four in the afternoon
`` He is n't as sick as he was this morning , '' he mused . `` In fact , I do n't think he is sick at all . '' He wished to be on hand the following morning , when the strangers came back , but an errand took him up the lake . He had to stop at several places , and did not start on the return until four in the afternoon . On his way back Joe went ashore close to where the old lodge was located , and something , he could not tell what , made him run over and take a look at the spot that had proved a shelter for Ned and himself during the heavy storm . How many things had occurred since that fatal day ! As our hero looked into one of the rooms he remembered the strange men he had seen there -- the fellows who had talked about mining stocks .