"Your description fits, perfectly, Doctor Thompson of Tarpon Springs," the new doctor observed. "Did he have a finger missing on the left hand?"
"He did, the second finger," said Charley, recalling the circumstance.
The doctor studied the lad's face closely, started to speak, but checked himself.
He was silent during all the trip back to Clearwater but after he got out of the launch he turned and faced Charley.
"Young man," he said, coldly, "I do not know what your object was in telling me that string of lies, but I want to impress upon you that you have not deceived me."
Charley stared at him in hurt astonishment.
"Doctor Thompson dined with me last night," said the physician, icily. "We sat together after and talked in my study until one o'clock. At two o'clock, you say, he was at your camp, an impossible thing for Tarpon Springs is twenty miles away."
With a curt nod he turned and strode up the dock leaving behind him an offended, astonished, mystified boy.