26 176 New Chapter 40 But after the little ——//—— matter at the mess 166
Billy Budd no more found himself in
mysterious ^ strange strange trouble at times about his
hammock or his clothes-bag or what not.
While, as to that smile that ^ occasionally suned suned deluded sunned him,
him and ^ the pleasant passing word,
these were if if not more frequent, yet
if anything more pronounced than
before. [ But for all that, there were
certain other demonstrations now.
When Claggart's unobserved glance
happened to
27 27 41 48 green follows 167 177 light on belted Billy rolling along the
the upper gun-deck in the leisure of
the last ^ second dog-watch exchanging passing
broadsides of fun with xa gaHS other young
promenaders in the crowd; that ^ glance evil
eye would follow the cheerful
sea-Hyperion with
48 168 cheerfully tarrying would follow the unconscious sailor handsome good-fellow with
cheerful tarrying young cheerful sea- Hyperion
a settled meditative and melancholly melancholy
expression, the his dark hazel eye eyes mysteriously strangely
suffused with incipient feverish tears.
Then would Claggart look like the
man of sorrows. Yes, and ^ And And, yes ^ sometimes the
melancholly melancholy look expression ^ would have in ^ it a
touch of soft yearning and softness , as if
he ^ Claggart could even have loved Billy but
for fate & ban. . ^ forbidding. It was But this was an evanescence , and
quickly repented of, as it were replaced by an immitigable look
pinching and dwarfing shrinking & pinching & shrivlling the whole
intellectual head of the man as by incantation into
the semblance of a wrinkled walnut.
Various were these invountary caprices. / of passion
178 for fate and ban. But this was an
evanescence, and quickly repented of, as
it were, by an immitigable look, pinching
and shrivelling the visage into the momentary
semblence of a wrinkled walnut.
49 1 179 But ^ Sometimes catching sight ^ along the a in advance
vistaed batterries lower deck of the foretopman
advancing coming , ^ in his direction, he Claggart would,
upon their nearing, would step aside a
little to let him pass, dwelling upon
Billy Billy him for the moment with ^ an ambiguous the glittering dental
satire smile of a Guise of a Guise. But ^ upon invariably any abrupt
unforseen encounter a red light
/ would forth from his eye like
/ a spark from a an struck anvil
in a dusk smithy.
49 2 170 180 That quick fierce light was a strange one, darted
from orbs which in repose were of a color
nearest approaching a deeper violet, the
softist softest softest of shades.
Tho' some of these ^ caprices of the pit caprices of the pit peculiar
emanations could not but be
observed by Bi their object, yet
were they beyond the construeing
of such a nature.
50 1 171 181 of so / the simple and untutored a
nature. And the thews ? of Billy
were not hardly in compatible with that sort of
sensitive spiritual organization organisationHS
which in less vigorous some soulsHS which in some cases instinctivly
conveys to ignorant innocense
a war^ n ing ^ 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 when those went for what they
purported to be, for the young athlete sailor
never not having heard as yet of was not yet of those who distrust
the "too fair-spoken man."
50 2 172 182 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 would have been ^ refined? purged purged if not sharpened.
As it was innocense was his blinder.

So was it with him in yet
another matter. Certain ^ Two Two minor officers —
and among them the armorer Armorer , ^ ship's yeoman, and apothecary Captain of the Hold, Apothecary &c for hi boHS and others
with whom he had never exchanged a word,
neither his needs nor his position in the ship not bringing him
into contact with them; these men began now
for the first began to cast upon Billy
when they chanced to seeseeDC meetHS ^ meet encounter him, that peculiar
glance unmistakable to the experienced to him upon it falls, of ^ a person of some experience
50 3 173 183 glance which evidences that the
man casting 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, tho' he
well knew the fact, that the Armorer ship's-yeoman
and Captain of the hold Hold , ^ & others c
with other men officers of that grade
^ with the ship's-yeoman, apothecary,
and others of that grade,
were by naval
usage, messmates of the master-at-arms,
men man with ears convenient to his ^ confidential tongue . ;

and more further that the master-at-arms
what he did not know—
was in the man ascendant in that exclusive mess.

and, moreover—which he did not know—
that in this exclusive mess the master-at-
-arms was the ascendant man.
50 4 174 184 But the general popularity
that our Handsome Sailor 's exemption
from all vanity, /manly forewardness
upon occasion, and irresisable good nature
indicating no mental superiority
however, to tending to excite an
invidious feeling ; in any fellow sailor;
this popu 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 to
whereto allusion has just been made.
aspects he could not so fathom
as to take in then what infer their
whole import
50 5 175 185 As to that conundrum ^ problem of the dark,
As to the afterguardsman, tho' Billy ^ for reasons already given
necessarily saw little of him, and
for reasons already given
yet when the two did happen to meet,
invariably came the fellow's off-hand
cheerful recognition, which but
lacked the pleasant passing word
of the master-at-arms to make of
equally sometimes accompanied by
a passing ^ pleasant word or two. Whatever that
man equivocal young man's person fellow 's original
design may really have been, ^ or the design dep of which he might have
been but the deputy
it certain
it was seemed evident ^ from his manner upon
these occasions, that he had wholly
dropped that design. it.
50 6 176 186 It was as if his precocity of crookedness
(and every vulgar villian is precocious )
in his villainy) had for once deceived
him, and the man he had sought to
play upon entrap as a simpleton, ^ had through his
very simplicity ^ ignominiously baffled him.
But Any shrewd one ones would may
think ^ opine that it would be were was hardly
possible for Billy to restrain from
refrain from bluntly going up to
the afterguardsman and bluntly
demanding to know his purpose
in the initial interview ^ so abruptly closed in the fore-chains . The shrewd Shrewd
one ones would may also think it likely that
but natural in Billy to set about
50 7 177 187 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 lurking ^ plotting disaffection aboard.
Yes, any shrewd one would may so so think.

But something more, or rather, and ^ something
else than mere shrewdness is
perhaps needful for the due
understanding of such a character
as Billy Budd's. ——//——
50 51 5 9 [50(8) green omitted] 178. 188 As to Claggart, the
monomania ^ of in the man—if that indeed
it were—as involuntarily disclosed by
starts in the manifestations detailed, yet in
general

covered over by his self-contained
and rational demeanor; this, pent frenzy like
a subterranean fire was eating its
way deeper and deeper in him.
Something positive ^ decisive must —//— —//— come of it.