{"id":"01KG6G88AEAGKYB7JHRWAPWANF","cid":"bafkreifu6onvqwiyjfwyjwsdtvdtorgbzxnjoeudanrsb36ewhvdi3i4tm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":9689,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 16","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":9623,"text":"  matter of indifference to me; though, I confess, as respects the\r\n  character of the closet, I cannot but share in a natural\r\n  curiosity.\r\n\r\n  ‘Trusting that you may be guided aright, in determining whether it\r\n  is Christian-like knowingly to reside in a house, hidden in which\r\n  is a secret closet.--I remain, with much respect, yours very\r\n  humbly,\r\n                                                     ‘HIRAM SCRIBE.’\r\n\r\n\r\nMy first thought upon reading this note was, not of the alleged mystery\r\nof manner to which, at the outset, it alluded--for none such had I at\r\nall observed in the master mason during his surveys--but of my late\r\nkinsman, Captain Julian Dacres, long a shipmaster and merchant in the\r\nIndian trade, who, about thirty years ago, and at the ripe age of\r\nninety, died a bachelor, and in this very house, which he had built. He\r\nwas supposed to have retired into this country with a large fortune. But\r\nto the general surprise, after being at great cost in building himself\r\nthis mansion, he settled down into a sedate, reserved, and inexpensive\r\nold age, which by the neighbours was thought all the better for his\r\nheirs; but lo! upon opening the will, his property was found to consist\r\nbut of the house and grounds, and some ten thousand dollars in stocks;\r\nbut the place, being found heavily mortgaged, was in consequence sold.\r\nGossip had its day, and left the grass quietly to creep over the\r\ncaptain’s grave, where he still slumbers in a privacy as unmolested as\r\nif the billows of the Indian Ocean, instead of the billows of inland\r\nverdure, rolled over him. Still, I remembered long ago, hearing strange\r\nsolutions whispered by the country people for the mystery involving his\r\nwill, and, by reflex, himself; and that, too, as well in conscience as\r\npurse. But people who could circulate the report (which they did), that\r\nCaptain Julian Dacres had, in his day, been a Borneo pirate, surely were\r\nnot worthy of credence in their collateral notions. It is queer what\r\nwild whimseys of rumours will, like toadstools, spring up about any\r\neccentric stranger, who, settling down among a rustic population, keeps\r\nquietly to himself. With some, inoffensiveness would seem a prime cause\r\nof offence. But what chiefly had led me to scout at these rumours,\r\nparticularly as referring to concealed treasure, was the circumstance,\r\nthat the stranger (the same who razeed the roof and the chimney) into\r\nwhose hands the estate had passed on my kinsman’s death, was of that\r\nsort of character, that had there been the least ground for those\r\nreports, he would speedily have tested them, by tearing down and\r\nrummaging the walls.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, the note of Mr. Scribe, so strangely recalling the memory\r\nof my kinsman, very naturally chimed in with what had been mysterious,\r\nor at least unexplained, about him; vague flashings of ingots united in\r\nmy mind with vague gleamings of skulls. But the first cool thought soon\r\ndismissed such chimeras; and, with a calm smile, I turned towards my\r\nwife, who, meantime, had been sitting near by, impatient enough, I dare\r\nsay, to know who could have taken it into his head to write me a letter.\r\n\r\n‘Well, old man,’ said she, ‘who is it from, and what is it about?’\r\n\r\n‘Read it, wife,’ said I, handing it.\r\n\r\nRead it she did, and then--such an explosion! I will not pretend to\r\ndescribe her emotions, or repeat her expressions. Enough that my\r\ndaughters were quickly called in to share the excitement. Although they\r\nhad never before dreamed of such a revelation as Mr. Scribe’s; yet upon\r\nthe first suggestion they instinctively saw the extreme likelihood of\r\nit. In corroboration, they cited first my kinsman, and second, my\r\nchimney; alleging that the profound mystery involving the former, and\r\nthe equally profound masonry involving the latter, though both\r\nacknowledged facts, were alike preposterous on any other supposition\r\nthan the secret closet.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 16"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6QRNCH782S2B3576MSHF","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G88ANJFTJQKS1FAGDM1S0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G88AKP61S1AVQSMH4QHM5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:20.430Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:31.065Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}