{"id":"01KG8AKT60F9NN3RTB2W1D3BY5","cid":"bafkreiafxillpjv4mmvtahvm2gbc7gjluko74hekil6trjthuammaltvre","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1511,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":1434,"text":"CHAPTER XI.\r\nDOCTOR LONG GHOST A WAG—ONE OF HIS CAPERS\r\n\r\n\r\nGrave though he was at times, Doctor Long Ghost was a decided wag.\r\n\r\nEveryone knows what lovers of fun sailors are ashore—afloat, they are\r\nabsolutely mad after it. So his pranks were duly appreciated.\r\n\r\nThe poor old black cook! Unlashing his hammock for the night, and\r\nfinding a wet log fast asleep in it; and then waking in the morning\r\nwith his woolly head tarred. Opening his coppers, and finding an old\r\nboot boiling away as saucy as could be, and sometimes cakes of pitch\r\ncandying in his oven.\r\n\r\nBaltimore’s tribulations were indeed sore; there was no peace for him\r\nday nor night. Poor fellow! he was altogether too good-natured. Say\r\nwhat they will about easy-tempered people, it is far better, on some\r\naccounts, to have the temper of a wolf. Whoever thought of taking\r\nliberties with gruff Black Dan?\r\n\r\nThe most curious of the doctor’s jokes, was hoisting the men aloft by\r\nthe foot or shoulder, when they fell asleep on deck during the\r\nnight-watches.\r\n\r\nAscending from the forecastle on one occasion, he found every soul\r\nnapping, and forthwith went about his capers. Fastening a rope’s end to\r\neach sleeper, he rove the lines through a number of blocks, and\r\nconducted them all to the windlass; then, by heaving round cheerily, in\r\nspite of cries and struggles, he soon had them dangling aloft in all\r\ndirections by arms and legs. Waked by the uproar, we rushed up from\r\nbelow, and found the poor fellows swinging in the moonlight from the\r\ntops and lower yard-arms, like a parcel of pirates gibbeted at sea by a\r\ncruiser.\r\n\r\nConnected with this sort of diversion was another prank of his. During\r\nthe night some of those on deck would come below to light a pipe, or\r\ntake a mouthful of beef and biscuit. Sometimes they fell asleep; and\r\nbeing missed directly that anything was to be done, their shipmates\r\noften amused themselves by running them aloft with a pulley dropped\r\ndown the scuttle from the fore-top.\r\n\r\nOne night, when all was perfectly still, I lay awake in the forecastle;\r\nthe lamp was burning low and thick, and swinging from its blackened\r\nbeam; and with the uniform motion of the ship, the men in the bunks\r\nrolled slowly from side to side; the hammocks swaying in unison.\r\n\r\nPresently I heard a foot upon the ladder, and looking up, saw a wide\r\ntrousers’ leg. Immediately, Navy Bob, a stout old Triton, stealthily\r\ndescended, and at once went to groping in the locker after something to\r\neat.\r\n\r\nSupper ended, he proceeded to load his pipe. Now, for a good\r\ncomfortable smoke at sea, there never was a better place than the\r\nJulia’s forecastle at midnight. To enjoy the luxury, one wants to fall\r\ninto a kind of dreamy reverie, only known to the children of the weed.\r\nAnd the very atmosphere of the place, laden as it was with the snores\r\nof the sleepers, was inducive of this. No wonder, then, that after a\r\nwhile Bob’s head sunk upon his breast; presently his hat fell off, the\r\nextinguished pipe dropped from his mouth, and the next moment he lay\r\nout on the chest as tranquil as an infant.\r\n\r\nSuddenly an order was heard on deck, followed by the trampling of feet\r\nand the hauling of rigging. The yards were being braced, and soon after\r\nthe sleeper was missed: for there was a whispered conference over the\r\nscuttle.\r\n\r\nDirectly a shadow glided across the forecastle and noiselessly\r\napproached the unsuspecting Bob. It was one of the watch with the end\r\nof a rope leading out of sight up the scuttle. Pausing an instant, the\r\nsailor pressed softly the chest of his victim, sounding his slumbers;\r\nand then hitching the cord to his ankle, returned to the deck.\r\n\r\nHardly was his back turned, when a long limb was thrust from a hammock\r\nopposite, and Doctor Long Ghost, leaping forth warily, whipped the rope\r\nfrom Bob’s ankle, and fastened it like lightning to a great lumbering\r\nchest, the property of the man who had just disappeared.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJH07KZ0YK7CZAGYMT88C","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT60DNDDAFY94J6174JJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.576Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.492Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}