"I--I thought I was," he quavered at length.

But at this point his mysterious bed seemed to sway for a moment beneath him, and he caught his breath.

"Where am I ?" he gasped.
"At sea," answered the voice in a hollow tone.
"At sea!" In a sudden spasmodic attempt to sit upright, the Major almost rolled himself out of his hammock.
"Ay, poor comrade--if you are indeed he whom I saw lifted aboard unconscious from the tender--'tis the dismal truth." "Beneath the Orlop's darksome shade Unknown to Sol's bright ray, Where no kind chink's assistant aid Admits the cheerful day.
"I am not, in the practical sense, seaman enough to determine if this noisome den be the precise part of the ship alluded to by the poet under the name of Orlop.

But the circumstances correspond; and my stomach informs me that the vessel is in motion." "The vessel ?" echoed the Major, incredulous yet.

"_What_ vessel ?" "As if to omit no detail of horror, she is called, I believe, the _Vesuvius_ bomb.