"Any sort, providing it is seaworthy," replied the Scoutmaster.
"I don't think my people would object," said Flemming.
"Nor mine," added Reggie Warkworth. "If they knew that you were with us," he added loyally.
Mr. Armitage smiled.
"I'm not infallible," he protested, "and quite liable to commit errors of judgment, but I'm pretty well used to this sort of thing. Well, I propose we draft an advertisement and get it inserted in the Yachting Press." The Scouts waited in expectancy while their Scoutmaster scribbled on the back of an envelope.
"How will this do?" he inquired, "'Scoutmaster (Lieutenant, R.N.V.R.) and Troop of Sea Scouts are open to navigate yachts and small craft to and from British ports, South and East Coast preferred. Moderate and inclusive terms. Reply Box so-and-so.'"
"That ought to work all right, sir," said Dick Roche. "We ought to get in quite a lot of decent sailing during the holidays."
"There's not much time to be lost, then," added Woodleigh. "We're well into July already."
"Very well, then," concluded Mr. Armitage briskly. "I'll get this advertisement inserted. Now, suppose we turn from dreams of anticipation to the stern necessities of the present. The boat-house wants setting straight, and I see that the recent gales have loosened some of the weather-board. All hands to work."
The conclave had assembled in a wooden hut built by the Sea Scouts entirely by themselves. It was a substantial wooden structure, 14 feet by 10, resting on a solid concrete foundation on a ledge half-way up the cliff. It had been built in sections on Mr. Armitage's lawn, and the sections fastened together solely by twenty-four coach-screws. The hut had been built during the Easter holidays, and, although its construction took seventeen days of hard work, the task of conveying it to the cliff and erecting it complete occupied the short space of six hours.