noon
`` To be sure . '' `` Where do you suppose Dick Rover and his friends are now ? '' `` Somewhere around the island , although I have seen nothing of their boat . '' By noon the Baxters had completed their plans and left the boat , carrying with them a load of provisions wrapped up in a sheet of canvas . They invited Josiah Crabtree to go with them , but that individual declined . `` I can not take Mrs. Stanhope along , '' he said , `` and I will not desert the lady . '' `` As you please , '' replied Arnold Baxter .