Taken in all, they would never be apt to forget that same afternoon. Their genial host seemed to be so delighted to have such a wideawake pack of boys up there with him, that he could not do too much for them. Many were the yarns he spun connected with his nomadic life under different suns; and since settling down to this peculiar state of existence he had known a multitude of adventures, both great and small.
"Right now," he told them, as the afternoon light began to fade with the drawing near of the time for sunset, "you might say I am a marked man; not that it gives me any great amount of concern, because I hardly believe that Zack Arnold will ever get his courage up to the sticking point, and attempt to carry out the wild threats he made against me."
"I remember hearing a man speaking that name on the train when we were nearing your station, Uncle!" exclaimed Toby; "he talked as though the fellow might be a sort of woods guide, though a tough rascal feared by every one, even the game wardens, who were afraid to try and arrest him for shooting game out of season."
"All of which is about as true as it can be," was the reply. "Six months ago I had the misfortune to run foul of this same Zack. He was even then half under the influence of liquor, and very abusive. I could have stood it for myself, but when the big brute raised his hand, and knocked down a half-grown girl who had chanced to stumble, and fall against him, in the store, it was too much for my blood."
"You gave him what he deserved, didn't you, Uncle?" demanded the exultant Toby.
"Well, I knocked him down three times in succession, for he had come at me with a knife the second and third times. After that he lay there, and was counted out. Now I was never proud of having upset a brawling bully like that when half-seas over, but it had to be done to pay him for striking that poor child. I heard afterwards that he was furious at me, and vowed he would get even, if he had to come all the way up here to where I held out, and settle his debt."
The boys exchanged looks.
"But he might take a sudden notion to visit you, when feeling in a particularly ugly mood, Uncle," Toby remarked, soberly, "and no one would ever know who had set your cabin on fire, and perhaps burned you in the same."
"Well, I thought of that and for a time never went outside these walls without carrying a gun along; but months have passed, and he does not show up, which I take it means he is too big a coward to risk his ears trying to do me an ill turn. And of late I've neglected any of those precautions. When first I saw my fox trap had been tampered with, and that valuable prize taken, I thought of what Zack Arnold had sworn, and was sure it must be his work. But let's forget about such an unpleasant subject, and have a little music for a change."
It seemed that among his many other accomplishments Uncle Caleb was something of a musician; that is, he loved music, and could play very well on a banjo, as well as on a guitar. The boys had found this out, through Toby, and looked forward to having good times listening to their genial host during evenings, as they sat before a crackling fire, and cared not for the weather without.