“Shipmates! Have you signed on to that ship?”
Queequeg and I had just left the Pequod and were walking away from the harbor, each of us lost in thought.
A ragged-looking stranger suddenly stepped in front of us and pointed toward the ship.
He wore a faded jacket, patched trousers, and a torn black scarf around his neck. His face was badly scarred from smallpox, making his skin look like a dry riverbed after the water had disappeared.
“Did you sign on to her?” he asked again.
“You mean the Pequod?” I asked, giving myself a little more time to study him.
“Yes, the Pequod. That ship over there.”
He pulled his arm back and then thrust it forward, pointing sharply at the vessel.
“Yes,” I replied. “We just signed the papers.”
The stranger looked at us.
“Did those papers say anything about your souls?”
“Our souls?”
“Yes. Your souls.”
“Oh, perhaps you don’t have any,” he said quickly. “It doesn’t matter. I know plenty of sailors without souls, and they seem perfectly happy. Sometimes a soul is just extra weight that a man doesn’t need.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
The stranger suddenly pointed at Queequeg.
“He has enough soul to make up for whatever the rest of you are missing.”
He put unusual emphasis on the word he.
I turned to Queequeg.
“Come on. Let’s go. This man must have escaped from somewhere. He’s talking about people and things we know nothing about.”
“Wait!” the stranger shouted.
“You’re right. You haven’t seen Old Thunder yet, have you?”
“Who is Old Thunder?” I asked.
His strange seriousness made me stop.
“Captain Ahab.”
I stared at him.
“What? You mean the captain of the Pequod?”
“Yes. Some of us old sailors call him Old Thunder.”
“You haven’t seen him yet?”
“No.”
“I heard he’s sick,” I said, “but he’s getting better and should be fine soon.”
“Fine soon?”
The stranger gave a slow, mocking laugh.
“Listen to me. When Captain Ahab is completely well again, then this left arm of mine will be well too.”
He held up his arm.
“Not before.”
“What do you know about him?”
The stranger stared at me.
“No. Tell me what they told you about him.”
“They didn’t tell me much. I only heard that he’s a great whale hunter and a good captain.”
“That’s true. Both of those things are true.”
He paused.
“But when Ahab gives an order, you obey. You move when he tells you to move. You work when he tells you to work. That’s the way it is with Captain Ahab.”
His expression suddenly became darker.
“But did they tell you what happened to him near Cape Horn?”
I said nothing.
“He nearly died there. He lay like a dead man for three days and three nights.”
The stranger continued.
“And what about his terrible fight with a Spaniard in front of an altar?”
“Did you hear about that?”
“What about the silver cup he spat into?”
“Did anyone tell you about that?”
“And what about the prophecy that said he would lose his leg on his last voyage?”
He looked at me closely.
“You never heard about any of those things, did you?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. How could you? Hardly anyone knows the whole story. Not even everyone in Nantucket knows it.”
He paused.
“Of course, you’ve probably heard about his leg.”
“Yes. Everyone knows he has only one leg.”
“And everyone knows a sperm whale took the other one.”
“My friend,” I said, “I have no idea what all this strange talk is supposed to mean, and frankly, I don’t care much.”
“You seem a little crazy to me.”
“But if you’re talking about Captain Ahab of the Pequod, I can tell you that I know exactly how he lost his leg.”
The stranger suddenly became very serious.
“You know?”
He pointed toward the Pequod.
“You know all about it?”
“I’m quite sure I do.”
The stranger stood silently for a moment, staring at the Pequod.
He looked troubled, as though he were trying to remember something.
Then he suddenly turned back toward us.
“So you’ve signed on?”
“Yes.”
“Your names are already on the papers?”
“Yes.”
“Well, what’s signed is signed.”
He gave a strange little nod.
“And what is going to happen will happen.”
He paused.
“Then again, perhaps it won’t.”
I didn’t know what to make of him.
“Anyway, it’s already decided,” he continued. “Some sailors have to go with Ahab, I suppose.”
He looked at us.
“Might as well be you two as anyone else.”
“God help you.”
Then he stepped back.
“Good morning, shipmates. May heaven bless you.”
His voice suddenly sounded almost sorrowful.
“I’m sorry I stopped you.”
I turned toward him.
“Listen, if you have something important to tell us, then tell us.”
“But if you’re only trying to frighten us with mysterious stories, you’ve picked the wrong men.”
The stranger smiled.
“You said that well. I like hearing a man speak that way.”
He studied me for a moment.
“You’re exactly the sort of man he needs.”
“Good morning, shipmates.”
He started to leave, then suddenly turned back.
“Oh, when you get there, tell them I’ve decided not to join them after all.”
I shook my head.
“You can’t fool us with that.”
“It’s easy for a man to make himself look mysterious,” I said. “Anyone can pretend he knows some terrible secret.”
The stranger only smiled.
“Good morning, shipmates.”
“Good morning,” I replied.
I turned to Queequeg.
“Come on. Let’s leave this crazy man.”
We started walking away, but then I stopped.
“Wait. What’s your name?”
The stranger looked back at us.
“Elijah.”
“Elijah,” I thought.
Queequeg and I continued walking. We talked about the ragged old sailor and agreed that he was nothing more than a fraud trying to frighten us.
But we had gone only about a hundred yards when I turned around.
There was Elijah.
He was following us.
He kept his distance, but there was no mistaking it.
For some reason, seeing him behind us made me uneasy. I said nothing to Queequeg.
Instead, I kept walking and waited to see what he would do.
We turned a corner.
A moment later, Elijah turned the same corner.
Now it really seemed as if he was following us.
But why?
What could he possibly want?
His strange words began running through my mind.
The Pequod.
Captain Ahab.
His missing leg.
The terrible incident near Cape Horn.
The silver cup.
What Captain Peleg had told me the day before.
The strange prophecy I had heard from Tistig.
And the voyage we had just agreed to make.
All these things suddenly seemed connected somehow.
I began to feel a vague sense of danger, though I couldn’t explain why.
I decided to find out whether Elijah was truly following us.
I crossed the street with Queequeg and then turned around, walking back the way we had come.
If Elijah really was following us, he should have followed us back.
But he didn’t.
He continued walking without even seeming to notice us.
That relieved me.
Once again, I decided that Elijah was nothing more than a strange old sailor trying to frighten us.
And, at least for the moment, I finally convinced myself that he was just a fraud.