Answer:
Tom Walker's act of kicking the cloven skull led to the appearance of the devil.
Step-by-step explanation:
Washington Irving's short story "The Devil and Tom Walker," tells the story of Tom Walker, a greedy man who would even fight with his wife for any profit. His encounter with "a great black man" led him to disastrous and unfortunate events.
One day, Tom was going through the woods when he decided to repose for a while. While resting "trunk of a fallen hemlock", his staff uncovered "a cloven skull, with an Indian tomahawk buried deep in it". That alone did not scare him. Instead, he "gave it a kick to shake the dirt from it." This act brought the "devil" to appear, their very first encounter with each other.