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- .. < chapter cxx 10 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.
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- 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!
- .. <p 503 >
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