"More floating docks!" exclaimed Flemming ruefully, as he surveyed the stagnant water. "How long do we stop here, sir, please?"
"Only until we've handed back the man belonging to the Acacis, and shown our papers to the authorities," replied Mr. Armitage. "We are going to bring up in the Tancarville Canal to-night."
"Canal, sir?" echoed Roche. "I thought we were going up the River Seine."
"So we are, Dick," replied the Scoutmaster. "This canal, however, saves us a dangerous bit of navigation. The estuary of the Seine is full of shifting sandbanks, and if we did happen to get aground, the Olivette would stand a great risk of becoming a total loss. There have been numerous instances of quite large vessels grounding in the estuary and heeling over and filling. You see the bore complicates matters."
"The bore, sir?" exclaimed Flemming.
"Yes, you'll make its acquaintance before very long," replied Mr. Armitage. "We'll get the tail end of it several times before we reach Rouen."
Just then the skipper of the Acacis arrived with a couple of "hands" to take the absent member of the crew back to the ship.
"Who was the Sea Scout who took to the ditch?" inquired the Old Man, after he had expressed his warmest thanks for the rescue and care of the man who had fallen overboard. "Wasn't much, eh? I don't know about that. I call it pretty plucky. I mean to report the circumstance to the Royal Humane Society when I get back—which may be in a couple of months or more. On this job one never knows when the trip's going to end."
The next caller was a Port official. To him Mr. Armitage handed a document, signed by the French Minister responsible for the splendidly organized inland waterways of the Republic. The paper was a permit for the Olivette to make use of the Tancarville Canal, and it was expressly stated that the passage through the locks was free.
"This is one of the things they do better in France," observed Mr. Armitage. "Not only do they provide a safe means of avoiding the dangerous estuary, but they grant us a free passage. If the canals of England were half as well looked after as they are on this side of the Channel——"