"Oh, sir, let old Perth now come and rivet these two hands together; the black one with the white, for I will not let this go.”
Musing: The third sign has taken place - Ahab dashed the quadrant, the compass was demagnetized, and now the log line breaks. But Pip reappears. Ahab's kindness and compassion toward Pip is what prevents us from seeing Ahab as a complete villain. Certainly there are many reasons Ahab is drawn to the now mad Pip, but compassion is one of them. As Captain Peleg notes before the Pequod departs Nantucket, "Ahab has his humanities." His interaction with Pip reminds us of them.