noon
Once or twice he saw the professor pottering around near the cabin , gathering pieces of bark off fallen trees to help out their scanty supply of dry wood . The pines still mourned and swayed to the wind , which hung in the storm quarter , and the clouds marched soddenly in the opposite direction or hung almost motionless for a space . The professor did not come within hailing distance , and seemed wholly occupied with gathering what bark he could carry home before the storm , but Mike was not reassured , nor was he thrown off his guard . He waited until noon , expecting to see the girl come out for more plotting . When she did not , he went back and cooked a hot dinner , thinking that the way to get the best of spies on the government is to watch them closer than they watch you , and to be ready to follow them when they go off in the woods to plot . So he ate as much as he could swallow , and filled his pockets with bacon and bread . He meant to keep on their trail this time , and see just what they were up to .