Chapter 53 48．first sign

Just when everyone was keeping a close eye on the big whale and preparing to jump into the boat at any time, a shout came from behind us: "Wait a minute!" The voice came from Captain Ahab behind him. Everyone was stunned, their gazes were taken away from the big whale in front, and turned to Captain Ahab behind. It doesn't matter if you look at it, everyone was taken aback. Five dark men stood beside Captain Ahab, looking like ghosts that just came out of nowhere. Where did these five people come from? When did these five people get out? What happened before and after?

Everyone asked why in amazement. Just when everyone was still wondering, these big black men had already started to act according to Captain Ahab's orders. They walked to the spare boat at the other end of the deck, and silently untied the rope on it. After a while, the small boat was unloaded. It was Captain Ahab's private boat. One of the five people stood on the bow of the boat, and his image was particularly prominent. He was tall, with a dark face, his lips were made of iron, and his white teeth were exposed, which made people feel uncomfortable, as if there was an evil spirit.

What is even more strange is that they wore Chinese-style black jackets and fat black trousers, but tied a white turban on their heads. While everyone was guessing where these guys came from, Captain Ahab spoke: "Ready, Fedara?" He asked who was the leader. "All right." The leader named Fedala said hoarsely. "Then let's go!" Captain Ahab finally gave orders to all. His voice sounded like a thunderclap, startling the astonished sailors. Everyone jumped up reflexively, passed the side of the ship in one leap, and entered the small boat below. The speed and skill of the movements made laymen stunned after seeing it.

Three skiffs rowed out from the stern. At this time, the captain's boat caught up. While everyone was watching, the five dark guys waved their arms and rowed the boat very fast. Captain Ahab stood upright in the bow, and greeted Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask loudly. He moved them a little away from each other, so that all the boats rushed towards the whales like a fan. But everyone's eyes were on those black guys, and no one carried out Captain Ahab's order. "Spread out, do you hear me?" Captain Ahab began to shout. Only then did the boat follow Captain Ahab's command.

"Well, what I said last night was not wrong, right?" The sailor named Aki whispered to Apo. "They are the people who were originally hiding in the bottom cabin. I have heard suspicious voices in the cabin a long time ago." Stubb looked at the sailors in his own boat, supervised the formation and said: "Row quickly, my brethren, and don't look at those people anymore. What's there to see in them, even if they are devils, we should be happy, because they are here to help us." "Hurry up, brothers, push harder, yes, be steady, fast and steady."

Stubb was muttering, thinking of all kinds of words, and kept cheering up his subordinates. His words are thick and strong, even sarcasm and witty. He not only wants to encourage the sailors, but also tells them the essentials and guides their paddling techniques, so his words have many layers of content. Not only did his sailors not dislike him, on the contrary, they also bought into his unique rowing experience. Stubb's spell works, and at the heart of his spell, of course, is his genius for humor. As a result, the sailors became stronger and the boat went faster. Starbuck's boat passed Stubb's boat, and Stubb called to him.

"Mr. Starbuck, tell me, how did those people get here?" "Must have come up just as our ship was about to sail." Starbuck said affirmatively, but went on: "Don't worry, Stubb, it's all God's will, let them have their way, we only care about the whale's oil, that's what we're here for, aren't we? Hurry up, boys, don't think of anything else gone." "Yeah, I think so too. I have long suspected that the cabin is under, because Captain Ahab is always running down, and Tang Yuan is also suspicious." "They've been hiding there all the time, just like the white whale, down there, but, what we met today wasn't a white whale!"

It is undeniable that the appearance of these strangers brought some surprise and confusion to the sailors. However, after a while, these things began to fade away. After all, they seemed to have expected something before this, just like what Aki guessed. Everyone was somewhat prepared, so their surprise was greatly reduced. So for the time being, everyone no longer guessed Captain Ahab's real intention, nor did they make superstitious speculation about this matter. Captain Ahab did not hear Starbuck and Stubb's conversation, for he was already sailing to windward. Not only that, but he was already ahead of the other three boats, and pulled them down a short distance.

Originally, the sailors of the "Pequode" were already the best oarsmen on the whaling ship, but they paled in comparison with Captain Ahab's current oarsmen, which shows how good Captain Ahab's oarsmen are. sharp. The five big men rushed up and down with the rhythm, rowing the boat forward and backward, like a small motorboat on the Mississippi River. They all seem to be made of steel and iron, with infinite strength. Fedala had taken off his black clothes and tossed them aside, and was now bare-chested. He stood in the forefront, holding the javeliner's oar, calm and composed, his shadow reflected in the sea.

Captain Ahab sat at the back of the boat, where the helmsman was, with his chest straight. He held the tiller as if wielding a sword, and stared straight ahead. Suddenly, Captain Ahab's movements stopped abruptly, as if a machine had suddenly stopped working. The five oarsmen also stopped. So the whole boat stopped moving, and everyone stopped. The three small boats behind were confused by this strange scene, and stopped one after another. "What's the matter?" cried Starbuck. "Stay, and watch your oars, Queequeg, and get up and have a look." Starbuck gave Queequeg his orders.

Queequeg quickly stood up from the bow of the ship, looking at the sea in front of him like a sword. Starbuck also looked forward from his place. At the same time, Flask's boat stopped not far away. Flask stood on the column at the rear of the boat, and kept lifting his short frame, looking forward. "I can't see a thing, big man, come here quickly, let me step on the paddle and see." The big man came up and stood up straight with his back to Flask. "How can this work." "That's great, big man." As Flask said, he climbed onto the big man's shoulders, stepped firmly, and stood up. Flask stood on the big man's shoulders, looking ahead. The big man stood upright, motionless. This scene is quite a spectacle on the rough sea. But neither Queequeg nor Flask opened their eyes as wide as they could, but they saw nothing. Even the whales were gone. It turned out that the whales all dived under the water, and Captain Ahab saw it, but the people behind them did not. However, Stubb did not express much surprise. "Maybe the whales were on a routine dive? Not fleeing out of fear." So thinking, Stubb took his pipe from his hat, filled it with tobacco, and struck a match with his rough hands. Despite the fuss of the other boats, Stubb never panicked. Tustego had been standing in his seat, staring straight ahead with his eyes wide open. Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, he fell back to his seat, and cried out at the same time: "Sit down, hurry up and start paddling! The big whale is out, it's over there!" Sure enough, on the surface of the sea not far away, the sea water had already begun to be muddied, bursts of smoke had already drifted away, and the surrounding atmosphere seemed to be in a commotion, as if there was a big red soldering iron underwater scalding the sea water. It was boiling. Although there is no shadow of the big whale yet, this is the signal that the big whale is about to rise from the sea. The four small boats rushed towards it quickly, and followed the rapids and kept chasing, searching for the trace of the big whale. Starbuck lowered his voice to encourage his sailors: "Brothers, hurry up, hurry up!" Other than that, he didn't say anything else, his eyes were fixed on the front, his eyes were like two compass needles. His sailors didn't say a word either, they just pulled on desperately. Flask, however, barked loudly and was extremely active. "Don't be silent, brothers, cry out, and your strength will be multiplied. If you drag me on the back of the whale, I will give you what you want. My homeland, my wife Children, do as you want, I just want you to hurry up now, look at the white water, God, I'm going crazy!" Flask tore off his hat in a hurry, stamped it with his foot, picked it up again, and threw it far out to sea. In the end, he actually stood upright at the stern of the boat, looking like a mad horse. Stubb was still smoking the pipe he had unlighted because of Tustego's yelling, and still in no hurry. "Look at that guy, Flask, that's what he looks like when he sees a whale, and now he's doing it again. Look how happy that guy is. Let him go, let him have a good time." "Row, boys, row hard, but slowly and steadily, and don't rush, and it looks like we'll have pudding tonight." The commanders on the three small boats inspired their soldiers in this way, and they moved forward bravely. How Captain Ahab inspired the sailors in his boat we do not know. However, at this moment, Captain Ahab's face was full of murderous intent, and his mouth was even covered with white saliva from shouting. The four small boats were like four sharp swords, piercing straight towards the whales. What an exciting scene it was! The sea stretches as far as the eye can see, the waves are rough, the whales are scrambling to escape, refusing to give in to each other, and the small boats are like arrows leaving the string, chasing after them. The sound of the waves, oars, shouts, and panting all come together, like a battle of tens of thousands of horses galloping and thousands of armies fighting. If someone who has never seen a whaling sees this scene, he will definitely feel a chilling feeling in his heart. Even sailors who were sailing for the first time couldn't help being excited when they saw this scene. The big ship, with its sails stretched all the time, followed closely behind the boat, as if it was their strong support. Bailang is getting closer and closer, and he can see more and more clearly. The mist that was originally blurred due to being too far away can now be seen much more carefully, and they are flying in all directions. The whales no longer have a neat formation, but spread out, and the whales are now running for their own lives. The four small boats were even more scattered now, and each of them had already started to look for their own targets, and some of them had already found them. Our boat sailed into a great mist, and we could see nothing but ourselves. "Hurry up, brothers, the wind is going to blow, we must catch one before we have time." "Quick, there's white water over there, row over." Just as we were rowing that way, there were two cheers from both sides of us. It seemed that other boats had hit the whale. Just as the cheers came, Starbuck shouted in a low voice: "Stand up!" Queequeg sprang to his feet, harpoon in hand. For a professional whaler, this is the real critical moment of life and death. Although we didn't feel it at the time, we all saw Starbuck's tense and serious expression. We heard the sound of a whale rolling, which was as loud as fifty elephants put together. Starbuck pointed ahead, and whispered to Queequeg: "Look, there's the hump of the whale. How about it, give him a guy." The javelin in Kui Kui's gun flew out. No sooner had Queequeg finished than we felt something jerk our stern forward, while at the same time we seemed to hit the rocks forward. Then the sail broke all at once, and it seemed as if a gigantic hand was moving the boat back and forth at the bottom of the boat. The boat rolled violently and almost sank. All the sailors were thrown into a panic, and at this moment, a strong wind blew up. The sea suddenly became a mess. Looking at the big whale again, Queequeg's javelin just brushed the side lightly, was startled, and had already fled. We all fell into the water and started swimming around the skiff. We picked up the stray oars from the water, tied them back to the gunwale, and climbed back into the boat. The water in the dinghy was up to our knees, and we sat in it like we were in a tub. The wind was howling, the waves were raging, and we were tightly surrounded. We struggled hard and stayed at the entrance of the gate of hell again and again. We desperately called to the other small boats, but we didn't get any echo in the strong wind. It was getting dark and everything was blurring. Our idea of ​​saving the boat was becoming more and more remote, and now we can only use it as a tool for our survival. Starbuck found a waterproof match bucket, and after a long time of effort, finally lit the lantern. Afterwards, he handed the lantern to Queequeg, and sat aside, watching the lantern struggle in the dimness. Everyone's clothes had been soaked for a long time, and the cold wind blew, and everyone shook together. We are almost hopeless. So we got through the night. The big light began to shine, and we raised our eyes and looked around. The fog was still so thick that people couldn't see very far. The fire in the lantern had been extinguished, leaving only an empty shell abandoned at the bottom of the boat. Suddenly Queequeg jumped up, and said he heard a sound. Indeed, there was a sound of something cracking, and it was getting closer. There was also the sound of the wind blowing the sails. All of a sudden, everyone looked up and found that our big ship was breaking through the thick fog and heading straight towards us, only one big ship's length away from us. Everyone was so frightened that they almost died and jumped into the sea one after another. The big boat bumped into the small boat we had just abandoned, and the small boat struggled a few times and fell apart. The huge hull passed directly over it, and after that, debris floated up from the back of the big ship. We swam to the ship, were pulled aboard, and were saved. After a while, the other small boats also came back, but they also found nothing. It turned out that they also endured the night at sea. Originally, the people on the big ship felt that we were finished.