{"id":"01KG8AKC4PN3ZY3BMEWXP9WHRS","cid":"bafkreidjwofneyv3gv7exicowtkx2vc4nuzaplgpyfkwluw552mwsv6z4u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10820,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.726Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":10740,"text":"\"Very good thing,\" said the boy, \"I give it to all my customers who\r\ntrade seventy-five cents' worth; best present can be made them. Sell you\r\na money-belt, sir?\" turning to the cosmopolitan.\r\n\r\n\"Excuse me, my fine fellow, but I never use that sort of thing; my money\r\nI carry loose.\"\r\n\r\n\"Loose bait ain't bad,\" said the boy, \"look a lie and find the truth;\r\ndon't care about a Counterfeit Detector, do ye? or is the wind East,\r\nd'ye think?\"\r\n\r\n\"Child,\" said the old man in some concern, \"you mustn't sit up any\r\nlonger, it affects your mind; there, go away, go to bed.\"\r\n\r\n\"If I had some people's brains to lie on. I would,\" said the boy, \"but\r\nplanks is hard, you know.\"\r\n\r\n\"Go, child--go, go!\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes, child,--yes, yes,\" said the boy, with which roguish parody, by way\r\nof congé, he scraped back his hard foot on the woven flowers of the\r\ncarpet, much as a mischievous steer in May scrapes back his horny hoof\r\nin the pasture; and then with a flourish of his hat--which, like the\r\nrest of his tatters, was, thanks to hard times, a belonging beyond his\r\nyears, though not beyond his experience, being a grown man's cast-off\r\nbeaver--turned, and with the air of a young Caffre, quitted the place.\r\n\r\n\"That's a strange boy,\" said the old man, looking after him. \"I wonder\r\nwho's his mother; and whether she knows what late hours he keeps?\"\r\n\r\n\"The probability is,\" observed the other, \"that his mother does not\r\nknow. But if you remember, sir, you were saying something, when the boy\r\ninterrupted you with his door.\"\r\n\r\n\"So I was.--Let me see,\" unmindful of his purchases for the moment,\r\n\"what, now, was it? What was that I was saying? Do _you_ remember?\"\r\n\r\n\"Not perfectly, sir; but, if I am not mistaken, it was something like\r\nthis: you hoped you did not distrust the creature; for that would imply\r\ndistrust of the Creator.\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes, that was something like it,\" mechanically and unintelligently\r\nletting his eye fall now on his purchases.\r\n\r\n\"Pray, will you put your money in your belt to-night?\"\r\n\r\n\"It's best, ain't it?\" with a slight start. \"Never too late to be\r\ncautious. 'Beware of pick-pockets' is all over the boat.\"\r\n\r\n\"Yes, and it must have been the Son of Sirach, or some other morbid\r\ncynic, who put them there. But that's not to the purpose. Since you are\r\nminded to it, pray, sir, let me help you about the belt. I think that,\r\nbetween us, we can make a secure thing of it.\"\r\n\r\n\"Oh no, no, no!\" said the old man, not unperturbed, \"no, no, I wouldn't\r\ntrouble you for the world,\" then, nervously folding up the belt, \"and I\r\nwon't be so impolite as to do it for myself, before you, either. But,\r\nnow that I think of it,\" after a pause, carefully taking a little wad\r\nfrom a remote corner of his vest pocket, \"here are two bills they gave\r\nme at St. Louis, yesterday. No doubt they are all right; but just to\r\npass time, I'll compare them with the Detector here. Blessed boy to make\r\nme such a present. Public benefactor, that little boy!\"\r\n\r\nLaying the Detector square before him on the table, he then, with\r\nsomething of the air of an officer bringing by the collar a brace of\r\nculprits to the bar, placed the two bills opposite the Detector, upon\r\nwhich, the examination began, lasting some time, prosecuted with no\r\nsmall research and vigilance, the forefinger of the right hand proving\r\nof lawyer-like efficacy in tracing out and pointing the evidence,\r\nwhichever way it might go.\r\n\r\nAfter watching him a while, the cosmopolitan said in a formal voice,\r\n\"Well, what say you, Mr. Foreman; guilty, or not guilty?--Not guilty,\r\nain't it?\"\r\n\r\n\"I don't know, I don't know,\" returned the old man, perplexed, \"there's\r\nso many marks of all sorts to go by, it makes it a kind of uncertain.\r\nHere, now, is this bill,\" touching one, \"it looks to be a three dollar\r\nbill on the Vicksburgh Trust and Insurance Banking Company. Well, the\r\nDetector says----\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNPWTERPN2J92AFP8QXB","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKC4QKVB4EBPDJYD63JRF","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKC4QMMWJHEQPBV6Y0QQ0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:02.198Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.717Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}