{"id":"01KG8AMHTSA498TCV9YN7XJ9XC","cid":"bafkreieog4gqlvvtswzrwhnx4kr2i24w4u6r2brema4foif7i7bchxiz54","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10850,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":10784,"text":"would be a free man. And now, after making a hermit of myself in some\r\nthings, in order to avoid the possibility of the scourge, here it was\r\nhanging over me for a thing utterly unforeseen, for a crime of which I\r\nwas as utterly innocent. But all that was as naught. I saw that my case\r\nwas hopeless; my solemn disclaimer was thrown in my teeth, and the\r\nboatswain’s mate stood curling his fingers through the _cat_.\r\n\r\nThere are times when wild thoughts enter a man’s heart, when he seems\r\nalmost irresponsible for his act and his deed. The Captain stood on the\r\nweather-side of the deck. Sideways, on an unobstructed line with him,\r\nwas the opening of the lee-gangway, where the side-ladders are\r\nsuspended in port. Nothing but a slight bit of sinnate-stuff served to\r\nrail in this opening, which was cut right down to the level of the\r\nCaptain’s feet, showing the far sea beyond. I stood a little to\r\nwindward of him, and, though he was a large, powerful man, it was\r\ncertain that a sudden rush against him, along the slanting deck, would\r\ninfallibly pitch him headforemost into the ocean, though he who so\r\nrushed must needs go over with him. My blood seemed clotting in my\r\nveins; I felt icy cold at the tips of my fingers, and a dimness was\r\nbefore my eyes. But through that dimness the boatswain’s mate, scourge\r\nin hand, loomed like a giant, and Captain Claret, and the blue sea seen\r\nthrough the opening at the gangway, showed with an awful vividness. I\r\ncannot analyse my heart, though it then stood still within me. But the\r\nthing that swayed me to my purpose was not altogether the thought that\r\nCaptain Claret was about to degrade me, and that I had taken an oath\r\nwith my soul that he should not. No, I felt my man’s manhood so\r\nbottomless within me, that no word, no blow, no scourge of Captain\r\nClaret could cut me deep enough for that. I but swung to an instinct in\r\nme—the instinct diffused through all animated nature, the same that\r\nprompts even a worm to turn under the heel. Locking souls-with him, I\r\nmeant to drag Captain Claret from this earthly tribunal of his to that\r\nof Jehovah and let Him decide between us. No other way could I escape\r\nthe scourge.\r\n\r\nNature has not implanted any power in man that was not meant to be\r\nexercised at times, though too often our powers have been abused. The\r\nprivilege, inborn and inalienable, that every man has of dying himself,\r\nand inflicting death upon another, was not given to us without a\r\npurpose. These are the last resources of an insulted and unendurable\r\nexistence.\r\n\r\n“To the gratings, sir!” said Captain Claret; “do you hear?”\r\n\r\nMy eye was measuring the distance between him and the sea.\r\n\r\n“Captain Claret,” said a voice advancing from the crowd. I turned to\r\nsee who this might be, that audaciously interposed at a juncture like\r\nthis. It was the same remarkably handsome and gentlemanly corporal of\r\nmarines, Colbrook, who has been previously alluded to, in the chapter\r\ndescribing killing time in a man-of-war.\r\n\r\n“I know that man,” said Colbrook, touching his cap, and speaking in a\r\nmild, firm, but extremely deferential manner; “and I know that he would\r\nnot be found absent from his station, if he knew where it was.”\r\n\r\nThis speech was almost unprecedented. Seldom or never before had a\r\nmarine dared to speak to the Captain of a frigate in behalf of a seaman\r\nat the mast. But there was something so unostentatiously commanding in\r\nthe calm manner of the man, that the Captain, though astounded, did not\r\nin any way reprimand him. The very unusualness of his interference\r\nseemed Colbrook’s protection.\r\n\r\nTaking heart, perhaps, from Colbrook’s example, Jack Chase interposed,\r\nand in a manly but carefully respectful manner, in substance repeated\r\nthe corporal’s remark, adding that he had never found me wanting in the\r\ntop.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJTJSBQJ8HHY334KV78RD","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHTSJ47ATWHA4S7D5KZ7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AMHTSB810XE1BJRH76MJG","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:40.793Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:51.944Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}