"And now tell us about yourselves," suggested Mabel to Alice. "Oh! to
think of meeting you again this way," and she recalled the first meeting
in the train going to the New England backwoods.

By degrees, and with each one telling a part, the story of the moving
picture players was related. They told how they had looked in vain for
their steamer. Mabel and Helen Madison also went more into details,
giving some of their trying experiences in the swamps and bayous.

"But for days we have not tried to find our way from here," said Mabel.
"Our motor boat broke down, and we can't get it to go."

"I fancy I can fix it," said Russ, "but the question is: Which way to go?
We may only get to a worse place."

"Let us eat, anyhow," suggested Paul.

It was not a very elaborate meal, but it put new heart and courage into
the lost ones.

"We'll get back somehow--some time," declared Alice, who was now almost
her old self. "And then won't everybody be glad!"

Night was coming on, but before the advent of darkness Russ had remedied
the defect in the motor boat. There was trouble with the ignition system,
and also with the carbureter.

"Now we could go, if we knew which way to go," he said, as he tested the
craft.