Albeit dilapidated in his general exterior, Bob had not lost his voice; his powers of speech being happily still unimpaired. "I'm all right," he answered with an attempt at a grin. "I'm all right!" "But where have you been?" repeated the Captain, whom this off-hand statement did not quite satisfy. "Where have you been?" "Oh, I got blown up," explained Bob. "When the gun fired I felt an awful pain in my ears, as if somebody was running a red-hot needle through them going right down to my boots!" "You must have long ears, youngster," remarked the young lieutenant slily here. "Very long to reach so far!" "I didn't mean that my ears went down to my boots," replied Bob, rather nettled at the insinuation; and he then continued the account of his experiences of the explosion. "But, as I was saying, I first felt this pain; and then I seemed to be lifted off my feet, tumbling down this ladder here, and after that through a hole in the deck, amongst a lot of coal-dust and oil-cans, that messed my clothes a bit." "A bit?" queried the Captain, chuckling now with much satisfaction at seeing him unhurt--"I should say a good deal, judging by appearances, Master Bob!" "Really?" said he surveying himself ruefully, turning and twisting so as to get a view of his back. "Well, I certainly am dirty, but I didn't look half so bad before I came up." "Ah, it's the light that does it," observed the lieutenant, chaffing him. "However, if you will go rolling in the coal-bunkers and making love to the engineer's oil-cans, you must take the consequences!" "I didn't," replied Bob indignantly. "You don't think I tumbled down there on purpose, do you?" "Perhaps not," said the other, smiling. "But, pray remember, you were told to keep away from the gun; and, if you had obeyed orders, you wouldn't have got into any mischief." "Well, let us be thankful it is no worse," observed the Captain cheerily. "I hope you are not hurt, Bob, by your roll dawn the hatchway?" "No, Captain," he answered, brightening up again after the snub of the lieutenant anent his disobedience, "I fell on the coal-sacks quite softly and haven't got a scratch." "That's all right then," echoed Captain Dresser in his joking way; adding to the young officer on his other side, "I wonder if all the `cocked hats' have done examining the gun, and whether there's a chance now for an old retired fogey like myself having a look at the damage?" "I should think so, sir," replied the young officer. "The Admiral, I see, has gone away, and the fellows also from the Ordnance department; so, you'd better come and have a glance round while the coast is clear." "I will," was the response of the old sailor, as, in company with the lieutenant and Bob, he made his way through one of the watertight doors in the forward bulkhead on to the fo'c's'le; the trio then grouping themselves round the broken breech of the exploded weapon, all that was left now of the whilom big forty-three ton gun!