"Not a bit. Why?"
"It's more than you."
"How do you mean?" asked the little boy, now somewhat puzzled.
"You are a lad, aren't you?" said the ex-Pirate.
"Yes."
"Well, this is a ladder."
There was not anything that Tommy could very well answer to any such statement; but then he had long since given up any idea of following the peculiar arguments and reasonings of the ex-Pirate. Yet in order to show him that, even if the ladder was more than he, he was certainly equal to climbing it, he seized the rungs and clambered up. It ended at a trap-door which, when lifted, opened into a very large room that appeared to occupy the entire length of the Ark.
"Aha!" exclaimed the ex-Pirate. "This is where they have the boxing-matches."
"Will they have any?" asked Tommy, eagerly, and his eyes opened very wide.
"I don't know," returned the ex-Pirate, "but this is the spar-deck."