noon
He kept by himself a good bit of the time , and his brow was clouded . Then again , he had taken to looking suspiciously about , here and there , up the steep mountainside , and even along the dimly-defined road that skirted the lake . It was no mystery to Paul , so far as understanding what Joe might be worrying about went . `` That man with the rig who passed our noon camp on the road -- Joe knows he 's up here somewhere , and perhaps he wants to meet up with him -- I wonder why ? '' was the way the young scoutmaster ran the thing over in his active mind . In one way it did not concern him , because Joe had not asked for his assistance ; but then again it certainly interested Paul . He believed that there was some odd connection between the loss of those papers contained in the tin box , and the presence of that stranger in the region of Rattlesnake Mountain .