“But there was none in the forecastle.

“ ‘Then I must get some from old Rad;’ and he rose to go aft.

“ ‘You don’t mean to go a begging to him !’ said a sailor.

“ ‘Why not? Do you think he won’t do me a turn, when it’s to help himself in the end, shipmate?’ and going to the mate, he looked at him quietly, and asked him for some twine to mend his hammock. It was given him⁠—neither twine nor lanyard were seen again; but the next night an iron ball, closely netted, partly rolled from the pocket of the Lakeman’s monkey jacket, as he was tucking the coat into his hammock for a pillow. Twenty-four hours after, his trick at the silent helm⁠—nigh to the man who was apt to doze over the grave always ready dug to the seaman’s hand⁠—that fatal hour was then to come; and in the foreordaining soul of Steelkilt, the mate was already stark and stretched as a corpse, with his forehead crushed in.