half way into the binnacle , Ahab caught one glimpse of the compasses ; his uplifted arm slowly fell ; for a moment he almost seemed to stagger . Standing behind him Starbuck looked , and lo ! the two compasses pointed East , and the Pequod was as infallibly going West .
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