{"id":"01KG6G8661BC47J4YGW4WN3G2K","cid":"bafkreie4aik7s7zxdur7ll443zgu72trpzwks2mj2uktigrgamwcsa3hpa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1890,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.150Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":1828,"text":"                                   XV\r\n\r\n\r\nBut after the little matter at the mess Billy Budd no more found himself\r\nin strange trouble at times about his hammock or his clothes-bag, or\r\nwhat not. While, as to that smile that occasionally sunned him, and the\r\npleasant passing word, these were if not more frequent, yet if anything\r\nmore pronounced than before.\r\n\r\nBut for all that, there were certain other demonstrations now. When\r\nClaggart’s unobserved glance happened to light on belted Billy rolling\r\nalong the upper gun-deck in the leisure of the second dog-watch,\r\nexchanging passing broadsides of fun with other young promenaders in the\r\ncrowd, that glance would follow the cheerful sea-Hyperion with a settled\r\nmeditative and melancholy expression, his eyes strangely suffused with\r\nincipient feverish tears. Then would Claggart look like the man of\r\nsorrows. Yes, and sometimes the melancholy expression would have in it a\r\ntouch of soft yearning, as if Claggart could even have loved Billy but\r\nfor fate and ban. But this was an evanescence, and quickly repented of,\r\nas it were, by an immitigable look, pinching and shrivelling the visage\r\ninto the momentary semblance of a wrinkled walnut. But sometimes\r\ncatching sight in advance of the foretopman coming in his direction, he\r\nwould, upon their nearing, step aside a little to let him pass, dwelling\r\nupon Billy for the moment with the glittering dental satire of a guise.\r\nBut upon any abrupt unforeseen encounter a red light would flash forth\r\nfrom his eye, like a spark from an anvil in a dusk smithy. That quick\r\nfierce light was a strange one, darted from orbs which in repose were of\r\na colour nearest approaching a deeper violet, the softest of shades.\r\n\r\nThough some of these caprices of the pit could not but be observed by\r\ntheir object, yet were they beyond the construing of such a nature. And\r\nthe thews of Billy were hardly comparable with that sort of sensitive\r\nspiritual organisation which in some cases instinctively conveys to\r\nignorant innocence an admonition of the proximity of the malign. He\r\nthought the master-at-arms acted in a manner rather queer at times. That\r\nwas all. But the occasional frank air and pleasant word went for what\r\nthey purported to be, the young sailor never having heard as yet of the\r\n‘too fair-spoken man.’\r\n\r\nHad the foretopman been conscious of having done or said anything to\r\nprovoke the ill-will of the official, it would have been different with\r\nhim, and his sight might have been pursed if not sharpened.\r\n\r\nSo was it with him in yet another matter. Two minor officers, the\r\narmourer and captain of the hold, with whom he had never exchanged a\r\nword, his position on the ship not bringing him into contact with them;\r\nthese men now for the first time began to cast upon Billy, when they\r\nchanced to encounter him, that peculiar glance which evidences that the\r\nman from whom it comes has been some way tampered with, and to the\r\nprejudice of him upon whom the glance lights. Never did it occur to\r\nBilly as a thing to be noted, or a thing suspicious, though he well knew\r\nthe fact, that the armourer and captain of the hold, with the ship’s\r\nyeoman, apothecary, and others of that grade, were by naval usage,\r\nmessmates of the master-at-arms, men with ears convenient to his\r\nconfidential tongue.\r\n\r\nOur Handsome Sailor’s manly forwardness upon occasion, and irresistible\r\ngood-nature, indicating no mental superiority tending to excite an\r\ninvidious feeling, bred general popularity, and this good-will on the\r\npart of most of his shipmates made him the less to concern himself about\r\nsuch mute aspects toward him as those whereto allusion has just been\r\nmade.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6P016QTZ3FBSP47DNGG5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G8661FYTCXNS1KFJ156GV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:18.241Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:25.095Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}