That direful mishap was at the bottom of his temporary
recluseness. And not only this, but to that ever-contracting, dropping circle ashore, who, for any reason, possessed the privilege of a less banned approach to him; to that timid circle the above hinted casualty --remaining, as it did, moodily unaccounted for by Ahab --invested itself with terrors, not entirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails.
That direful mishap was at the bottom of his temporary
recluseness. And not only this, but to that ever-contracting, dropping circle ashore, who, for any reason, possessed the privilege of a less banned approach to him; to that timid circle the above hinted casualty--remaining, as it did, moodily unaccounted for by Ahab--invested itself with terrors, not entirely underived from the land of spirits and of wails.