{"id":"01KG6YHCVAHGA9WNW4QXCWSDKE","cid":"bafkreiflntzdqhadpj47ubpb63srqrbiamixfb67majgqwbltya4n2xhx4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4549,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 25","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":4488,"text":"conduct 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\nBefore returning to his own vessel, Captain Delano had intended\r\ncommunicating to Don Benito the smaller details of the proposed\r\nservices to be rendered. But, as it was, unwilling anew to subject\r\nhimself to rebuffs, he resolved, now that he had seen the San Dominick\r\nsafely moored, immediately to quit her, without further allusion to\r\nhospitality or business. Indefinitely postponing his ulterior plans, he\r\nwould regulate his future actions according to future circumstances.\r\nHis boat was ready to receive him; but his host still tarried below.\r\nWell, thought Captain Delano, if he has little breeding, the more need\r\nto show mine. He descended to the cabin to bid a ceremonious, and, it\r\nmay be, tacitly rebukeful adieu. But to his great satisfaction, Don\r\nBenito, as if he began to feel the weight of that treatment with which\r\nhis slighted guest had, not indecorously, retaliated upon him, now\r\nsupported by his servant, rose to his feet, and grasping Captain\r\nDelano’s hand, stood tremulous; too much agitated to speak. But the\r\ngood augury hence drawn was suddenly dashed, by his resuming all his\r\nprevious reserve, with augmented gloom, as, with half-averted eyes, he\r\nsilently reseated himself on his cushions. With a corresponding return\r\nof his own chilled feelings, Captain Delano bowed and withdrew.\r\n\r\nHe was hardly midway in the narrow corridor, dim as a tunnel, leading\r\nfrom the cabin to the stairs, when a sound, as of the tolling for\r\nexecution in some jail-yard, fell on his ears. It was the echo of the\r\nship’s flawed bell, striking the hour, drearily reverberated in this\r\nsubterranean vault. Instantly, by a fatality not to be withstood, his\r\nmind, responsive to the portent, swarmed with superstitious suspicions.\r\nHe paused. In images far swifter than these sentences, the minutest\r\ndetails of all his former distrusts swept through him.\r\n\r\nHitherto, credulous good-nature had been too ready to furnish excuses\r\nfor reasonable fears. Why was the Spaniard, so superfluously\r\npunctilious at times, now heedless of common propriety in not\r\naccompanying to the side his departing guest? Did indisposition forbid?\r\nIndisposition had not forbidden more irksome exertion that day. His\r\nlast equivocal demeanor recurred. He had risen to his feet, grasped his\r\nguest’s hand, motioned toward his hat; then, in an instant, all was\r\neclipsed in sinister muteness and gloom. Did this imply one brief,\r\nrepentant relenting at the final moment, from some iniquitous plot,\r\nfollowed by remorseless return to it? His last glance seemed to express\r\na calamitous, yet acquiescent farewell to Captain Delano forever. Why\r\ndecline the invitation to visit the sealer that evening? Or was the\r\nSpaniard less hardened than the Jew, who refrained not from supping at\r\nthe board of him whom the same night he meant to betray? What imported\r\nall those day-long enigmas and contradictions, except they were\r\nintended to mystify, preliminary to some stealthy blow? Atufal, the\r\npretended rebel, but punctual shadow, that moment lurked by the\r\nthreshold without. He seemed a sentry, and more. Who, by his own\r\nconfession, had stationed him there? Was the negro now lying in wait?\r\n\r\nThe Spaniard behind—his creature before: to rush from darkness to light\r\nwas the involuntary choice.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 25"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGRZTEE5859WYJDPVXVM1","peer_type":"intro","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHCV7T6571QX7F3AE2R2K","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHCVAKBVG93K8AZ2KMK64","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:58:00.042Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:05.150Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}