{"id":"01KG6G8665KQHJEAV7PVW1F1HQ","cid":"bafkreihdo5mlhwh37woy7wfzgp4hy34vzboghcja35jw65eh6prr46sxiu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2337,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.150Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":2269,"text":"intentionally, or but owing to the young athlete’s superior height, the\r\nblow had taken effect full upon the forehead, so shapely and\r\nintellectual-looking a feature in the master-at-arms; so that the body\r\nfell over lengthwise, like a heavy plank tilted from erectness. A gasp\r\nor two, and he lay motionless.\r\n\r\n‘Fated boy,’ breathed Captain Vere, in tone so low as to be almost a\r\nwhisper, ‘what have you done! But here, help me.’\r\n\r\nThe twain raised the felled one from the loins up into a sitting\r\nposition. The spare form flexibly acquiesced, but inertly. It was like\r\nhandling a dead snake. They lowered it back. Regaining erectness,\r\nCaptain Vere with one hand covering his face stood to all appearance as\r\nimpassive as the object at his feet. Was he absorbed in taking in all\r\nthe bearings of the event, and what was best not only now at once to be\r\ndone, but also in the sequel? Slowly he uncovered his face; and the\r\neffect was as if the moon emerging from eclipse should reappear with\r\nquite another aspect than that which had gone into hiding. The father in\r\nhim, manifested towards Billy thus far in the scene, was replaced by the\r\nmilitary disciplinarian. In his official tone he bade the foretopman\r\nretire to a state-room aft (pointing it out), and there remain till\r\nthence summoned. This order Billy in silence mechanically obeyed. Then\r\ngoing to the cabin door where it opened on the quarter-deck, Captain\r\nVere said to the sentry without, ‘Tell somebody to send Albert here.’\r\nWhen the lad appeared his master so contrived it that he should not\r\ncatch sight of the prone one. ‘Albert,’ he said to him, ‘tell the\r\nsurgeon I wish to see him. You need not come back till called.’\r\n\r\nWhen the surgeon entered--a self-poised character of that grave sense\r\nand experience that hardly anything could take him aback--Captain Vere\r\nadvanced to meet him, thus unconsciously interrupting his view of\r\nClaggart, and interrupting the other’s wonted ceremonious salutation\r\nsaid, ‘Nay, tell me how it is with yonder man,’ directing his attention\r\nto the prostrate one.\r\n\r\nThe surgeon looked, and for all his self-command, somewhat started at\r\nthe abrupt revelation. On Claggart’s always pallid complexion thick\r\nblack blood was now oozing from mouth and ear. To the gazer’s\r\nprofessional eyes it was unmistakably no living man that he saw.\r\n\r\n‘Is it so, then?’ said Captain Vere, intently watching him. ‘I thought\r\nit. But verify it.’ Whereupon the customary tests confirmed the\r\nsurgeon’s first glance, who now looking up in unfeigned concern, cast a\r\nlook of intense inquisitiveness upon his superior. But Captain Vere,\r\nwith one hand to his brow, was standing motionless. Suddenly, catching\r\nthe surgeon’s arm convulsively, he exclaimed, pointing down to the body,\r\n‘It is the divine judgment of Ananias! Look!’\r\n\r\nDisturbed by the excited manner he had never before observed in the\r\n_Indomitable’s_ captain, and as yet wholly ignorant of the affair, the\r\nprudent surgeon nevertheless held his peace, only again looking an\r\nearnest interrogation as to what it was that had resulted in such a\r\ntragedy.\r\n\r\nBut Captain Vere was now again motionless, standing absorbed in thought.\r\nBut again starting, he vehemently exclaimed, ‘Struck dead by an angel of\r\nGod. Yet the angel must hang!’\r\n\r\nAt these interjections, incoherences to the listener as yet unapprised\r\nof the antecedent events, the surgeon was profoundly discomforted. But\r\nnow, as recollecting himself, Captain Vere in less harsh tone briefly\r\nrelated the circumstances leading up to the event.\r\n\r\n‘But come; we must dispatch,’ he added; ‘help me to remove him (meaning\r\nthe body) to yonder compartment’--designating one opposite where the\r\nforetopman remained immured. Anew disturbed by a request that as\r\nimplying a desire for secrecy seemed unaccountably strange to him, there\r\nwas nothing for the subordinate to do but comply.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6PJN3125V2K7RXA482D5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G8665T8CTRW1BMG8SB96E","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G86NSJQXET7GMRPPMYCZB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:18.245Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:25.252Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}