dy beach.

"This would be splendid if it wasn't so serious," said Marian as they
reached the crest of the ridge and prepared to descend. "I always did
like rummaging about in an unexplored wilderness. Look at that fallen
yellow-pine; eight feet through if it is an inch; and the ferns are
almost tall enough to hide it. And look at those tamaracks down in
that gully; they look like black knights. Wouldn't they make a
picture?"

"Not just now; come on," exclaimed Lucile, who was weary of battling
with the jungle. "Let's get down to the beach and see what's there.
There's a long stretch of beach, I think, maybe half a mile. But we
must be careful how we make our way down. We might discover
something--and we might be discovered first."

To descend a rock-ribbed hill, overgrown with tangled underbrush and
buried in decaying tree-trunks, is hardly easier than to ascend it.
Both girls were thoroughly out of breath as they finally parted the
branches of a fir tree and peered through to where the beach, a yellow
ribbon of sand, circled away to the north.

"Not there," whispered Marian.

Lucile gripped her cousin's arm.

"What's that thing two-thirds of the way down, at the water's edge?"

"Don't know. Rock maybe. Anyway, it's not our motorboat."

"No, it's not. It's worth looking into, though. Let's go."

Eagerly they hurried along over the hard-packed sand. The tide was
ebbing; the beach was like a floor. Their steps quickened as they
approached the object. At last, less than half-conscious of what they
were doing, they broke into a run. The thing they had seen was a boat.
And a boat to persons in their position was a thing to be prized.

Arrived at its side, they looked it over for a moment in silence.

"It's pretty poor and very heavy, but it will float, I think," was
Marian's first comment.

"It's theirs. Thought it wasn't worth risking a stop for."

"But how did they get into our camp? We haven't seen their tracks
through the brush."

"Probably took up one small stream and down another."

The boat they had found was a wide, heavy, flat-bottomed affair, such a
craft as is used by fishermen in tending pond-nets.

For a time the two girls stood there undecided. The chances of their
recovering the motorboat seemed very poor indeed. To go forward in
this heavy boat meant hours of hand-blistering rowing to bring them
back to camp. Yet the thought of returning to tell Lucile's brother
that th