Leaving the Pequod with fresh ink on the articles, Queequeg and Ishmael saunter from the water until a shabbily apparelled stranger levels a massive forefinger like a fixed bayonet at the ship: Shipmates, have ye shipped in that ship? His small-pox scarred face looks like the dried bed of a torrent; yes, Ishmael says, they have just signed; anything down there about your souls? A soul is a fifth wheel to a wagon, Elijah jokes, then nerves the word he: he's got enough to make up for deficiencies in other chaps.
Stop, cries the prophet: ye have not seen Old Thunder, Captain Ahab. Sick and mending, Ishmael offers; all right again before long, Elijah laughs solemnly, when this left arm of mine is all right, not before. Step and growl, growl and go, Elijah mutters, listing what Peleg never told: Cape Horn three days like dead, a deadly skrimmage with a Spaniard afore the altar in Santa, silver calabash, leg lost by prophecy. Ishmael claims he knows all about the leg and calls the man damaged in the head; all about it, Elijah presses, staring at the Pequod until what's signed is signed, what will be will be, perhaps not after all, God pity em, morning shipmates, tell em I concluded not to make one of em.
Ishmael demands plain speech or admits bamboozle; Elijah blesses them and names himself Elijah before they walk away agreeing he is a humbug bugbear. A hundred yards on, Ishmael looks back and sees Elijah following; he says nothing to Queequeg, tests corner after corner, then crosses the street with Queequeg to learn whether the tail is real; Elijah passes on without notice, and Ishmael pronounces him humbug again while half-apprehensions link Pequod, Ahab, leg, Cape Horn fit, calabash, Tistig, and the voyage they bound themselves to sail.
The warning arrived one hour after the contract: which specific name on Elijah's list will you verify before you call the prophet crazy and keep walking toward All Astir?
Coming Up in Chapter 20
A day or two later the Pequod is all motion. Old sails are mended, new canvas and coils of rigging come aboard, and the men in the hold work past nightfall. Peleg keeps watch from his wigwam while Bildad buys the stores. Word goes to the inns that every chest must be on board before night, because no one can say when she will sail.
