"We."

And in this plural pronoun, uttered simultaneously by the two associates in a single voice, might be heard a flood of irony and reproaches.

J.T. Maston pressed his iron hook on his forehead. Then, with a voice which seemed to stick in his throat, he said:

"Did your shaft at Kilimanjaro really have a diameter of twenty-seven metres?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did your projectile really weigh 180,000,000 of kilograms?"

"Yes."

"And was the shooting really done with 2,000 pounds of melimelonite?"

"Yes."

This thrice-repeated "yes" fell on J. T. Maston like masses of stone on his head.