{"id":"01KG6GMM501DH00JTGEKG06QEE","cid":"bafkreif7mzxaksthmmq7kctf4jvsgadiyl3b6xx2bb5epmolyqqjprk4o4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2362,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 19","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":2300,"text":"Claggart, 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\n‘Go now,’ said Captain Vere, with something of his wonted manner, ‘go\r\nnow. I shall presently call a drum-head court. Tell the lieutenants what\r\nhas happened, and tell Mr. Morton’--meaning the captain of marines. ‘And\r\ncharge them to keep the matter to themselves.’\r\n\r\nFull of disquietude and misgivings, the surgeon left the cabin. Was\r\nCaptain Vere suddenly affected in his mind, or was it but a transient\r\nexcitement brought about by so strange and extraordinary a happening? As\r\nto the drum-head court, it struck the surgeon as impolitic, if nothing\r\nmore. The thing to do, he thought, was to place Billy Budd in\r\nconfinement, and in a way dictated by usage, and postpone further action\r\nin so extraordinary a case to such time as they should again join the\r\nsquadron, and then transfer it to the admiral. He recalled the unwonted\r\nagitation of Captain Vere and his excited exclamations, so at variance\r\nwith his normal manner. Was he unhinged? But assuming that he was, it\r\nwere not so susceptible of proof. What then could he do? No more trying\r\nsituation is conceivable than that of an officer subordinated under a\r\ncaptain whom he suspects to be, not mad indeed, but yet not quite\r\nunaffected in his intellect. To argue his order to him would be\r\ninsolence. To resist him would be mutiny. In obedience to Captain Vere\r\nhe communicated to the lieutenants and captain of marines what had\r\nhappened, saying nothing as to the captain’s state. They stared at him\r\nin surprise and concern. Like him, they seemed to think that such a\r\nmatter should be reported to the admiral.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 19"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK8EG5N9JTTBYRRP0CTKZ","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMM50T9TJXG3802BV8D1Z","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMM50PWRB2159C8DTAJJ5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:05.760Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:14.688Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}