{"id":"01KG8AKJ9NDBQ4PPFNWDZDTMXA","cid":"bafkreidt73ozi5gvho3cwekyku4vl4yopkzrfka5jbyyzfcu4eotsgtywq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2875,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.590Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","start_line":2803,"text":"assumed, he took a deck passage in the packet. It coming on to rain\r\nviolently, he stole down into the forecastle, dimly lit by a solitary\r\nswinging lamp, where were two men industriously smoking, and filling\r\nthe narrow hole with soporific vapors. These induced strange drowsiness\r\nin Israel, and he pondered how best he might indulge it, for a time,\r\nwithout imperilling the precious documents in his custody.\r\n\r\nBut this pondering in such soporific vapors had the effect of those\r\nmathematical devices whereby restless people cipher themselves to\r\nsleep. His languid head fell to his breast. In another moment, he\r\ndrooped half-lengthwise upon a chest, his legs outstretched before him.\r\n\r\nPresently he was awakened by some intermeddlement with his feet.\r\nStarting to his elbow, he saw one of the two men in the act of slyly\r\nslipping off his right boot, while the left one, already removed, lay\r\non the floor, all ready against the rascal’s retreat Had it not been\r\nfor the lesson learned on the Pont Neuf, Israel would instantly have\r\ninferred that his secret mission was known, and the operator some\r\ndesigned diplomatic knave or other, hired by the British Cabinet, thus\r\nto lie in wait for him, fume him into slumber with tobacco, and then\r\nrifle him of his momentous dispatches. But as it was, he recalled\r\nDoctor Franklin’s prudent admonitions against the indulgence of\r\npremature suspicions.\r\n\r\n“Sir,” said Israel very civilly, “I will thank you for that boot which\r\nlies on the floor, and, if you please, you can let the other stay where\r\nit is.”\r\n\r\n“Excuse me,” said the rascal, an accomplished, self-possessed\r\npractitioner in his thievish art; “I thought your boots might be\r\npinching you, and only wished to ease you a little.”\r\n\r\n“Much obliged to ye for your kindness, sir,” said Israel; “but they\r\ndon’t pinch me at all. I suppose, though, you think they wouldn’t pinch\r\n_you_ either; your foot looks rather small. Were you going to try ’em\r\non, just to see how they fitted?”\r\n\r\n“No,” said the fellow, with sanctimonious seriousness; “but with your\r\npermission I should like to try them on, when we get to Dover. I\r\ncouldn’t try them well walking on this tipsy craft’s deck, you know.”\r\n\r\n“No,” answered Israel, “and the beach at Dover ain’t very smooth\r\neither. I guess, upon second thought, you had better not try ’em on at\r\nall. Besides, I am a simple sort of a soul—eccentric they call me—and\r\ndon’t like my boots to go out of my sight. Ha! ha!”\r\n\r\n“What are you laughing at?” said the fellow testily.\r\n\r\n“Odd idea! I was just looking at those sad old patched boots there on\r\nyour feet, and thinking to myself what leaky fire-buckets they would be\r\nto pass up a ladder on a burning building. It would hardly be fair now\r\nto swop my new boots for those old fire-buckets, would it?”\r\n\r\n“By plunko!” cried the fellow, willing now by a bold stroke to change\r\nthe subject, which was growing slightly annoying; “by plunko, I believe\r\nwe are getting nigh Dover. Let’s see.”\r\n\r\nAnd so saying, he sprang up the ladder to the deck. Upon Israel\r\nfollowing, he found the little craft half becalmed, rolling on short\r\nswells almost in the exact middle of the channel. It was just before\r\nthe break of the morning; the air clear and fine; the heavens spangled\r\nwith moistly twinkling stars. The French and English coasts lay\r\ndistinctly visible in the strange starlight, the white cliffs of Dover\r\nresembling a long gabled block of marble houses. Both shores showed a\r\nlong straight row of lamps. Israel seemed standing in the middle of the\r\ncrossing of some wide stately street in London. Presently a breeze\r\nsprang up, and ere long our adventurer disembarked at his destined\r\nport, and directly posted on for Brentford.\r\n\r\nThe following afternoon, having gained unobserved admittance into the\r\nhouse, according to preconcerted signals, he was sitting in Squire\r\nWoodcock’s closet, pulling off his boots and delivering his dispatches.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJ20F155CN1VA4X6YHX3","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKJ9JS1H6VT9BSHQNWA8D","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKJ9J8WYNHWHTBYJZNJKM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:08.501Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.974Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}