One night the old man, as he sometimes did, stepped outside of his cabin. He smelled the air like a dog. He declared that the whale must be near. Soon that peculiar odour, which comes from the living sperm whale, was noticed by everybody. Ahab rapidly ordered the ship’s course to be changed.
At daybreak, Ahab shouted, “Call all hands!”
“What do you see?” Ahab asked the sailors.
“Nothing, nothing, sir!” was their reply.
Then the Captain was pulled up along the mast so he could see better, and before he was at the top he shouted, “There she blows! - - there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!”
“And did none of you see it before?” cried Ahab, calling to the other men up on the masts.
“I saw him almost that same instant that you did, sir,” said one of the sailors.
