"but there was more than this: the order about the shovel was almost as plainly meant to sting and insult steelkilt, as though radney had spat in his face. any man who has gone sailor in a whale-ship will understand this; and all this and doubtless much more, the lakeman fully comprehended when the mate uttered his command. but as he sat still for a moment, and as he steadfastly looked into the mate’s malignant eye and perceived the stacks of powder-casks heaped up in him and the slow-match silently burning along towards them; as he instinctively saw all this, that strange forbearance and unwillingness to stir up the deeper passionateness in any already ireful being—a repugnance most felt, when felt at all, by really valiant men even when aggrieved—this nameless phantom feeling, gentlemen, stole over steelkilt.