{"id":"01KG8AKSKAKRZNTZP8XJ0MZ028","cid":"bafkreiahfpln5cr2673vnlch7mth2r4negnt4gmx2il5iutifovkelk3eu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7022,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.152Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":6947,"text":"CHAPTER L.\r\nSOMETHING HAPPENS TO LONG GHOST\r\n\r\n\r\nWe will now return to the narrative.\r\n\r\nThe day before the Julia sailed, Dr. Johnson paid his last call. He was\r\nnot quite so bland as usual. All he wanted was the men’s names to a\r\npaper, certifying to their having received from him sundry medicaments\r\ntherein mentioned. This voucher, endorsed by Captain Guy, secured his\r\npay. But he would not have obtained for it the sailors’ signs manual,\r\nhad either the doctor or myself been present at the time.\r\n\r\nNow, my long friend wasted no love upon Johnson; but, for reasons of\r\nhis own, hated him heartily: all the same thing in one sense; for\r\neither passion argues an object deserving thereof. And so, to be hated\r\ncordially, is only a left-handed compliment; which shows how foolish it\r\nis to be bitter against anyone.\r\n\r\nFor my own part, I merely felt a cool, purely incidental, and passive\r\ncontempt for Johnson, as a selfish, mercenary apothecary, and hence, I\r\noften remonstrated with Long Ghost when he flew out against him, and\r\nheaped upon him all manner of scurrilous epithets. In his professional\r\nbrother’s presence, however, he never acted thus; maintaining an\r\namiable exterior, to help along the jokes which were played.\r\n\r\nI am now going to tell another story in which my long friend figures\r\nwith the physician: I do not wish to bring one or the other of them too\r\noften upon the stage; but as the thing actually happened, I must relate\r\nit.\r\n\r\nA few days after Johnson presented his bill, as above mentioned, the\r\ndoctor expressed to me his regret that, although he (Johnson) had\r\napparently been played off for our entertainment, yet, nevertheless, he\r\nhad made money out of the transaction. And I wonder, added the doctor,\r\nif that now he cannot expect to receive any further pay, he could be\r\ninduced to call again.\r\n\r\nBy a curious coincidence, not five minutes after making this\r\nobservation, Doctor Long Ghost himself fell down in an unaccountable\r\nfit; and without asking anybody’s leave, Captain Bob, who was by, at\r\nonce dispatched a boy, hot foot, for Johnson.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, we carried him into the Calabooza; and the natives, who\r\nassembled in numbers, suggested various modes of treatment. One rather\r\nenergetic practitioner was for holding the patient by the shoulders,\r\nwhile somebody tugged at his feet. This resuscitatory operation was\r\ncalled the “Potata”; but thinking our long comrade sufficiently lengthy\r\nwithout additional stretching, we declined potataing him.\r\n\r\nPresently the physician was spied coming along the Broom Road at a\r\ngreat rate, and so absorbed in the business of locomotion, that he\r\nheeded not the imprudence of being in a hurry in a tropical climate. He\r\nwas in a profuse perspiration; which must have been owing to the warmth\r\nof his feelings, notwithstanding we had supposed him a man of no heart.\r\nBut his benevolent haste upon this occasion was subsequently accounted\r\nfor: it merely arose from professional curiosity to behold a case most\r\nunusual in his Polynesian practice. Now, under certain circumstances,\r\nsailors, generally so frolicsome, are exceedingly particular in having\r\neverything conducted with the strictest propriety. Accordingly, they\r\ndeputed me, as his intimate friend, to sit at Long Ghost’s head, so as\r\nto be ready to officiate as “spokesman” and answer all questions\r\npropounded, the rest to keep silent.\r\n\r\n“What’s the matter?” exclaimed Johnson, out of breath, and bursting\r\ninto the Calabooza: “how did it happen?—speak quick!” and he looked at\r\nLong Ghost.\r\n\r\nI told him how the fit came on.\r\n\r\n“Singular”—he observed—“very: good enough pulse;” and he let go of it,\r\nand placed his hand upon the heart.\r\n\r\n“But what’s all that frothing at the mouth?” he continued; “and bless\r\nme! look at the abdomen!”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM0KYD1XFYBSE8KWR8CP","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSKF1AXPK5SYSX08SCK1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.978Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.634Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}