"I suppose," he said in a rather slow drawl, "I suppose we couldn't tackle both jobs?"
"What do you mean?" asked Peter Stratton. "Half of us take on the Oxford trip, and the rest sail the Rosalie round?"
"No," replied Alan. "Not exactly. We could take the motor-boat down to Teddington, and then go on to Yarmouth. Two birds with one stone, so to speak. What do you say, sir?"
Mr. Armitage, thus appealed to, "put his spoke in".
"A good suggestion, Hepburn. I had that idea in my mind directly I received Mr. Trelawney's letter. Of course, if we had to choose, bringing round the Rosalie would be preferable. At the same time, although taking a motor-boat—and a pretty big one at that, I should imagine—does not involve any navigation in the strict sense of the word, there would be opportunities for improving our seamanship. I've never taken a craft up or down the Thames, and some of the locks might cause a little excitement, but I see no reason why we shouldn't take on the job."
Armitage knew by this time what his capabilities were in the handling of various craft. During his service career he had taken M.-L.'s in and out of narrow docks, navigated "drifters", towed lighters, been in command of swift motor-boats, and slow and ungainly tugs. To him the task of navigating Mr. Murgatroyd's 50-foot motor-boat was mere child's play, since there was little possibility of coming to grief on the bosom of Old Father Thames.
"Right-o," decided the Scoutmaster. "Warkworth, take these two telegrams to the post office. We'll draft confirmatory letters and get them away by the midday mail."
Accordingly the two offers were accepted, although in his letter to Mr. Murgatroyd the Scoutmaster pointed out that the nature of the task was hardly what he was accustomed to, but there was no apparent reason why the boat should not be safely handed over at Teddington.
The Sea Scouts were in high feather. Every member of the troop except two had succeeded by dint of more or less persuasion in obtaining his parents' consent to adventure himself on the High Seas.
The journey to Oxford was fixed for Saturday, as the following Monday was Bank Holiday, and railway travelling would certainly be a matter of considerable difficulty. It would, Mr. Armitage decided, give the boys a chance to have a good look round the venerable University city.