It cannot be said that they felt much sorrow for his fate; for to pity a traitor was a height to which the faith of this pair of imperfect Christians did not soar.
But they uttered no word of exultation, and quickly resumed their examination of the deck and hold, discussing this or that rent, debating over every splinter, proving that such and such a groove was ploughed by a ball from such and such an angle, and so on.
From the deck they descended to the long chamber where now row upon row of battered and deserted benches told of a tragedy more pitiful than any that can befall men who are free to stand up and fight for their lives.
"Merciful Heaven!" exclaimed the little hunchback, standing with his arms folded and gloomily conjuring up the scene of yesterday; "Jemmy, we must have mown the poor brutes down like swathes of meadow grass.

See here--" He bent to examine a bench along which a broadening groove ran from end to end, telling a frightful tale.
But Captain Runacles did not answer.

He was standing by a battered hole in the galley's starboard side and looking down at the floor.
A sunbeam fell through the hole and slanted along the planks of the flooring.

His eyes were following this sunbeam, and his face was like a ghost's.
"Jemmy; come and look--here's a whole benchful accounted for at one swoop." Still Jemmy did not reply.

The sunbeam drifting between the benches before him fell on a little patch of earth--a patch collected by one of the slaves whose comrades, humouring his whim, had brought him a handful or two in their pockets whenever they returned from shore.