Seizing that opportunity, Ahab first paid out more
line: and then was rapidly hauling and jerking in upon it again--hoping
that way to disencumber it of some snarls--when lo!--a sight more
savage than the embattled teeth of sharks!
Caught and twisted--corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose
harpoons and lances, with all their bristling barbs and points, came
flashing and dripping up to the chocks in the bows of Ahab's boat.
Only one thing could be done. Seizing the boat-knife, he critically
reached within--through--and then, without--the rays of steel; dragged
in the line beyond, passed it inboard, to the bowsman, and then, twice
sundering the rope near the chocks--dropped the intercepted fagot of
steel into the sea; and was all fast again. That instant, the White
Whale made a sudden rush among the remaining tangles of the other
lines; by so doing, irresistibly dragged the more involved boats of
Stubb and Flack towards his flukes; dashed them together like two
rolling husks on a surf-beaten beach, and then, diving down into the
sea, disappeared in a boiling maelstrom, in which, for a space, the
odorous cedar chips of the wrecks danced round and round, like grated
nutmeg in a swiftly stirred bowl of punch.
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