Moby Dick

"'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.

"The Lakeman now patrolled the barricade, all the while keeping
his eye on the Captain, and jerking out such sentences as these:--
'It's not our fault; we didn't want it; I told him to take
his hammer away; it was boy's business; he might have known
me before this; I told him not to prick the buffalo;
I believe I have broken a finger here against his cursed jaw;
ain't those mincing knives down in the forecastle there,
men? look to those handspikes, my hearties.  Captain, by God,
look to yourself; say the word; don't be a fool; forget it all;
we are ready to turn to; treat us decently, and we're your men;
but we won't be flogged.'

"'Turn to!  I make no promises, turn to, I say!'

"'Look ye, now,' cried the Lakeman, flinging out his arm towards him,
'there are a few of us here (and I am one of them) who have shipped
for the cruise, d'ye see; now as you well know, sir, we can claim
our discharge as soon as the anchor is down; so we don't want a row;
it's not our interest; we want to be peaceable; we are ready to work,
but we won't be flogged.'

"'Turn to!' roared the Captain.

"Steelkilt glanced round him a moment, and then said:--'I tell
you what it is now, Captain, rather than kill ye, and be hung
for such a shabby rascal, we won't lift a hand against ye unless
ye attack us; but till you say the word about not flogging us,
we don't do a hand's turn.'

"'Down into the forecastle then, down with ye, I'll keep ye there
till ye're sick of it.  Down ye go.'

"'Shall we?' cried the ringleader to his men.  Most of them
were against it; but at length, in obedience to Steelkilt,
they preceded him down into their dark den, growlingly disappearing,
like bears into a cave.

"As the Lakeman's bare head was just level with the planks,
the Captain and his posse leaped the barricade, and rapidly drawing
over the slide of the scuttle, planted their group of hands upon it,
and loudly called for the steward to bring the heavy brass padlock
belonging to the companionway.

Then opening the slide a little, the Captain whispered something down
the crack, closed it, and turned the key upon them--ten in number--
leaving on deck some twenty or more, who thus far had remained neutral.

"All night a wide-awake watch was kept by all the officers,
forward and aft, especially about the forecastle scuttle and
fore hatchway; at which last place it was feared the insurgents
might emerge, after breaking through the bulkhead below.
But the hours of darkness passed in peace; the men who still
remained at their duty toiling hard at the pumps, whose clinking
and clanking at intervals through the dreary night dismally
resounded through the ship.

"At sunrise the Captain went forward, and knocking on the deck,
summoned the prisoners to work; but with a yell they refused.
Water was then lowered down to them, and a couple of handfuls
of biscuit were tossed after it; when again turning the key upon
them and pocketing it, the Captain returned to the quarter-deck.
Twice every day for three days this was repeated; but on the fourth
morning a confused wrangling, and then a scuffling was heard,
as the customary summons was delivered; and suddenly four men
burst up from the forecastle, saying they were ready to turn to.
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.
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," said the Captain, and the key clicked.

"It was at this point, gentlemen, that enraged by the defection
of seven of his former associates, and stung by the mocking voice
that had last hailed him, and maddened by his long entombment in a place
as black as the bowels of despair; it was then that Steelkilt proposed
to the two Canallers, thus far apparently of one mind with him, to burst
out of their hole at the next summoning of the garrison; and armed
with their keen mincing knives (long, crescentic, heavy implements
with a handle at each end) run amuck from the bowsprit to the taffrail;
and if by any devilishness of desperation possible, seize the ship.
For himself, he would do this, he said, whether they joined him
or not.  That was the last night he should spend in that den.
But the scheme met with no opposition on the part of the other two;
they swore they were ready for that, or for any other mad thing,
for anything in short but a surrender.  And what was more, they each
insisted upon being the first man on deck, when the time to make