a few minutes before nine o'clock
What McCall had intimated the day before whetted his appetite . He thrilled at the thought that he was on the scene where a big story might be in the very making . He exulted further at the thought that Professor Herman Brierly was to be with him . It lacked a few minutes before nine o'clock on the morning of July fourth , when the launch operated by Matthews docked at the small wharf of the Higginbotham camp . Nestled on a small bay of land on the eastern shore of the lake , with the thick foliage forming a dark , somber background , the rambling building comprising the camp formed an ideal place and setting for this type of retreat . Behind and to one side there loomed a huge rocky outcropping that some volcanic disturbance in the past had cast up . At the edge of this rocky eminence there seemed literally to hang a huge boulder .