"What are you doing this sort of thing for?" asked Mr. Murgatroyd with his natural bluntness. Needless to say, he hailed from 'twixt Tees and Trent. "Making a living out of it?"
Mr. Armitage smiled.
"Hardly," he replied. "Otherwise I might soon find myself in the 'cart'. No, it's a scheme to help my Sea Scouts to purchase a weatherly sort of boat, one on which they can sleep under cover. Since by the Scout Regulations they are not allowed to receive monetary rewards for doing nothing—in other words, cadging—they must earn their salt honestly."
"Good scheme," agreed Mr. Murgatroyd. "Take it from me, a self-made old buffer, that money easily acquired is not appreciated to anything like the extent as if you'd had to work jolly hard for it. Right-o! we're for Brightlingsea, then. Anything you require for the voyage?"
"More fuel," replied the Scoutmaster. "If we refill the paraffin-tank, it ought to take us there. Provisions, I think, are sufficient. I'll have to go ashore near London Bridge and buy a chart of the mouth of the Thames. Mine is from the Nore eastwards."
It was early in the afternoon when the Olivette passed through the great lock at Teddington, and entered the tidal waters of the Thames. It was now just after high water, and the mud-banks on the northern shore were covered.
"Can't we increase speed, sir?" asked Stratton, noticing several fussy, high-powered steam-tugs making quite a swell.
"Connect up all four cylinders, and see how she takes it," assented the Scoutmaster. "Don't give her full throttle. Many a good motor has been spoiled by opening out before the bearings have been properly run in."
The Olivette increased speed. Although there was a fair amount of vibration, it was not so marked as when the motor was running on two cylinders. It was possible to leave a plate on the cabin table and not find it making steady progress from one end to the other, a tendency that had already been responsible for several casualties amongst the crockery-ware.
"Now she feels it!" exclaimed Hepburn, as the Olivette encountered the "wash" of a tug, lifting her bows and plunging into the trough, at the same time flinging a shower of spray far on either side. "Almost like being at sea once more."