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.

"Very well. When it's ready you may bring it in and we'll eat on the
table. Lem will probably be awake by that time and he'll want
something too. Stew the goose so that there'll be broth, and we'll
give some of it to Lem to drink. You'll have to go to Fort Pelican
without me. I'll have to stay here and take care of Lem. If the wind
comes up, and I think it will, you may get a start after dinner," and
Doctor Joe returned to the cabin to watch over his patient.

The goose was plucked. David split a stick of wood, and with his
jack-knife whittled shavings for the fire. The knife had a keen edge,
for David was a born woodsman and every woodsman keeps his tools
always in good condition, and the shavings he cut were long and thin.
He did not cut each shaving separately, but stopped his knife just
short of the end of the stick, and when several shavings were cut,