Battery alchemy?

Pista, I was a auto battery technician in my former life. I am now a chemist and have had experience in aerospace batteries.
The lead acid batteries have lead metal plates with sulfuric acid acting as the electrolyte. The surfaces of the lead plates are converted to lead sulfate during discharge. The sulfate comes from the electrolyte and leaves a molecule of water for each sulfate ion that transfers to the lead metal. Charging the battery reverses the process and coverts the lead sulfate back into lead metal and the sulfate is released back into the electrolyte and becomes associated with the water molecule again.
The dry cell probably shorted between the plates, overheated, and boiled the water out of the electrolyte. The plates in that cell are probably ruined and unrecoverable because all of the lead was sulfated. Adding water to the dry cell and charging it might bring it back enough to produce 2 volts but likely it will not hold the amperage that it normally would.
It would be best to spend the money on a new battery and save yourself the trouble of wrestling with a shorted cell.