Doctor Joe, whose real name was Joseph Carver, was their nearest
neighbour at Break Cove, ten miles down Eskimo Bay. He had come to the
coast nine years before, a mysterious stranger, nervous and broken in
health. Thomas gave him shelter at The Jug, helped him build his
cabin at Break Cove and taught him the ways of the land and how to set
his traps. Doctor Joe became a trapper like his neighbours, and in
time, with wholesome living in the out-of-doors, regained his health
and came to love his adopted country and its rugged life.

No one knew then that Joseph Carver was indeed a doctor, but he was so
handy with bandages and medicines that the folk of the Bay recognized
his skill and soon fell, by common consent, to calling him "Doctor
Joe."

It was a year before our story begins that Jamie had first complained
of a mist in his eyes. With passing weeks the mist thickened, and one
day Doctor Joe examined the eyes and announced that only a delicate
and serious operation could save the lad's sight. This demanded that
Jamie be taken to a hospital in New York where a specialist might
operate. It was an expensive undertaking. Neither Thomas nor Doctor
Joe had the necessary money, but Thomas hoped to realize enough from
his winter's trapping in the interior and Doctor Joe was to add the
proceeds of his own winter's work to the fund. Then Thomas broke his
leg. Doctor Joe must needs remain at The Jug to care for him, and
there seemed no hope for Jamie but a life of darkness.

But David was confident that he could take his father's place on the
trails, and with some persuasion, for the need was desperate, Thomas
consented that David and Andy should spend the winter in the great
interior wilderness with no other companion than Indian Jake, a