This is an agreeable children's adventure story from a more innocent age. The hero is a fourteen-year old who regularly skips school to sail his small boat around the Gulf of Morbihan in southern Brittany. He finds an abandoned boat which he cannibalises to improve his own vessel. This gets him and his twelve-year old pal - can't really call her a girl-friend - involved with skull-duggery from a group of villains who, in the manner of Enid Blyton books, are bad but not truly threatening. Despite being on the run from his school master on account of his recidivist truancy when the chips are down he finds him a valuable ally. Hardly a spoiler to say that all turns out well - always does in this sort of book.