But he never spoke again; and died two hours afterwards, his body having swollen up like that of a drowned man.
'In those days there were no inquests; and but little interest was created by the affair.

Martin himself soon after died.' But enough of these abominations, of which I am forced to omit the worst.
That day--to go on with my own story--I left the rest of the party to go down to the court-house, while I stayed at the camp, sorry to lose so curious a scene, but too tired to face a crowded tropic court, and an atmosphere of perspiration and perjury.
Moreover, that had befallen me which might never befall me again--I had a chance of being alone in the forests; and into them I would wander, and meditate on them in silence.
So, when all had departed, I lounged awhile in the rocking-chair, watching two Negroes astride on the roof of a shed, on which they were nailing shingles.

Their heads were bare; the sun was intense; the roof on which they sat must have been of the temperature of an average frying-pan on an English fire: but the good fellows worked on, steadily and carefully, though not fast, chattering and singing, evidently enjoying the very act of living, and fattening in the genial heat.

Lucky dogs: who had probably never known hunger, certainly never known cold; never known, possibly, a single animal want which they could not satisfy.

I could not but compare their lot with that of an average English artisan.