Once, however, they heard the distant ring of an axe; they made their way through a thick growth of timber and came upon a log house where a young woman and child were visible. Some little distance off a young man was seen cutting down a tree. When they approached him and made their errand known, he looked surprised.
“You’ve been through this section before, haven’t you?” he asked.
“No,” replied Ezra.
The look of surprise upon the young man’s face deepened.
“That’s queer,” he said. “Tom Hadley, who lives down the creek aways, was in Skenesboro a couple of weeks ago for provisions; and he met a man who inquired about sledges and offered to buy up all that he could get.”
A shock ran through Ezra.
“Did Hadley say what kind of a man he was?” he asked.
“Yes; he was tall and well made. And Tom said he looked like some kind of a foreigner.”
Ezra felt sure that it was Abdallah, but desired to make sure.
“He was a rough spoken kind of a man too, I suppose,” he insinuated.