John Want answers his officer in his own cheerful way.
"I've done it as well as I can, sir--but the damp of this place is beginning to tell upon our very ropes.

I say nothing about our lungs--I only say our ropes." Crayford answers sharply.

He seems to have lost his former relish for the humor of John Want.
"Pooh! To look at your wry face, one would think that our rescue from the Arctic regions was a downright misfortune.

You deserve to be sent back again." "I could be just as cheerful as ever, sir, if I _was_ sent back again; I hope I'm thankful; but I don't like to hear the North Pole run down in such a fishy place as this.

It was very clean and snowy at the North Pole--and it's very damp and sandy here.