{"id":"01KG6G866575KPPPGHMKGG3028","cid":"bafkreic2hlvrdexfaz3jpbw2g4j6extpk7v2bajaxdaxzt4q2whj56lqpi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2137,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.150Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":2080,"text":"Now the _Handsome Sailor_ as a signal figure among the crew had\r\nnaturally enough attracted the captain’s attention from the first.\r\nThough in general not very demonstrative to his officers, he had\r\ncongratulated Lieutenant Ratcliffe upon his good fortune in lighting on\r\nsuch a fine specimen of the _genus homo_, who in the nude might have\r\npassed for a statue of young Adam before the Fall.\r\n\r\nAs to Billy’s adieu to the ship _Rights-of-Man_, which the boarding\r\nlieutenant, in a deferential way, had indeed reported to him, Captain\r\nVere, more as a good story than aught else (having mistakenly understood\r\nit as a satiric sally), had but thought so much the better of the\r\nimpressed man for it; as a military sailor, admiring the spirit that\r\ncould take an arbitrary enlistment so merrily and sensibly. The\r\nforetopman’s conduct, too, so far as it had fallen under the captain’s\r\nnotice, had confirmed the first happy augury, while the new recruit’s\r\nqualities as a _sailor-man_ seemed to be such that he had thought of\r\nrecommending him to the executive officer for promotion to a place that\r\nwould more frequently bring him under his own observation, namely, the\r\ncaptaincy of the mizen-top, replacing there in the starboard-watch a man\r\nnot so young whom partly for that reason he deemed less fitted for the\r\npost. Be it parenthesised here that since the mizen-topmen have not to\r\nhandle such breadths of heavy canvas as the lower sails on the mainmast\r\nand foremast, a young man if of the right stuff not only seems best\r\nadapted to duty there, but, in fact, is generally selected for the\r\ncaptaincy of that top, and the company under him are light hands, and\r\noften but striplings. In sum, Captain Vere had from the beginning deemed\r\nBilly Budd to be what in the naval parlance of the time was called a\r\n‘_King’s bargain_,’ that is to say, for His Britannic Majesty’s Navy a\r\ncapital investment at small outlay or none at all.\r\n\r\nAfter a brief pause, during which the reminiscences above mentioned\r\npassed vividly through his mind, he weighed the import of Claggart’s\r\nlast suggestion conveyed in the phrase ‘a man-trap under his\r\nruddy-tipped daisies,’ and the more he weighed it the less reliance he\r\nfelt in the informer’s good faith. Suddenly he turned upon him: ‘Do you\r\ncome to me, master-at-arms, with so foggy a tale? As to Budd, cite me an\r\nact or spoken word of his confirmatory of what you in general charge\r\nagainst him. Stay,’ drawing nearer to him, ‘heed what you speak. Just\r\nnow and in a case like this, there is a yard-arm-end for the false\r\nwitness.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah, your honour!’ sighed Claggart, mildly shaking his shapely head as\r\nin sad deprecation of such unmerited severity of tone. Then\r\nbridling--erecting himself as in virtuous self-assertion, he\r\ncircumstantially alleged certain words and acts which collectively, if\r\ncredited, led to presumptions mortally inculpating Budd, and for some of\r\nthese averments, he added, substantiating proof was not far.\r\n\r\nWith gray eyes impatient and distrustful, essaying to fathom to the\r\nbottom Claggart’s calm violet ones, Captain Vere again heard him out;\r\nthen for the moment stood ruminating. The mood he evinced,\r\nClaggart--himself for the time liberated from the other’s\r\nscrutiny--steadily regarded with a look difficult to render--a look\r\ncurious of the operation of his tactics, a look such as might have been\r\nthat of the spokesman of the envious children of Jacob deceptively\r\nimposing upon the troubled patriarch the blood-dyed coat of young\r\nJoseph.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6NZZK3RKT0KJTSS8CXXC","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G8661HRZF11CKEBHSF6G3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G8665TQ6PRJ97TM1GFEBC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:18.245Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:25.141Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}