So the Rosalie held on, passing close to Aldborough, and giving the low-lying Orfordness a wide berth, and at 5 p.m., without having had to touch a single sheet from the time canvas had been set, Hepburn reported a lightship on the port bow.
"That's the Cork," said Stratton, consulting the chart. "We're getting near Harwich. Any tea going, Woodleigh? Now's our chance before we stow canvas."
Mr. Armitage, after glancing to windward, gave Hepburn directions as to the course.
"We'll leave you to it, Alan," he said. "If you want anything, give a hail. We'll keep your tea hot."
The rest of the crew went below, where a sumptuous meal was being served in the main cabin, leaving Hepburn in the wheel-house.
Woodleigh had provided his companions (and incidentally himself) with a generous and wholesome repast. He rather prided himself upon his skill as a cook at sea, and he certainly did himself justice.
Hungry as hunters, the two Scoutmasters and five boys seated themselves round the swing table, and Mr. Armitage began pouring out tea, while Woodleigh served out a helping of cold veal and ham pie.
Suddenly, just as everyone was settling down to his tea, the Rosalie, which had hitherto been heeling at an almost constant angle, lurched violently to leeward. Stratton, Flemming, and Warkworth, their chairs slipping from under them, rolled in a heap upon the floor, while Mr. Jackson, in a vain endeavour to prevent himself from being pitched across the cabin, subsided heavily upon the table. It tilted under his weight, and the next moment everything that had been placed upon it slithered on the struggling trio of prostrate Sea Scouts.
There was no time to waste in contemplating the scene of chaos. The yacht was well down on her beam ends. In a thrice Mr. Armitage dashed up the companion-ladder and gained the deck.
A violent squall, its approach unnoticed by Hepburn in the sheltered wheel-house, had swept down upon the Rosalie. The first intimation the young helmsman had was finding the yacht heel until half a dozen planks of her deck were awash. It was only by holding on to the spokes of the wheel that he saved himself from being thrown heavily against the plate-glass window.