two o'clock in
the afternoon
Of course the first questions that were asked and answered were in regard to the missing pointer , but no one had seen or heard anything of him . David seemed to take the loss very much to heart . The animal was a valuable one , and he felt that he was in some degree responsible for his safe-keeping . Three pairs of willing hands made light work , and by two o'clock in the afternoon a dozen traps were completed and ready for setting . The boys then stopped long enough to take a hasty lunch , which they ate in the shop , in order to save time , and after that one of the mules was hitched to a wagon and brought before the door . The traps , a basket containing the `` figure fours , '' with which they were to be set , a bag of corn for bait , an axe , with which to clear away the underbrush , and a spade to dig the trenches , having been packed away in the vehicle , the boys got in and drove off . They directed their course along the fence , which ran around the plantation , and wherever they found a clump of bushes or a little thicket of briers and cane , there they stopped long enough to set one of their traps .