idiot!" called the boy impatiently. "Look where you're going!
If I hadn't got you with the hook you'd have knocked half our paint
off!"

The boy and the boat slowly vanished in the mist like a "fade-out" at
the movies, before Perry found his voice. Then: "Who the dickens are
you?" he gasped.

"I'm the man who put the salt in the ocean," replied the voice
jeeringly. "Come on easy and I'll get you."

"Well, but--but--what boat's that?"

"U.S. Battleship _Pennsylvania_, Pride of the Navy! Come on, you
lubber!"

Perry came on and again the boy with the boat-hook took form in the
fog. "You're Cas Temple," said Perry stupidly. "That's the _Follow Me_!"

"Surest thing you know, son! Hello! Why, it's Perry Bush. I thought you
were Bert. What did you do with the fellows?"

"What fellows?" asked Perry, puzzled, as Cas pulled the dingey alongside
the cruiser.

"Why, Bert and Wink and the rest of them."

"Haven't seen 'em."

"Haven't? Where'd you get the boat, then?"

"What boat?"

"That one! The one you're in! Say, are you dippy?"

"This is our boat and I got it--"

"Your boat nothing! That's our boat, you silly chump! Think I don't know
our own tender?"

"Wh-what!" gasped Perry. "So it is! Then, where's mine! I mean ours? How
did I get this one?"

"Search me! If you don't know, I'm blessed if I do," chuckled Caspar
Temple. "You must remember something that's happened since yesterday
morning!"

"Han and I went ashore," said Perry, staring puzzledly at the milk-can
from which a tiny stream was trickling past the loosened stopper. "Then
we went to look for our boat and I found this and I yelled to him and he
didn't come and so I started back to the boat to get some--" Perry
suddenly remembered his affliction. "Say, got any alcohol?" he asked
anxiously.

"Alcohol? I don't know. Why?"

"I want some." Perry started to scramble out of the tender. "I got
poisoned."

"Snake?" asked Cas hopefully and eagerly.

"Poison-ivy."

"Oh!" The other's voice held keen disappointment. "Well, what do you
want alcohol for?"

"It's good for it," explained Perry, reaching the cockpit. "See if
you've got any, will you, Cas?"

"Y-yes but, honestly, Perry, I wouldn't try it if I were you."

"Why not!"

"Why--why, if you go and drink a lot of alcohol--Besides, I'm all alone
here, and if you got--got troublesome--"

"Drink it, you silly goat! Who's going to drink it? I'm going to rub it
on the places!"

"Oh, I see! T