{"id":"01KG6GMSJJNH27DGRNQD5QDAT8","cid":"bafkreiblqhnqie5y73xcawetbbjcgft5wxszzya2hulopoguyqlc5wzy6a","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5480,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":5429,"text":"smoothing down some ladies’ cushions, far up the broad aisle, I dare\r\nsay. Softly now. If the small door ain’t locked, I shall have stolen a\r\nmarch upon the beadle-faced man, and secured a humble seat in the\r\nsanctuary, in spite of him. Good! Thanks for this! The door is not\r\nlocked. Bell-ringer forgot to lock it, no doubt. Now, like any\r\nfelt-footed grimalkin, up I steal among the leads.’\r\n\r\nAscending some fifty stone steps along a very narrow curving stairway, I\r\nfound myself on a blank platform forming the second story of the huge\r\nsquare tower. I seemed inside some magic-lantern. On three sides, three\r\ngigantic Gothic windows of richly dyed glass, filled the otherwise\r\nmeagre place with all sorts of sunrises and sunsets, lunar and solar\r\nrainbows, falling stars, and other flaming fireworks and pyrotechnics.\r\nBut after all, it was but a gorgeous dungeon; for I couldn’t look out,\r\nany more than if I had been the occupant of a basement cell in ‘the\r\nTombs.’ With some pains, and care not to do any serious harm, I\r\ncontrived to scratch a minute opening in a great purple star forming the\r\ncentre of the chief compartment of the middle window; when peeping\r\nthrough, as through goggles, I ducked my head in dismay. The\r\nbeadle-faced man, with no hat on his head, was just in the act of\r\ndriving three ragged little boys into the middle of the street; and how\r\ncould I help trembling at the apprehension of his discovering a\r\nrebellious caitiff like me peering down on him from the tower? For, in\r\nstealing up here, I had set at naught his high authority. He whom he\r\nthought effectually ejected, had burglariously returned. For a moment I\r\nwas almost ready to bide my chance, and get to the side-walk again with\r\nall dispatch. But another Jacob’s ladder of lofty steps--wooden ones,\r\nthis time--allured me to another and still higher flight--in sole hopes\r\nof gaining that one secret window where I might, at distance, take part\r\nin the proceedings.\r\n\r\nPresently I noticed something which, owing to the first marvellous\r\neffulgence of the place, had remained unseen till now. Two strong ropes,\r\ndropping through holes in the rude ceiling high overhead, fell a sheer\r\nlength of sixty feet, right through the centre of the space, and dropped\r\nin coils upon the floor of the huge magic-lantern. Bell-ropes these,\r\nthought I, and quaked. For if the beadle-faced man should learn that a\r\ngrimalkin was somewhere prowling about the edifice, how easy for him to\r\nring the alarm. Hark!--ah, that’s only the organ--yes--it’s the ‘Venite,\r\nexultemus Domino.’ Though an insider in one respect, yet am I but an\r\noutsider in another. But for all that, I will not be defrauded of my\r\nnatural rights. Uncovering my head, and taking out my book, I stood\r\nerect, midway up the tall Jacob’s ladder, as if standing among the\r\ncongregation; and in spirit, if not in place, participated in those\r\ndevout exultings. That over, I continued my upward path; and after\r\ncrossing sundry minor platforms and irregular landings all the while on\r\na general ascent, at last I was delighted by catching sight of a small\r\nround window in the otherwise dead-wall side of the tower, where the\r\ntower attached itself to the main building. In front of the window was a\r\nrude narrow gallery, used as a bridge to cross from the lower stairs on\r\none side to the upper stairs on the opposite.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK915YV7ZEFYWNHEDCCBM","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMSJJGTWEZW010XF814AS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMSJQXTX2QQ31YX01E4XM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:11.314Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:17.256Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}