a
footprint. Quickly she dodged back into the brush.

"They're here, all right," she whispered. "That's the track of the
fellow with the mis-mate feet."

"Listen!" said Marian.

"Sounds like shouting," said Lucile, after a moment's silence.

"What do you suppose?"

"We'd better move around to a better position."

Cautiously they worked their way through the dense undergrowth.
Pausing now and again to listen, they laid their course by the sounds.
These sounds resolved themselves into bursts of song and boisterous
laughter.

"They're drinking," said Lucile with a shudder.

"If they are, we daren't get near them," whispered Marian.

Closer and closer they crept until at last they expected at any moment
to come into view of the camp.

"It's no use," said Lucile at last, shrinking back into the brush. "I
can't go on. They're drunk, and all drunken men are dangerous. It is
no use risking too much for a motorboat."

Wearily then they made their way back through the brush. So sore were
their muscles by this time that every step gave them pain. Missing
their way, they came out upon the beach a hundred yards from their
boat. There, behind the sheltering boughs of a dwarf fir tree they
threw themselves upon the bed of pine needles to rest.

"Look!" exclaimed Lucile suddenly. "What's that out there?"

"Our motorboat," Marian gasped. "It's broken loose and is going out
with the tide. They must not have seen it. Quick! Our rowboat! We
may beat them yet!"

With wildly beating hearts they raced up the beach. Having reached the
heavy rowboat they pushed it off. Wading knee-deep in the sea to give
the boat a good start, they at last leaped to their seats and grasped
the oars, and with strong, deft, strokes set her cutting the water.
Length by length they lessened the distance between them and the
drifting prize.

Now they were two hundred yards away, now one hundred, now fifty, now--

There came a shout from the shore. With a quick glance over her
shoulder Lucile took in the situation.

"We'll make it," she breathed. "Pull hard. They're a long way off."

Moments seemed hours as they strained at the oars, but at last they
bumped the side of the motorboat and the next second found themselves
on board.

Marian clung to the tiller of the rowboat while she swung round to the
wheel. Lucile gave the motor a turn and to their great joy the noble
little engine responded with a pop-pop-pop.

There ca