{"id":"01KG8AKVZGXQKYT8VPATT8FNJX","cid":"bafkreibi7bfas6yttbfacj6rjls5fdvxbzhkuhmdwprgbiijkwof7izz54","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3632,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.023Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":3563,"text":"jamming-knot.\r\n\r\nAt last, puzzled to comprehend the meaning of such a knot, Captain\r\nDelano addressed the knotter:—\r\n\r\n“What are you knotting there, my man?”\r\n\r\n“The knot,” was the brief reply, without looking up.\r\n\r\n“So it seems; but what is it for?”\r\n\r\n“For some one else to undo,” muttered back the old man, plying his\r\nfingers harder than ever, the knot being now nearly completed.\r\n\r\nWhile Captain Delano stood watching him, suddenly the old man threw the\r\nknot towards him, saying in broken English—the first heard in the\r\nship—something to this effect: “Undo it, cut it, quick.” It was said\r\nlowly, but with such condensation of rapidity, that the long, slow\r\nwords in Spanish, which had preceded and followed, almost operated as\r\ncovers to the brief English between.\r\n\r\nFor a moment, knot in hand, and knot in head, Captain Delano stood\r\nmute; while, without further heeding him, the old man was now intent\r\nupon other ropes. Presently there was a slight stir behind Captain\r\nDelano. Turning, he saw the chained negro, Atufal, standing quietly\r\nthere. The next moment the old sailor rose, muttering, and, followed by\r\nhis subordinate negroes, removed to the forward part of the ship, where\r\nin the crowd he disappeared.\r\n\r\nAn elderly negro, in a clout like an infant’s, and with a pepper and\r\nsalt head, and a kind of attorney air, now approached Captain Delano.\r\nIn tolerable Spanish, and with a good-natured, knowing wink, he\r\ninformed him that the old knotter was simple-witted, but harmless;\r\noften playing his odd tricks. The negro concluded by begging the knot,\r\nfor of course the stranger would not care to be troubled with it.\r\nUnconsciously, it was handed to him. With a sort of congé, the negro\r\nreceived it, and, turning his back, ferreted into it like a detective\r\ncustom-house officer after smuggled laces. Soon, with some African\r\nword, equivalent to pshaw, he tossed the knot overboard.\r\n\r\nAll this is very queer now, thought Captain Delano, with a qualmish\r\nsort of emotion; but, as one feeling incipient sea-sickness, he strove,\r\nby ignoring the symptoms, to get rid of the malady. Once more he looked\r\noff for his boat. To his delight, it was now again in view, leaving the\r\nrocky spur astern.\r\n\r\nThe sensation here experienced, after at first relieving his\r\nuneasiness, with unforeseen efficacy soon began to remove it. The less\r\ndistant sight of that well-known boat—showing it, not as before, half\r\nblended with the haze, but with outline defined, so that its\r\nindividuality, like a man’s, was manifest; that boat, Rover by name,\r\nwhich, though now in strange seas, had often pressed the beach of\r\nCaptain Delano’s home, and, brought to its threshold for repairs, had\r\nfamiliarly lain there, as a Newfoundland dog; the sight of that\r\nhousehold boat evoked a thousand trustful associations, which,\r\ncontrasted with previous suspicions, filled him not only with lightsome\r\nconfidence, but somehow with half humorous self-reproaches at his\r\nformer lack of it.\r\n\r\n“What, I, Amasa Delano—Jack of the Beach, as they called me when a\r\nlad—I, Amasa; the same that, duck-satchel in hand, used to paddle along\r\nthe water-side to the school-house made from the old hulk—I, little\r\nJack of the Beach, that used to go berrying with cousin Nat and the\r\nrest; I to be murdered here at the ends of the earth, on board a\r\nhaunted pirate-ship by a horrible Spaniard? Too nonsensical to think\r\nof! Who would murder Amasa Delano? His conscience is clean. There is\r\nsome one above. Fie, fie, Jack of the Beach! you are a child indeed; a\r\nchild of the second childhood, old boy; you are beginning to dote and\r\ndrule, I’m afraid.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AK2X9P0E5X4X6Z77F9M13","peer_type":"intro","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVZ9C92SBAW5YWH4523G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVZGEDDR4F4Q3AD3G3AD","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.416Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.451Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}