Teddy gained his feet, the others following his example. Three guns were brought to bear, covering the suspected spot.
“Come out! Show a leg; or we might take a notion to send a shot in there!” called Teddy, in a belligerant tone, making a threatening motion with his gun at the same time.
Immediately the bushes stirred. Then a tall and brawny figure came into view, that of a red-bearded man, clad in rough attire, as became a woods nomad. In one hand he gripped an old-fashioned gun, something like that of Amos’. But just then he was busily engaged in holding it up, as he tried to make the Indian “peace sign,” by exposing the palms of both hands as well as he was able.
“Hold on, boys; I wouldn’t do nawthin’ rash, if I was you. I’m only too willin’ ter kim into camp. Jest snuck up ter find out who an’ what ye war. Happens that thar be lots o’ hard characters aroamin’ those woods hyarabouts; an’ a decent respectable man hes to be putty keerful who he makes up with. I jest seen ye was all ter ther good, when ye called me.”
He kept on advancing as he spoke in this strain.
Teddy had seen many just such rough looking men among the scores of husky loggers employed by his father. He knew it was never safe to judge a man by either the clothes he wore, or his general appearance. Some of the hardest looking of them, upon closer acquaintance, would turn out to be big-hearted fellows, and as honest as the day was long. Then again, there was just as strong a chance that the same fellow would prove to be a scoundrel.
In the woods, men have to know each other before they become friends. Looks go for little, and words less. A man is what he proves himself to be.
Teddy was only a boy, and he had not rubbed up against a hard world after the fashion of Amos Simmons. And yet he certainly did not like the looks of this big man any too well. There was that in the other’s face to tell only too plainly his love for strong drink; and being a strictly temperance boy himself, Teddy had little use for any one who was addicted to liquor.
Besides, he could not help but think there was something mighty suspicious about the manner in which the man was sneaking about their camp. Why should he crawl up, and lie there in those bushes, just as though anxious to listen to what the boys were talking about? If, as he said, he wished to make sure that they were decent campers, and not lawless persons, why, a single look at their canoes, and the boys themselves, must have told him that. There would be no need of all this caution; unless possibly the man might be a fugitive from justice, and suspicious of every party he met, thinking it might represent a sheriff’s posse come to hunt for him.
The thought was not particularly pleasant to Teddy. He determined to keep his Marlin within each reach while the giant was in camp; and he sincerely hoped the stranger might not take a notion to remain with them over night.