retreating not the thousandth part of an inch; stabbing him in the eye with the unflinching poniard of his glance, steelkilt, clenching his right hand behind him and creepingly drawing it back, told his persecutor that if the hammer but grazed his cheek he (steelkilt) would murder him. but, gentlemen, the fool had been branded for the slaughter by the gods. immediately the hammer touched the cheek; the next instant the lower jaw of the mate was stove in his head; he fell on the hatch spouting blood like a whale.