Burning oil?

[tcrn67]

I have a little problem. I have an 81 350 merc in searay sundancer 260. I had a broken dipstick a few weeks back and blew some oil into bilge. cleaned up some but not all now my bilge is slowly rising and oil is floating on top...what a mess. I am going to pull it and get the bilge cleaned tomorrow. While looking at this mess I checked the oil level in motor it was off the stick so I am either burning it through the exhaust which always has a strong smell just accounted to it being 25 years old. Or its leaking out which I cant tell because of the existing mess. If I am burning it does this mean rings? or .....? Is there anything other than that that it might be? I need to do a compression check for starters correct? HELP