{"id":"01KG6YHCV7T6571QX7F3AE2R2K","cid":"bafkreifvfpmbydoj4gmhju2nsh7etfru6coxshotzze4jxb3cgergx5o6q","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4497,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 24","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":4419,"text":"at the given hour I am below, he must take his stand and abide my\r\ncoming.”\r\n\r\n“Ah now, pardon me, but that is treating the poor fellow like an\r\nex-king indeed. Ah, Don Benito,” smiling, “for all the license you\r\npermit in some things, I fear lest, at bottom, you are a bitter hard\r\nmaster.”\r\n\r\nAgain Don Benito shrank; and this time, as the good sailor thought,\r\nfrom a genuine twinge of his conscience.\r\n\r\nAgain conversation became constrained. In vain Captain Delano called\r\nattention to the now perceptible motion of the keel gently cleaving the\r\nsea; with lack-lustre eye, Don Benito returned words few and reserved.\r\n\r\nBy-and-by, the wind having steadily risen, and still blowing right into\r\nthe harbor bore the San Dominick swiftly on. Sounding a point of land,\r\nthe sealer at distance came into open view.\r\n\r\nMeantime Captain Delano had again repaired to the deck, remaining there\r\nsome time. Having at last altered the ship’s course, so as to give the\r\nreef a wide berth, he returned for a few moments below.\r\n\r\nI will cheer up my poor friend, this time, thought he.\r\n\r\n“Better and better,” Don Benito, he cried as he blithely re-entered:\r\n“there will soon be an end to your cares, at least for awhile. For\r\nwhen, after a long, sad voyage, you know, the anchor drops into the\r\nhaven, all its vast weight seems lifted from the captain’s heart. We\r\nare getting on famously, Don Benito. My ship is in sight. Look through\r\nthis side-light here; there she is; all a-taunt-o! The Bachelor’s\r\nDelight, my good friend. Ah, how this wind braces one up. Come, you\r\nmust take a cup of coffee with me this evening. My old steward will\r\ngive you as fine a cup as ever any sultan tasted. What say you, Don\r\nBenito, will you?”\r\n\r\nAt first, the Spaniard glanced feverishly up, casting a longing look\r\ntowards the sealer, while with mute concern his servant gazed into his\r\nface. Suddenly the old ague of coldness returned, and dropping back to\r\nhis cushions he was silent.\r\n\r\n“You do not answer. Come, all day you have been my host; would you have\r\nhospitality all on one side?”\r\n\r\n“I cannot go,” was the response.\r\n\r\n“What? it will not fatigue you. The ships will lie together as near as\r\nthey can, without swinging foul. It will be little more than stepping\r\nfrom deck to deck; which is but as from room to room. Come, come, you\r\nmust not refuse me.”\r\n\r\n“I cannot go,” decisively and repulsively repeated Don Benito.\r\n\r\nRenouncing all but the last appearance of courtesy, with a sort of\r\ncadaverous sullenness, and biting his thin nails to the quick, he\r\nglanced, almost glared, at his guest, as if impatient that a stranger’s\r\npresence should interfere with the full indulgence of his morbid hour.\r\nMeantime the sound of the parted waters came more and more gurglingly\r\nand merrily in at the windows; as reproaching him for his dark spleen;\r\nas telling him that, sulk as he might, and go mad with it, nature cared\r\nnot a jot; since, whose fault was it, pray?\r\n\r\nBut the foul mood was now at its depth, as the fair wind at its height.\r\n\r\nThere was something in the man so far beyond any mere unsociality or\r\nsourness previously evinced, that even the forbearing good-nature of\r\nhis guest could no longer endure it. Wholly at a loss to account for\r\nsuch demeanor, and deeming sickness with eccentricity, however extreme,\r\nno adequate excuse, well satisfied, too, that nothing in his own\r\nconduct could justify it, Captain Delano’s pride began to be roused.\r\nHimself became reserved. But all seemed one to the Spaniard. Quitting\r\nhim, therefore, Captain Delano once more went to the deck.\r\n\r\nThe ship was now within less than two miles of the sealer. The\r\nwhale-boat was seen darting over the interval.\r\n\r\nTo be brief, the two vessels, thanks to the pilot’s skill, ere long\r\nneighborly style lay anchored together.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 24"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGRZTEE5859WYJDPVXVM1","peer_type":"intro","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHCVAT9TYN1DXA2V6SVTN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHCVAHGA9WNW4QXCWSDKE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:58:00.039Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:05.145Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}