Moby Dick

[Old Thunder]

"Thus far the busy Captain had not looked up to Jonah, though the man now stands before him; but no sooner does he hear that hollow voice, than he darts a scrutinising glance.

 

[Old Thunder]

"'We sail with the next coming tide,' at last he slowly answered, still intently eyeing him.

 

[Old Thunder]

"'No sooner, sir?' -- 'Soon enough for any honest man that goes a passenger.'

 

[Old Thunder]

"Ha!

 

[Old Thunder]

"Jonah! that's another stab.

 

[Old Thunder]

"But he swiftly calls away the Captain from that scent.

 

[Old Thunder]

"'I'll sail with ye,' -- he says, -- 'the passage money, how much is that? -- I'll pay now.'

 

[Old Thunder]

"For it is particularly written, shipmates, as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this history, 'that he paid the fare thereof' ere the craft did sail.

 

[Old Thunder]

"And taken with the context, this is full of meaning.

 

[Old Thunder]

"Now Jonah's Captain, shipmates, was one whose discriminent detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless.