“How’s Lem, sir?  Is he hurt bad?” David asked as Doctor Joe seated himself upon a stump.

“He’s sleeping now.  After he rests a little we’ll see how badly he’s hurt,” said Doctor Joe.  “I fancy you chaps are thinking about dinner.  Hungry already, I’ll be bound!”

“Aye,” grinned David, “wonderful hungry.  ’Tis most noon, sir.”

Doctor Joe consulted his watch.

“I declare it is.  It must have been nearly eleven o’clock when we reached here.  I didn’t realize it was so late.”

“‘Twere ten minutes to eleven, sir,” said Andy.  “I were lookin’ to see how long it takes us to come from Flat P’int.”

“What time did we leave Flat Point?” asked Doctor Joe.

“’Twere twenty minutes before seven, sir.”  Andy drew his new watch proudly from his pocket to refer to it again, as he did upon every possible occasion.

“No,” corrected David, “’twere only twenty-five minutes before eleven when we leaves Flat P’int, and fifteen minutes before eleven when we gets here.  I looks to see.”

“Perhaps your watches aren’t set alike,” suggested Doctor Joe.  “Suppose we compare them.”

The comparison disclosed a difference, as Doctor Joe predicted, of five minutes.  Then each must needs set his watch with Doctor Joe’s, which was a little slower than Andy’s and a little faster than David’s.

Doctor Joe made some mental calculations.  Both David and Andy had observed their watches, and there could be no doubt of the length of time it had required them to come from Flat Point to Lem’s cabin.  They had consumed four hours, but their progress had been exceedingly slow.  Indian Jake had doubtless travelled much faster in his light canoe, but, at best, with the wind against him, he could hardly have paddled from Lem’s cabin to Flat Point in less than two hours.  He had arrived one hour after sunset.  If Lem were correct as to the time when the shooting took place, Indian Jake could not be guilty.

But still there was, with but one hour or possibly a little more in excess of the time between sunset and Indian Jake’s arrival at camp, an uncertain alibi for Indian Jake.  Lem may have been shot much earlier in the afternoon than he supposed.  When Lem grew stronger it would be necessary to question him closely that the hour might be fixed with certainty.  Whoever had shot and robbed Lem must have known of the existence of the silver fox skin, and been familiar with the surroundings.  The shots had doubtless been fired through a broken pane in a window directly behind the chair in which Lem was sitting at the time.

“Why not cook dinner out here over an open fire?” Doctor Joe presently suggested.  “You chaps are pretty noisy, and if you come into the house to cook it on the stove, I’m afraid you’ll wake Lem up, and I want him to sleep.”

“We’ll cook un out here, sir,” David agreed.

“’Tis more fun to cook here,” Jamie suggested.