The staring scouts saw that this was a very large man. He seemed to be coarsely dressed as might a woods guide, wearing a heavy sweater under his outer coat. No weapons were visible, and one of his arms hung limply at his side as though it might have been broken in some sort of accident.
The man's face was distorted by pain, but they could see that it was bearded, and looked bearish. In fact, every one of the boys' first impression was that they would not care to meet this fellow while wandering through some lonely part of the forest, and do anything calculated to excite his anger; for he appeared to be a man with a violent temper.
"It's him, I just bet you, Elmer!" whispered Lil Artha in the scout master's ear and Elmer nodded as though he fully agreed with the other.
There seemed to be no need to mention names, for the memory of what Uncle Caleb had recently told them was fresh in every fellow's mind. Curiously they watched what was going on. Lil Artha still caressed his gun. He had hardly made up his mind whether or not this might be a clever trick on the part of Zack Arnold, calculated to gain him an entrance to the cabin of the man he hated so bitterly, though without any reasonably just cause.
It was only the other day that Lil Artha had been reading in school of the wooden horse which played such an important part in the capture of Troy in olden times, being filled with the enemy, who, issuing forth in the night-time, opened the gates of the fortified city to their allies without. Perhaps that was what made the boy suspect the visitor might be shamming in order to catch Uncle Caleb off his guard.
But if this idea had seized hold of Lil Artha he soon realized its utter absurdity. Men may go to considerable lengths in order to carry out their schemes; but he certainly did not believe even a determined fellow like Zack Arnold would deliberately break his arm in the effort to divert suspicion.
It was an ugly break, too, as was shown as soon as Uncle Caleb had divested the other of his garments, with the assistance of Elmer, who sprang to his side when he realized what was needed. That thick, hairy arm was covered with blood, and the sight of it made Toby and George shudder.
"Get a kettle of water on the fire in a hurry, please!" said Uncle Caleb, "because the first thing to be done is to wash this arm so we can see how to set the bone. Toby, at the same time start that coffee to going again, will you? A few hot drinks would take some of the chill out of this poor fellow. He's had a terrible tumble, and is covered with bruises, besides this broken arm. But we'll fix him up as comfortable as we can; and he luckily managed to get to my cabin before it was too late!"
While the old gentleman was speaking in this way the keen black eyes of Zack Arnold kept following his every move. Elmer wondered what must be passing through the mind of the vindictive man just then. He did not doubt in the least but what some terrible plan to revenge himself upon Uncle Caleb for what the other had done to him on that previous occasion had been the cause for his coming to this particular region, for his own camping grounds lay many miles away to the west, where sportsmen congregated in the season for either fly fishing or deer hunting.
With some black plan in his mind the man had started to even up his score with Uncle Caleb; but a strange fate had caused him to meet with a terrible accident; and now he was compelled to actually seek shelter and assistance from the very man he had been about to injure.