- end_line
- 1913
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1850
- text
- would, upon their nearing, step aside a little to let him pass, dwelling
upon Billy for the moment with the glittering dental satire of a guise.
But upon any abrupt unforeseen encounter a red light would flash forth
from his eye, like a spark from an anvil in a dusk smithy. That quick
fierce light was a strange one, darted from orbs which in repose were of
a colour nearest approaching a deeper violet, the softest of shades.
Though some of these caprices of the pit could not but be observed by
their object, yet were they beyond the construing of such a nature. And
the thews of Billy were hardly comparable with that sort of sensitive
spiritual organisation which in some cases instinctively conveys to
ignorant innocence an admonition of the proximity of the malign. He
thought the master-at-arms acted in a manner rather queer at times. That
was all. But the occasional frank air and pleasant word went for what
they purported to be, the young sailor never having heard as yet of the
‘too fair-spoken man.’
Had the foretopman been conscious of having done or said anything to
provoke the ill-will of the official, it would have been different with
him, and his sight might have been pursed if not sharpened.
So was it with him in yet another matter. Two minor officers, the
armourer and captain of the hold, with whom he had never exchanged a
word, his position on the ship not bringing him into contact with them;
these men now for the first time began to cast upon Billy, when they
chanced to encounter him, that peculiar glance which evidences that the
man from whom it comes has been some way tampered with, and to the
prejudice of him upon whom the glance lights. Never did it occur to
Billy as a thing to be noted, or a thing suspicious, though he well knew
the fact, that the armourer and captain of the hold, with the ship’s
yeoman, apothecary, and others of that grade, were by naval usage,
messmates of the master-at-arms, men with ears convenient to his
confidential tongue.
Our Handsome Sailor’s manly forwardness upon occasion, and irresistible
good-nature, indicating no mental superiority tending to excite an
invidious feeling, bred general popularity, and this good-will on the
part of most of his shipmates made him the less to concern himself about
such mute aspects toward him as those whereto allusion has just been
made.
As to the afterguardsman, though Billy for reasons already given
necessarily saw little of him, yet when the two did happen to meet,
invariably came the fellow’s off-hand cheerful recognition, sometimes
accompanied by a passing pleasant word or two. Whatever that equivocal
young person’s original design may really have been, or the design of
which he might have been the deputy, certain it was from his manner upon
these occasions, that he had wholly dropped it.
It was as if his precocity of crookedness (and every vulgar villain is
precocious) had for once deceived him, and the man he had sought to
entrap as a simpleton had, through his very simplicity, baffled him.
But shrewd ones may opine that it was hardly possible for Billy to
refrain from going up to the afterguardsman and bluntly demanding to
know his purpose in the initial interview, so abruptly closed in the
fore-chains. Shrewd ones may also think it but natural in Billy to set
about sounding some of the other impressed men of the ship in order to
discover what basis, if any, there was for the emissary’s obscure
suggestions as to plotting disaffection aboard. Yes, the shrewd may so
think. But something more, or rather, something else than mere
shrewdness is perhaps needful for the due understanding of such a
character as Billy Budd’s.
- title
- Chunk 11