noon
`` Heart of wrought steel ! '' murmured Starbuck gazing over the side , and following with his eyes the receding boat -- `` canst thou yet ring boldly to that sight ? -- lowering thy keel among ravening sharks , and followed by them , open-mouthed to the chase ; and this the critical third day ? -- For when three days flow together in one continuous intense pursuit ; be sure the first is the morning , the second the noon , and the third the evening and the end of that thing -- be that end what it may . Oh ! my God ! what is this that shoots through me , and leaves me so deadly calm , yet expectant , -- fixed at the top of a shudder !