دومین روز

CHAPTER 12 The Second Day

“White whale! White whale!”

Moby Dick came again. He was hundreds of meters away, but we could see the shower of water from his back, high in the sky. He came out of the ocean. Then his huge body fell again and hit the water.

Three boats went after him. Captain Ahab and his men took Daggoo’s boat. In an hour the boats were all in different places around Moby Dick. Our harpoons rained down on him. Some fell into the ocean. Some hit him and stayed in his body. The harpoon ropes pulled our boats nearer to him.

Suddenly Moby Dick started swimming round and round! He opened and closed his huge mouth. He pulled hard on the ropes and the three boats moved nearer.

Flask’s boat hit ours! Wood and harpoons went everywhere. We swam quickly and tried to get away from the whale.

Moby Dick went down under the water. Where was he? I low many meters could he swim with our harpoons and ropes in him? We waited.

He came up again—under Captain Ahab’s boat! The boat broke and the men fell into the ocean. You could hear them shout and cry.

Then Moby Dick stopped moving. He stayed there and watched us. It was the strangest thing! He looked at us with his small black eye. We waited. Then he swam away quietly. Our harpoon ropes followed him in the water.

We waited for the Pequod. We had to be very careful. We didn’t shout because we didn’t want sharks to see us.

When they pulled me out of the water, I was happy and excited. I didn’t die! But the other men? Queequeg! Where was Queequeg? Then I saw him. And Stubb? Yes, he was there too —and Tashtego, Flask, and Daggoo. But where was Captain Ahab?

After some time we heard a shout. It was Captain Ahab. His arm was around Starbuck because he couldn’t walk. He had no whalebone leg now. He was tired and wet, and looked very old.

“Give me a harpoon!” he shouted angrily. “That will be my second leg for now!”

He walked with the harpoon to the men and sat down on a barrel. Then he spoke to us.

“Watch carefully,” he said. “Moby Dick will come to us on the third day. He’ll die on the third day. Who will see him first? Who will get the gold?” We didn’t shout and dance this time. We were tired. We were afraid. We stood quietly.

Captain Ahab looked around at us and his face suddenly changed. “Where’s Fedallah?” he asked.

We looked around. He wasn’t there. Nobody spoke.

Captain Ahab’s face went white. His eyes were large and black. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Then he spoke again, but the sound was different. It was high and strange.

“Find Fedallah! Do you hear me? FIND HIM!”

We looked everywhere, but we couldn’t find Fedallah.

“Maybe he went down with the ropes,” said Stubb.

Stubb wasn’t sad. The whalers weren’t sad. Captain Ahab’s men weren’t sad. Only one man on that ship wanted to see Fedallah again—the Captain. He could lose his maps—and his whalebone leg—but not Fedallah.

He shouted at the ocean. “You’ll die for this! My harpoon will end your evil life!”

I remembered Fedallah’s words to Captain Ahab: “I will go first. I will show yon the way. Yon will follow me from this world.”