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CHAPTER 36 . The Quarter - Deck . ( Enter Ahab : Then , all . ) It was not a great while after the affair of the pipe , that one morning shortly after breakfast , Ahab , as was his wont , ascended the cabin - gangway to the deck . There most sea - captains usually walk at that hour , as country gentlemen , after the same meal , take a few turns in the garden . Soon his steady , ivory stride was heard , as to and fro he paced his old rounds , upon planks so familiar to his tread , that they were all over dented , like geological stones , with the peculiar mark of his walk . Did you fixedly gaze , too , upon that ribbed and dented brow ; there also , you would see still stranger foot - prints — the foot - prints of his one unsleeping , ever - pacing thought . But on the occasion in question , those dents looked deeper , even as his nervous step that morning left a deeper mark . And , so full of his thought was Ahab , that at every uniform turn that he made , now at the main - mast and now at the binnacle , you could almost see that thought turn in him as he turned , and pace in him as he paced ; so completely possessing him , indeed , that it all but seemed the inward mould of every outer movement . “ D’ye mark him , Flask ? ” whispered Stubb ; “ the chick that’s in him pecks the shell . ’ Twill soon be out . ” The hours wore on ; — Ahab now shut up within his cabin ; anon , pacing the deck , with the same intense bigotry of purpose in his aspect . It drew near the close of day . Suddenly he came to a halt by the bulwarks , and inserting his bone leg into the auger - hole there , and with one hand grasping a shroud , he ordered Starbuck to send everybody aft . “ Sir ! ” said the mate , astonished at an order seldom or never given on ship - board except in some extraordinary case . “ Send everybody aft , ” repeated Ahab . “ Mast - heads , there ! come down ! ” When the entire ship’s company were assembled , and with curious and not wholly unapprehensive faces , were eyeing him , for he looked not unlike the weather horizon when a storm is coming up , Ahab , after rapidly glancing over the bulwarks , and then darting his eyes among the crew , started from his standpoint ; and as though not a soul were nigh him resumed his heavy turns upon the deck . With bent head and half - slouched hat he continued to pace , unmindful of the wondering whispering among the men ; till Stubb cautiously whispered to Flask , that Ahab must have summoned them there for the purpose of witnessing a pedestrian feat . But this did not last long . Vehemently pausing , he cried : — “ What do ye do when ye see a whale , men ? ” “ Sing out for him ! ” was the impulsive rejoinder from a score of clubbed voices .
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