“An hour, he will come up again in an hour,” said Ahab. But it was only a moment. The breeze began to blow again and the sea began to move.
“The birds! – the birds!” cried one of the whalers.
The white birds were flying in circles over Ahab’s boat. The vision of the birds is better than ours; Ahab could not see anything in the sea. But suddenly, as he looked down and down into the depths, he saw deep down a white living spot no bigger than a white weasel, with incredible quickness rising and magnifying as it rose. When it turned, he could see clearly two rows of whining white teeth. It was Moby Dick’s open mouth!
Moby Dick took Ahab’s boat in his mouth and lifted it up out of the water. Ahab was furious. He was so close to Moby Dick, but he could not do anything about it. For a moment Moby Dick held the boat as if he were playing with it. Then he broke it in two. Fortunately, Starbuck picked up the Captain and his men in his boat, and they returned to the Pequod.
