{"id":"01KG6YH19M8BEJAYZD95TZ6ASF","cid":"bafkreifrbbaqqulhvhaekrqwzo6b6czj6j67uwxmmaqiejec446x75cb7y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3050,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 13","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":2979,"text":" indifference to me; though, I confess, as respects the character of\r\n the closet, I cannot but share in a natural curiosity.\r\n\r\n Trusting that you may be guided aright, in determining whether it is\r\n Christian-like knowingly to reside in a house, hidden in which is a\r\n secret closet,\r\n\r\n      I remain,\r\n\r\n        With much respect,\r\n\r\n          Yours very humbly,\r\n\r\n            HIRAM SCRIBE.\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 ship-master and merchant in\r\nthe Indian trade, who, about thirty years ago, and at the ripe age\r\nof ninety, died a bachelor, and in this very house, which he had\r\nbuilt. He was supposed to have retired into this country with a large\r\nfortune. But to the general surprise, after being at great cost in\r\nbuilding himself this mansion, he settled down into a sedate, reserved\r\nand inexpensive old age, which by the neighbors was thought all the\r\nbetter for his heirs: but lo! upon opening the will, his property was\r\nfound to consist but of the house and grounds, and some ten thousand\r\ndollars in stocks; but the place, being found heavily mortgaged, was\r\nin consequence sold. Gossip had its day, and left the grass quietly to\r\ncreep over the captain's grave, where he still slumbers in a privacy\r\nas unmolested as if the billows of the Indian Ocean, instead of the\r\nbillows of inland verdure, rolled over him. Still, I remembered long\r\nago, hearing strange solutions whispered by the country people for\r\nthe mystery involving his will, and, by reflex, himself; and that,\r\ntoo, as well in conscience as purse. But people who could circulate\r\nthe report (which they did), that Captain Julian Dacres had, in his\r\nday, been a Borneo pirate, surely were not worthy of credence in their\r\ncollateral notions. It is queer what wild whimsies of rumors will,\r\nlike toadstools, spring up about any eccentric stranger, who settling\r\ndown among a rustic population, keeps quietly to himself. With some,\r\ninoffensiveness would seem a prime cause of offense. But what chiefly\r\nhad led me to scout at these rumors, particularly as referring to\r\nconcealed treasure, was the circumstance, that the stranger (the same\r\nwho razeed the roof and the chimney) into whose hands the estate had\r\npassed on my kinsman's death, was of that sort of character, that had\r\nthere been the least ground for those reports, he would speedily have\r\ntested them, by tearing down and rummaging 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\r\nin my mind with vague gleamings of skulls. But the first cool thought\r\nsoon dismissed such chimeras; and, with a calm smile, I turned towards\r\nmy wife, who, meantime, had been sitting near by, impatient enough, I\r\ndare say, to know who could have taken it into his head to write me a\r\nletter.\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 dreamed of such a revelation as Mr. Scribe's; yet upon the\r\nfirst suggestion they instinctively saw the extreme likelihood of it.\r\nIn corroboration, they cited first my kinsman, and second, my chimney;\r\nalleging that the profound mystery involving the former, and the\r\nequally profound masonry involving the latter, though both acknowledged\r\nfacts, were alike preposterous on any other supposition than the secret\r\ncloset.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 13"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGPFPH23W72RDZNFT0X","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH19FJRG2W6T9CYY2SR2V","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH19A90R4NXT75BVX1APT","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:48.212Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:54.239Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}