{"id":"01KG8AMHP58X7WNGR8WT47H79X","cid":"bafkreic7h25fvliehixfwas3darwzsj7rhnn7htszke3fqo346tv4yproq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4995,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":4935,"text":"his head like blue-lights. He it was who had access to many of those\r\nmysterious vaults I have spoken of. Often he might be seen groping his\r\nway into them, followed by his subalterns, the old quarter-gunners, as\r\nif intent upon laying a train of powder to blow up the ship. I\r\nremembered Guy Fawkes and the Parliament-house, and made earnest\r\ninquiry whether this gunner was a Roman Catholic. I felt relieved when\r\ninformed that he was not.\r\n\r\nA little circumstance which one of his _mates_ once told me heightened\r\nthe gloomy interest with which I regarded his chief. He told me that,\r\nat periodical intervals, his master the Gunner, accompanied by his\r\nphalanx, entered into the great Magazine under the Gun-room, of which\r\nhe had sole custody and kept the key, nearly as big as the key of the\r\nBastile, and provided with lanterns, something like Sir Humphrey Davy’s\r\nSafety-lamp for coal mines, proceeded to turn, end for end, all the\r\nkegs of powder and packages of cartridges stored in this innermost\r\nexplosive vault, lined throughout with sheets of copper. In the\r\nvestibule of the Magazine, against the panelling, were several pegs for\r\nslippers, and, before penetrating further than that vestibule, every\r\nman of the gunner’s gang silently removed his shoes, for fear that the\r\nnails in their heels might possibly create a spark, by striking against\r\nthe coppered floor within. Then, with slippered feet and with hushed\r\nwhispers, they stole into the heart of the place.\r\n\r\nThis turning of the powder was to preserve its inflammability. And\r\nsurely it was a business full of direful interest, to be buried so deep\r\nbelow the sun, handling whole barrels of powder, any one of which,\r\ntouched by the smallest spark, was powerful enough to blow up a whole\r\nstreet of warehouses.\r\n\r\nThe gunner went by the name of _Old Combustibles_, though I thought\r\nthis an undignified name for so momentous a personage, who had all our\r\nlives in his hand.\r\n\r\nWhile we lay in Callao, we received from shore several barrels of\r\npowder. So soon as the _launch_ came alongside with them, orders were\r\ngiven to extinguish all lights and all fires in the ship; and the\r\nmaster-at-arms and his corporals inspected every deck to see that this\r\norder was obeyed; a very prudent precaution, no doubt, but not observed\r\nat all in the Turkish navy. The Turkish sailors will sit on their\r\ngun-carriages, tranquilly smoking, while kegs of powder are being\r\nrolled under their ignited pipe-bowls. This shows the great comfort\r\nthere is in the doctrine of these Fatalists, and how such a doctrine,\r\nin some things at least, relieves men from nervous anxieties. But we\r\nall are Fatalists at bottom. Nor need we so much marvel at the heroism\r\nof that army officer, who challenged his personal foe to bestride a\r\nbarrel of powder with him—the match to be placed between them—and be\r\nblown up in good company, for it is pretty certain that the whole earth\r\nitself is a vast hogshead, full of inflammable materials, and which we\r\nare always bestriding; at the same time, that all good Christians\r\nbelieve that at any minute the last day may come and the terrible\r\ncombustion of the entire planet ensue.\r\n\r\nAs if impressed with a befitting sense of the awfulness of his calling,\r\nour gunner always wore a fixed expression of solemnity, which was\r\nheightened by his grizzled hair and beard. But what imparted such a\r\nsinister look to him, and what wrought so upon my imagination\r\nconcerning this man, was a frightful scar crossing his left cheek and\r\nforehead. He had been almost mortally wounded, they said, with a\r\nsabre-cut, during a frigate engagement in the last war with Britain.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRBSZVDMKXC0Z6HSEH30","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHP5VQPZG52T9HX5GN7C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHP5A406DFJSGPR3BJEA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.645Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:46.594Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}