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"Heated and irritated as he was by his spasmodic toil at the pumps, for all his first nameless feeling of forbearance the sweating Steelkilt could but ill brook this bearing in the mate; but somehow still smothering the conflagration within him, without speaking he remained doggedly rooted to his seat, till at last the incensed Radney shook the hammer within a few inches of his face, furiously commanding him to do his bidding.
But he's a simple old soul, Rad, and a beauty too. Boys, they say the rest of his property is invested in looking-glasses. I wonder if he'd give a poor devil like me the model of his nose. "'Damn your eyes! what's that pump stopping for? roared Radney, pretending not to have heard the sailors' talk. 'Thunder away at it! 'Aye, aye, sir, said Steelkilt, merry as a cricket.
Immediately the hammer touched the cheek; the next instant the lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head; he fell on the hatch spouting blood like a whale. "Ere the cry could go aft Steelkilt was shaking one of the backstays leading far aloft to where two of his comrades were standing their mastheads. They were both Canallers. "'Canallers! cried Don Pedro.
Thus, gentlemen, though an inlander, Steelkilt was wild-ocean born, and wild-ocean nurtured; as much of an audacious mariner as any.
Besides, it was the stronger men in the Town-Ho that had been divided into gangs, taking turns at the pumps; and being the most athletic seaman of them all, Steelkilt had been regularly assigned captain of one of the gangs; consequently he should have been freed from any trivial business not connected with truly nautical duties, such being the case with his comrades.
On the fifth morning three others of the mutineers bolted up into the air from the desperate arms below that sought to restrain them. Only three were left. "'Better turn to, now? said the Captain with a heartless jeer. "'Shut us up again, will ye! cried Steelkilt. "'Oh certainly, the Captain, and the key clicked. For himself, he would do this, he said, whether they joined him or not.
Twenty-four hours after, his trick at the silent helm nigh to the man who was apt to doze over the grave always ready dug to the seaman's hand that fatal hour was then to come; and in the fore-ordaining soul of Steelkilt, the mate was already stark and stretched as a corpse, with his forehead crushed in. "But, gentlemen, a fool saved the would-be murderer from the bloody deed he had planned.
The fetid closeness of the air, and a famishing diet, united perhaps to some fears of ultimate retribution, had constrained them to surrender at discretion. Emboldened by this, the Captain reiterated his demand to the rest, but Steelkilt shouted up to him a terrific hint to stop his babbling and betake himself where he belonged.
"Where Steelkilt now is, gentlemen, none know; but upon the island of Nantucket, the widow of Radney still turns to the sea which refuses to give up its dead; still in dreams sees the awful white whale that destroyed him. "'Are you through? said Don Sebastian, quietly. "'I am, Don. "'Then I entreat you, tell me if to the best of your own convictions, this your story is in substance really true?
Turn to! and he once more raised a pistol. "'Sink the ship? cried Steelkilt. 'Aye, let her sink. Not a man of us turns to, unless you swear not to raise a rope-yarn against us. What say ye, men? turning to his comrades. A fierce cheer was their response.
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