{"id":"01KG6GMKH9QJPZKAQRTJD7W0R9","cid":"bafkreiele4znptdwsdg5pqgvcqg7zvgndxy3bjqubzfmnnlviqlg7adaym","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1795,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":1724,"text":"an old acquaintance, without interrupting the talk he was engaged in\r\nwith the group of smokers. A day or two afterwards, chancing in the\r\nevening promenade on a gun-deck to pass Billy, he offered a flying word\r\nof good-fellowship, as it were, which by its unexpectedness, and\r\nequivocalness under the circumstances, so embarrassed Billy, that he\r\nknew not how to respond to it, and let it go unnoticed.\r\n\r\nBilly was now left more at a loss than before. The ineffectual\r\nspeculations into which he was led were so disturbingly alien to him,\r\nthat he did his best to smother them. It never entered his mind that\r\nhere was a matter which, from its extreme questionableness, it was his\r\nduty as a loyal blue-jacket to report in the proper quarter. And,\r\nprobably, had such a step been suggested to him, he would have been\r\ndeterred from taking it by the thought, one of novice-magnanimity, that\r\nit would savour overmuch of the dirty work of a tell-tale. He kept the\r\nthing to himself. Yet upon one occasion he could not forbear a little\r\ndisburthening himself to the old Dansker, tempted thereto perhaps by the\r\ninfluence of a balmy night when the ship lay becalmed; the twain, silent\r\nfor the most part, sitting together on deck, their heads propped against\r\nthe bulwarks. But it was only a partial and anonymous account that Billy\r\ngave, the unfounded scruples above referred to preventing full\r\ndisclosure to anybody. Upon hearing Billy’s version, the sage Dansker\r\nseemed to divine more than he was told; and after a little meditation,\r\nduring which his wrinkles were pursed as into a point, quite effacing\r\nfor the time that quizzing expression his face sometimes wore--‘Didn’t I\r\nsay so, Baby Budd?’\r\n\r\n‘Say what?’ demanded Billy.\r\n\r\n‘Why, _Jemmy Legs_ is _down_ on you.’\r\n\r\n‘And what,’ rejoined Billy in amazement, ‘has _Jemmy Legs_ to do with\r\nthat cracked afterguardsman?’\r\n\r\n‘Ho, it was an afterguardsman, then. A cat’s-paw, a cat’s-paw!’ And with\r\nthat exclamation, which, whether it had reference to a light puff of air\r\njust then coming over the calm sea, or subtler relation to the\r\nafterguardsman, there is no telling. The old Merlin gave a twisting\r\nwrench with his black teeth at his plug of tobacco, vouchsafing no reply\r\nto Billy’s impetuous question. For it was his wont to relapse into grim\r\nsilence when interrogated in sceptical sort as to any of his sententious\r\noracles, not always very clear ones, rather partaking of that obscurity\r\nwhich invests most Delphic deliverances from any quarter.\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n                                  XIV\r\n\r\n\r\nLong experience had very likely brought this old man to that bitter\r\nprudence which never interferes in aught, and never gives advice.\r\n\r\nYet, despite the Dansker’s pithy insistence as to the master-at-arms\r\nbeing at the bottom of these strange experiences of Billy on board the\r\n_Indomitable_, the young sailor was ready to ascribe them to almost\r\nanybody but the man who, to use Billy’s own expression, ‘always had a\r\npleasant word for him.’ This is to be wondered at. Yet not so much to be\r\nwondered at. In certain matters some sailors even in mature life remain\r\nunsophisticated enough. But a young seafarer of the disposition of our\r\nathletic foretopman, is much of a child-man. And yet a child’s utter\r\ninnocence is but its blank ignorance, and the innocence more or less\r\nwanes as intelligence waxes. But in Billy Budd intelligence, such as it\r\nwas, had advanced, while yet his simple-mindedness remained for the most\r\npart unaffected. Experience is a teacher indeed; yet did Billy’s years\r\nmake his experience small. Besides, he had none of that intuitive\r\nknowledge of the bad which in natures not good or incompletely so,\r\nforeruns experience, and therefore may pertain, as in some instances it\r\ntoo clearly does pertain, even to youth.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 9"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK8EG5N9JTTBYRRP0CTKZ","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMKH9V0EZYVGYBGBR7FPR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMKH9B5BQY48G9JK0PXQB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:05.129Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:13.907Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}