{"id":"01KG8AKE1SHQT6GXJT36ZF6KRH","cid":"bafkreie2yqqivcbbizmdyu4rd66c4h32us7lwabgfg5w2qm4hfh2oc3biq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6387,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":6320,"text":"CHAPTER XXV.\r\n\r\nTHE COSMOPOLITAN MAKES AN ACQUAINTANCE.\r\n\r\n\r\nIn the act of retiring, the cosmopolitan was met by a passenger, who\r\nwith the bluff _abord_ of the West, thus addressed him, though a\r\nstranger.\r\n\r\n\"Queer 'coon, your friend. Had a little skrimmage with him myself.\r\nRather entertaining old 'coon, if he wasn't so deuced analytical.\r\nReminded me somehow of what I've heard about Colonel John Moredock, of\r\nIllinois, only your friend ain't quite so good a fellow at bottom, I\r\nshould think.\"\r\n\r\nIt was in the semicircular porch of a cabin, opening a recess from the\r\ndeck, lit by a zoned lamp swung overhead, and sending its light\r\nvertically down, like the sun at noon. Beneath the lamp stood the\r\nspeaker, affording to any one disposed to it no unfavorable chance for\r\nscrutiny; but the glance now resting on him betrayed no such rudeness.\r\n\r\nA man neither tall nor stout, neither short nor gaunt; but with a body\r\nfitted, as by measure, to the service of his mind. For the rest, one\r\nless favored perhaps in his features than his clothes; and of these the\r\nbeauty may have been less in the fit than the cut; to say nothing of\r\nthe fineness of the nap, seeming out of keeping with something the\r\nreverse of fine in the skin; and the unsuitableness of a violet vest,\r\nsending up sunset hues to a countenance betokening a kind of bilious\r\nhabit.\r\n\r\nBut, upon the whole, it could not be fairly said that his appearance was\r\nunprepossessing; indeed, to the congenial, it would have been doubtless\r\nnot uncongenial; while to others, it could not fail to be at least\r\ncuriously interesting, from the warm air of florid cordiality,\r\ncontrasting itself with one knows not what kind of aguish sallowness of\r\nsaving discretion lurking behind it. Ungracious critics might have\r\nthought that the manner flushed the man, something in the same\r\nfictitious way that the vest flushed the cheek. And though his teeth\r\nwere singularly good, those same ungracious ones might have hinted that\r\nthey were too good to be true; or rather, were not so good as they might\r\nbe; since the best false teeth are those made with at least two or three\r\nblemishes, the more to look like life. But fortunately for better\r\nconstructions, no such critics had the stranger now in eye; only the\r\ncosmopolitan, who, after, in the first place, acknowledging his advances\r\nwith a mute salute--in which acknowledgment, if there seemed less of\r\nspirit than in his way of accosting the Missourian, it was probably\r\nbecause of the saddening sequel of that late interview--thus now\r\nreplied: \"Colonel John Moredock,\" repeating the words abstractedly;\r\n\"that surname recalls reminiscences. Pray,\" with enlivened air, \"was he\r\nanyway connected with the Moredocks of Moredock Hall, Northamptonshire,\r\nEngland?\"\r\n\r\n\"I know no more of the Moredocks of Moredock Hall than of the Burdocks\r\nof Burdock Hut,\" returned the other, with the air somehow of one whose\r\nfortunes had been of his own making; \"all I know is, that the late\r\nColonel John Moredock was a famous one in his time; eye like Lochiel's;\r\nfinger like a trigger; nerve like a catamount's; and with but two little\r\noddities--seldom stirred without his rifle, and hated Indians like\r\nsnakes.\"\r\n\r\n\"Your Moredock, then, would seem a Moredock of Misanthrope Hall--the\r\nWoods. No very sleek creature, the colonel, I fancy.\"\r\n\r\n\"Sleek or not, he was no uncombed one, but silky bearded and curly\r\nheaded, and to all but Indians juicy as a peach. But Indians--how the\r\nlate Colonel John Moredock, Indian-hater of Illinois, did hate Indians,\r\nto be sure!\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM4RF74GVGJCY90CXES0","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKE1SFYA0EHESN7AXBWEC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:04.153Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:11.108Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}