we have found it, which way shall we go?"

Perry pushed his hat back and thoughtfully scratched his head. "Give it
up!" he said at last. "You might go one way and I another. Anyway, let's
find the old beach."

They scrambled across a wall into a bush-grown tract, Han discovering in
the process that he had chosen a place prettily bedecked with
poison-ivy. "That does for me," said Han gloomily. "I'll have a fine
time of it now for a couple of weeks. I can't even look at that stuff
without getting poisoned!"

"Maybe it didn't see you," said Perry cheerfully. "In this fog--"

"Don't be a silly goat," interrupted the other fretfully. "I tell you
I'll be all broken out tomorrow! And it's perfectly beastly, too. You
have blisters all over you and they itch so you can hardly stand it."

"Too bad," said Perry, trying to sound sympathetic but failing because
he caught his foot in a bramble at the moment and almost pitched on his
face.

"Well," continued Han, more cheerfully, "there's one good thing. Salt
water is fine to bathe in when you have ivy poisoning, and there'll be
plenty of that around."

"Sure; and it won't cost you a cent, either." They reached the beach
then and gazed hopelessly about them as they crossed the softer sand.
"If only they'd blow their old whistle we'd know where we are."

"If I had some alcohol I might backen it," observed Han.

"Alcohol? Backen what?"

"The ivy poison."

"Oh! Well, there's plenty of alcohol on board. Wonder what time it is,"
Perry drew out his watch and whistled surprisedly. "Only a quarter to
ten, Han! We couldn't have walked very far, after all. And they won't
signal us until ten-thirty. Here, I'm going this way."

"It's the alkali that counteracts the poison," explained Han. "They say
that if you can bathe the places in alcohol soon after you come in--in
contact with the ivy--"

"For the love of Pete!" exclaimed Perry. "Forget about it, Han! You'll
worry yourself to death over that poison-ivy. Maybe it didn't bite you,
after all."

"Of course it did!" replied the other resentfully. "It always does. If I
had some alcohol, though--"

"Well, come on and get some. We've got to find the boat first, haven't
we?"

"Yes, but I don't think it's that way."

"Then you try the other way, and if you find it, sing out so I'll hear
you."

"All right." They separated, each following the edge of the water, and
presently Perry's voice rang out. "Here she is, Han!" he called. A