{"id":"01KG6G8665T8CTRW1BMG8SB96E","cid":"bafkreihynsq3yoyz3yup6ol7rxpjsvlmnfpzniqrd7sc4clubqxqwdsduy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2277,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.150Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":2208,"text":"                                  XVII\r\n\r\n\r\nNow when the foretopman found himself closeted, as it were, in the cabin\r\nwith the captain and Claggart, he was surprised enough. But it was a\r\nsurprise unaccompanied by apprehension or distrust. To an immature\r\nnature, essentially honest and humane, forewarning intimations of\r\nsubtler danger from one’s kind came tardily, if at all. The only thing\r\nthat took shape in the young sailor’s mind was this: ‘Yes, the captain,\r\nI have always thought, looks kindly upon me. Wonder if he’s going to\r\nmake me his coxswain. I should like that. And maybe now he is going to\r\nask the master-at-arms about me.’\r\n\r\n‘Shut the door there, sentry,’ said the commander. ‘Stand without and\r\nlet nobody come in. Now, master-at-arms, tell this man to his face what\r\nyou told of him to me’; and stood prepared to scrutinise the mutually\r\nconfronting visages.\r\n\r\nWith the measured step and calm collected air of an asylum physician\r\napproaching in the public hall some patient beginning to show\r\nindications of a coming paroxysm, Claggart deliberately advanced within\r\nshort range of Billy, and mesmerically looking him in the eye, briefly\r\nrecapitulated the accusation.\r\n\r\nNot at first did Billy take it in. When he did the rose-tan of his cheek\r\nlooked struck as by white leprosy. He stood like one impaled and gagged.\r\nMeanwhile the accuser’s eyes, removing not as yet from the blue, dilated\r\nones, underwent a phenomenal change, their wonted rich violet colour\r\nblurring into a muddy purple. Those lights of human intelligence losing\r\nhuman expression, gelidly protruding like the alien eyes of certain\r\nuncatalogued creatures of the deep.\r\n\r\nThe first mesmeric glance was one of surprised fascination; the last was\r\nas the hungry lurch of the torpedo-fish.\r\n\r\n‘Speak, man!’ said Captain Vere to the transfixed one, struck by his\r\naspect even more than by Claggart’s. ‘Speak! defend yourself.’ Which\r\nappeal caused but a strange, dumb gesturing and gurgling in Billy;\r\namazement at such an accusation so suddenly sprung on inexperienced\r\nnonage; this, and it may be horror at the accuser, serving to bring out\r\nhis lurking defect, and in this instance for the time intensifying it\r\ninto a convulsed tongue-tie; while the intent head and entire form,\r\nstraining forward in an agony of ineffectual eagerness to obey the\r\ninjunction to speak and defend himself, gave an expression to the face\r\nlike that of a condemned vestal priestess in the moment of being buried\r\nalive, and in the first struggle against suffocation.\r\n\r\nThough at the time Captain Vere was quite ignorant of Billy’s liability\r\nto vocal impediment, he now immediately divined it, since vividly\r\nBilly’s aspect recalled to him that of a bright young schoolmate of his\r\nwhom he had seen struck by much the same startling impotence in the act\r\nof eagerly rising in the class to be foremost in response to a testing\r\nquestion put to it by the master. Going close up to the young sailor,\r\nand laying a soothing hand on his shoulder, he said, ‘There is no hurry,\r\nmy boy. Take your time, take your time.’ Contrary to the effect\r\nintended, these words, so fatherly in tone, doubtless touching Billy’s\r\nheart to the quick, prompted yet more violent efforts at\r\nutterance--efforts soon ending for the time in confirming the paralysis,\r\nand bringing to the face an expression which was as a crucifixion to\r\nbehold. The next instant, quick as the flame from a discharged cannon at\r\nnight, his right arm shot out, and Claggart dropped to the deck. Whether\r\nintentionally, 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","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6PJN3125V2K7RXA482D5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G8665KQHJEAV7PVW1F1HQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:18.245Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:25.177Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}