"Can't we lend a hand with anything, sir?" asked Desmond.
"Oh, yes," replied Mr. Armitage. "Woodleigh and Flemming will be only too glad if you'll help with the fuel."
The two Scoutmasters went ashore, Mr. Armitage having promised to lend Mr. Graham a set of charts of the Cornish and Devon coasts, and these, not being in general use, he kept at his house at Milford, about a mile and a half from Keyhaven.
"Come along, you fellows," said Flemming with a cheerful grin. "There's nothing like handling barrels of paraffin on a holiday to keep you fit and healthy."
It certainly was hard work rolling two heavy and decidedly sticky barrels from the store to the wharf, and when at length that part of the task was completed there yet remained the filling up of the tanks.
"I say," exclaimed Patrol Leader Desmond. "You are not going to take that paraffin on board in buckets, are you?"
"There's no other way," declared Flemming. "We waste a little, I admit, and it's a dirty job, but there you are."
"Do you happen to have a hose on board?" asked Desmond. "Not one you use for water."
"There's one in the store," said Woodleigh. "It used to be for watering the doctor's garden and washing down his car; but he bought a new one and gave the old one to us. I can't see that it will be much use, though. We haven't a tap for the barrel, and the bung's much too large."
"And besides," added Flemming, in support of his chum, "the deck is higher than the barrel, and paraffin won't run up-hill."