Ahab's Adventure's In Wonderland; or The Rabbit

Chapter Thirty-Nine

By and by, through the glass the stranger's boots and light rifle proved him a fur-trader. But as he was so far downwind, and nearly sprinting by, apparently heading back from whence we had just so recently come, we could not hope to reach him. So a signal was sent to see what response would be made.

Our signal was at last responded to by the stranger's setting his own. He immediately turned in our direction at a fast clip. In short order, we learned he was a man named Gabriel of New Bedford of the American Rabbit Trading Company. According to his account and what was subsequently learned, it seemed that the scaramouch in question had gained a wonderful ascendency over almost everybody in the nearby village of Jeroboam. His story was this:

He had been originally nurtured among the crazy society of Neskyeuna Shakers, where he had been a great prophet; in their cracked, secret meetings having several times descended from heaven by the way of a trapdoor, announcing the speedy opening of the seventh vial, which he carried in his vest-pocket; but, which, instead of containing gunpowder, was supposed to be charged with laudanum. A strange, apostolic whim having seized him, he had left Neskyeuna for New Bedford, where, with that cunning peculiar to craziness, he assumed a steady, common sense exterior, and offered himself as a green-hand candidate for the company's rabbit hunt. They engaged him; but straightway upon the party's leaving sight of the city, his insanity broke out in a freshet. He announced himself as the archangel Gabriel, and commanded the captain to hang himself. He published his manifesto, whereby he set himself forth as the vicar-general of all Massachusetts. The unflinching earnestness with which he declared these things;--the dark, daring play of his sleepless, excited imagination, and all the preternatural terrors of real delirium, united to invest this Gabriel in the minds of the majority of the ignorant men, with an atmosphere of sacredness. Moreover, they were afraid of him. As such a man, however, was not of much practical use on their expedition, especially as he refused to work except when he pleased, the incredulous captain would fain have been rid of him; but apprised that that individual's intention was to banish him, the archangel forthwith opened all his seals and vials--devoting the expedition and all hands to unconditional perdition, in case this intention was carried out. So strongly did he work upon his disciples among the men, that at last in a body they went to the captain and told him if Gabriel was sent away, not one of them would remain. He was therefore forced to relinquish his plan. Nor would they permit Gabriel to be any way maltreated, say or do what he would; so that it came to pass that Gabriel had complete freedom. The consequence of all this was, that the archangel cared little or nothing for the captain and he carried a higher hand than ever. The others, mostly poor devils, cringed, and some of them fawned before him; in obedience to his instructions, sometimes rendering him personal homage, as to a god. Such things may seem incredible; but, however wondrous, they are true. Nor is the history of fanatics half so striking in respect to the measureless self-deception of the fanatic himself, as his measureless power of deceiving and bedevilling so many others. It seemed he had much more to say, something about how a fever had struck the expedition, and as he had not even gotten to the part of his story that might have explained how he had found himself below the Earth, we feared that there was a great deal more we would have to endure before all was finished.

'I fear not thy epidemic, man,' said Ahab, at last interrupting. 'But I won't sit here and listen to your prattle.'

At this Gabriel started.

'Think, think of the fevers, yellow and bilious! Beware of the horrible plague!'

'Gabriel! Gabriel!' cried Captain Ahab; 'Hast thou seen the White Rabbit?'

'Think, think of thy rabbit! Beware of the horrible tail!'

Now at last Gabriel began the tale that Ahab wished to hear. It seemed that the American Rabbit Trading Company expedition had not long left home, when upon encountering a fellow expedition, it was reliably apprised of the existence of Moby Dick, and the havoc he had made of numerous vegetable gardens in the neighborhood. Greedily sucking in this intelligence, Gabriel solemnly warned the captain against attacking the White Rabbit, in case the monster should be seen; in his gibbering insanity, pronouncing the White Rabbit to be no less a being than the Shaker God incarnated; the Shakers receiving the Bible. But when, some day or two afterwards, Moby Dick was fairly sighted in the distance, Macey, the second in command, burned with ardor to encounter him; and the captain himself being not unwilling to let him have the opportunity, despite all the archangel's denunciations and forewarnings, Macey succeeded in persuading five men give chase. With them he set off; and, after much weary walking, and many perilous, unsuccessful onsets, he at last succeeded in getting close to the beast. Meantime, Gabriel was tossing one arm in frantic gestures, and hurling forth prophecies of speedy doom to the sacrilegious assailants of his divinity. Now, while Macey, with all his reckless energy, was venting his wild exclamations upon the rabbit, and essaying to get a fair chance for his poised lance, lo! a broad white shadow rose from the ground; by its quick, fanning motion, temporarily taking the breath out of the bodies of all who were present. Next instant, the luckless man, so full of furious life, was smitten bodily into the air, and making a long arc in his descent, fell to the ground at the distance of about fifty yards.

The whole calamity, with the falling form of Macey, was plainly descried by the whole company. Raising a piercing shriek--'The vial! the vial!' Gabriel called off the terror-stricken men from the further hunting of the rabbit. This terrible event clothed the archangel with added influence; because his credulous disciples believed that he had specifically fore-announced it, instead of only making a general prophecy, which any one might have done, and so have chanced to hit one of many marks in the wide margin allowed. He became a nameless terror to the outfit.

Gabriel having concluded his narration, he inquired whether Ahab intended to hunt the White Rabbit, if opportunity should offer. To which Ahab answered--'Aye.' Straightway, then, Gabriel once more started to his feet, glaring upon the old man, and vehemently exclaimed, with downward pointed finger--'Think, think of the blasphemer-- dead, and down there!--beware of the blasphemer's end!'