"Then why are these Scouts on board with their first-aid bandages?"
"I don't know, sir; I'm blessed if I do!" declared Flemming. "I was just talking to them, and——"
"I suppose you said, 'Well, I'm blessed' in French," added Mr. Armitage with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
"I certainly remember saying 'Je suis blessé'," admitted Flemming, who was beginning to feel a bit dubious as to whether what he had said was what he meant to say.
"That did it," continued Mr. Armitage. "I knew it would happen before very long. 'Je suis blessé' is not 'I'm blessed' but 'I am wounded'. Hurry up and go below and get dressed properly."
The discomfited Flemming beat a hasty retreat amidst the laughter of his companions.
CHAPTER XII
"In the Ditch"
The French Scouts remained on board for another half-hour. They inspected and were duly impressed by the Olivette and her equipment; they exchanged confidences with their brother Sea Scouts, to whom difference of nationality counted for little as far as the Universal Brotherhood of Scouts went. Before they took their departure, the French boy's invited the Olivette's crew to a picnic at Equeurdreville—a seaside hamlet a few miles to the west of Cherbourg—on the following morning.