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.

"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,
with a twist of the blade he broke them from the main stick in a
bunch. Thus they were held together by the butt to which they were
attached. He whittled four or five of these bunches of shavings, and
then cut some fine splints with his axe.

David was now ready to light his fire. He placed two sticks of wood
upon the ground, end to end, in the form of a right angle, with the
opening between the sticks in the direction from which the wind came.
Taking the butt of one of the bunches of shavings in his left hand, he
scratched a match with his right hand and lighted the thin end of the
shavings. When they were blazing freely he carefully