nearly noon before
It was characteristic of him , thus , not to plunge into any wild and desperate attempt to rescue his father , until he had time to puzzle out the situation and work out a plan of action . He began by reading all the papers and documents he had taken from his father 's knapsack . This was a long job , for the papers were full of allusions to subjects he did not understand . It was nearly noon before he had digested them . Then he lay on his back and looked up through the tracery of leaves overhead , talking aloud so that the sound of his own voice might make his discoveries clearer . `` The way I get it , '' he mused , `` Father 's on the trail of some plot against the United States . This plot is breaking loose , here , in Haiti .