{"id":"01KG6GMKH9VFQ1Y2P84ZHQXVPP","cid":"bafkreiewhblpomqncqkeo47xwkxe5uaq5dbzwj2wnhvojetw7qyaewmmhe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1913,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 11","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":1850,"text":"would, upon their nearing, step aside a little to let him pass, dwelling\r\nupon Billy for the moment with the glittering dental satire of a guise.\r\nBut upon any abrupt unforeseen encounter a red light would flash forth\r\nfrom his eye, like a spark from an anvil in a dusk smithy. That quick\r\nfierce light was a strange one, darted from orbs which in repose were of\r\na colour nearest approaching a deeper violet, the softest of shades.\r\n\r\nThough some of these caprices of the pit could not but be observed by\r\ntheir object, yet were they beyond the construing of such a nature. And\r\nthe thews of Billy were hardly comparable with that sort of sensitive\r\nspiritual organisation which in some cases instinctively conveys to\r\nignorant innocence an admonition of the proximity of the malign. He\r\nthought the master-at-arms acted in a manner rather queer at times. That\r\nwas all. But the occasional frank air and pleasant word went for what\r\nthey purported to be, the young sailor never having heard as yet of the\r\n‘too fair-spoken man.’\r\n\r\nHad the foretopman been conscious of having done or said anything to\r\nprovoke the ill-will of the official, it would have been different with\r\nhim, and his sight might have been pursed if not sharpened.\r\n\r\nSo was it with him in yet another matter. Two minor officers, the\r\narmourer and captain of the hold, with whom he had never exchanged a\r\nword, his position on the ship not bringing him into contact with them;\r\nthese men now for the first time began to cast upon Billy, when they\r\nchanced to encounter him, that peculiar glance which evidences that the\r\nman from whom it comes has been some way tampered with, and to the\r\nprejudice of him upon whom the glance lights. Never did it occur to\r\nBilly as a thing to be noted, or a thing suspicious, though he well knew\r\nthe fact, that the armourer and captain of the hold, with the ship’s\r\nyeoman, apothecary, and others of that grade, were by naval usage,\r\nmessmates of the master-at-arms, men with ears convenient to his\r\nconfidential tongue.\r\n\r\nOur Handsome Sailor’s manly forwardness upon occasion, and irresistible\r\ngood-nature, indicating no mental superiority tending to excite an\r\ninvidious feeling, bred general popularity, and this good-will on the\r\npart of most of his shipmates made him the less to concern himself about\r\nsuch mute aspects toward him as those whereto allusion has just been\r\nmade.\r\n\r\nAs to the afterguardsman, though Billy for reasons already given\r\nnecessarily saw little of him, yet when the two did happen to meet,\r\ninvariably came the fellow’s off-hand cheerful recognition, sometimes\r\naccompanied by a passing pleasant word or two. Whatever that equivocal\r\nyoung person’s original design may really have been, or the design of\r\nwhich he might have been the deputy, certain it was from his manner upon\r\nthese occasions, that he had wholly dropped it.\r\n\r\nIt was as if his precocity of crookedness (and every vulgar villain is\r\nprecocious) had for once deceived him, and the man he had sought to\r\nentrap as a simpleton had, through his very simplicity, baffled him.\r\n\r\nBut shrewd ones may opine that it was hardly possible for Billy to\r\nrefrain from going up to the afterguardsman and bluntly demanding to\r\nknow his purpose in the initial interview, so abruptly closed in the\r\nfore-chains. Shrewd ones may also think it but natural in Billy to set\r\nabout sounding some of the other impressed men of the ship in order to\r\ndiscover what basis, if any, there was for the emissary’s obscure\r\nsuggestions as to plotting disaffection aboard. Yes, the shrewd may so\r\nthink. But something more, or rather, something else than mere\r\nshrewdness is perhaps needful for the due understanding of such a\r\ncharacter as Billy Budd’s.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 11"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK8EG5N9JTTBYRRP0CTKZ","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMKH9B5BQY48G9JK0PXQB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMM4YB3CKEEYK4Y3PVMWH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:05.129Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:14.108Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}