"All in the net to be thrown over," commanded Olaus.
When Sven Elversson heard the order, he went up to the rest. The tears still flowed from his eyes, but he did not heed them. He took his place with the crew, and set to work, helping with their dreadful task.
They came to one of the dead. Sven Elversson lifted him up, and loosened some of the meshes that had caught in the buttons of his uniform. It was an elderly man with a sailor's beard under his chin. Someone suggested that he was an Englishman. When he had got the body loose, Sven Elversson began hoisting it to the deck.
"All that's in the net to go overboard," said the skipper, bending down toward the corpse.
But Sven Elversson restrained him.
"Will you not let this be laid to rest in holy ground, Olaus?" he said.
Olaus did not answer directly.
"Best to get these horrors away from the ship," he said.
Sven Elversson clenched his teeth in the endeavour to keep back his tears, and said as firmly as he could:
"If you throw this overboard, you will have to throw me, too."