THE NUGGET IS FOUND.
"Where are your horses?" I demanded.
"Horses? We aint got none," replied the man.
"Somebody must have grub-staked you," I continued. "They never sent you into the mountains to get lost."
"We grub-staked ourselves," answered the man impatiently. "But I'll tell you what's the matter with you. Somebody has grub-staked you, and sent you in here to search for gold, and I want to know which one of you is Elam Storm. Speak quick!"
The next thing that happened was a little short of bewildering. In less time than it takes to tell it, Elam and I were covered with the muzzles of two cocked rifles, thus making it plain to me that the men had seen us, and hastily made up their plans what to do with us. They couldn't have moved so quickly if they hadn't. They paid no attention to Tom, but covered Elam and me. All they said was:
"Don't you move, Tender-foot. You may save the life of one, but you will be a goner in the end. Now, drop your guns right where you stand."
In an instant Elam and I laid down our rifles, and Tom did the same. It was too close a call to do otherwise, for a suspicious move on the part of one of us would have sent us to kingdom come in short order. There was "shoot" in the men's eyes, and we saw it plain enough.
"Now," said the leader, "go over there and set down, away from your guns. Which one of you is Elam Storm?"
"My name is Toby Johnson," replied Elam, speaking before anybody else had a chance to open his mouth. "I don't deny that I am sent up here to prospect for gold; but I don't see much chance of finding any."
"And what's your name?" demanded the leader, turning to me.
It was a little time before I could speak. Elam's plan for throwing them off the scent was a good one, but it came so sudden that it fairly took my breath away.
"I am Carlos Burton," I replied.
"Burton! I know you," said the man, who hardly knew whether to be delighted or otherwise at the discovery he had made; and then all of a sudden it flashed upon me that here was the man who had stolen my cattle. How I wished I had my rifle in my hands! There would have been one cattle-thief less in the world, I bet you; but, then, what good would it have done? I would have been gone up, too, for the other man still held his cocked rifle in his hands.
"Ah, yes! Burton," continued the leader, "Do you remember one of the fellows who took some cattle away from you once?"
"I didn't see the men, but I have heard what sort of looking fellows they were. I should like to see you under different circumstances."
"Well, I don't know but you will, but I doubt it. What sort of appearing fellow is that Elam Storm? Seen him, either of you?"
"I don't know him," said Elam. "I never heard of him. I am a stranger in these parts."
"Seeing that neither of you is Elam Storm, perhaps you may have something about you that tells you where to go to find his nugget. Stand up and put your hands above your head. You have got a ditty-bag about you?"
"Yes, sir, and there it is," said Elam, rising to his feet and throwing his bag outside his shirt, so that the man could examine it.
Well, there! the turning point had been reached at last, and Elam was the one who helped it along. Tom was utterly confounded, and I was so amazed and provoked that I hid my face from the men by resting my elbows on my knees and looking down at the ground. Of course Elam's map was found, there was no doubt about that. I saw him have it in his hand not half an hour before, and was positive that he put it in the bag out of sight. With that gone we were as powerless as the two men were. I listened, but could not hear him say anything about the map. He took the bag off Elam's neck and up-ended it on the ground. There were a pipe, some tobacco, and some matches, and that was all there was in it. He put them all back, after helping himself to a generous chew of the weed, and turned to Tom and myself; but as we didn't have any bags he let us go.
"You have been duped, fellows," said the leader. "Who sent you here, anyway?"
"Uncle Ezra," said Elam.
"Ah, yes! He's a great chap for such things. And you'll meet Elam somewhere up there, and you want to look out that he doesn't put a bullet into you. He thinks he's got a dead sure thing on that gold."
"Were you sent out here to hunt for it?" asked Elam, and I held my breath in suspense, waiting for his answer. I wanted to find out who was at the bottom of this matter.
"Well, that's neither here nor there," said the man. "We're here, and that's enough for anybody to know. Here's Burton, now. I did steal some cattle from him because I was hard up, but I don't want him to go on and get fooled in this way. And you'll get fooled as sure as you live. Now, we don't want anything to eat. We have got everything we want out here in the rocks to last us to the fort; and if you'll say you won't shoot at us, we'll give you your guns."
"I won't shoot at you," said Elam. "You have given me a point to go on, and I don't know but I had better turn around and go back. Here's a tender-foot come out here to see the country——"
"All right. Go on, and let him dig away some of the landslides until he gets sick of them. He won't get nothing, I bet you. Now, suppose you take your creeters and go on your way. We can have a fair view of you for a quarter of a mile, and that's all we want."
Elam at once picked up his gun, mounted his horse and rode away, leading one of the mules, leaving Tom and I to follow at our leisure. I noticed that the two men eyed me rather sharply. They didn't know how I felt at being reduced to poverty, and they were ready to nip in the bud any move that I took to be even with them. I didn't feel very good over it, you may imagine, and when I got on my horse I couldn't resist an inclination to say a word to them.
"I hear that two of the men who engaged with you in that cattle-thieving business were hanged for horse-stealing," I said.
"Has that story got around down here?" said one of the men.
"Yes; and I am very sorry that they were dealt with in that way. I wanted to get even with them myself. It seems as though those six thousand dollars didn't go very far with you."
"Well, go on now, for we don't want to take this matter into our own hands. We will wait until you get up to the turn in the canyon, and then you had better look out."
I rode on up the gully after Tom and Elam, and when I got up to the turn I looked back. The men were not in sight. Elam rode a little way further and then dismounted, preparatory to going into camp.
"There were two things that happened to-day that I did not think possible," said I, throwing myself out of my saddle in a disgusted humor. "One was that Elam would give up when he saw himself cornered."
"I saw at the start that they did not want to hurt anything," said Elam. "Suppose we had resisted them; where would we be now?"
"And another thing, I did not think it possible for me to stand near the man who stole my cattle without putting a chunk of lead into him. He didn't say who he was until after he had charge of my rifle, did he?"
"No, but I tell you you wouldn't have made anything by trying to shoot him. If we had made the least attempt to cock a gun, it would have been good-by. Those fellows were not fools."
"And what made Elam deny his identity?" said Tom. "You said you were Toby Johnson."
"And what became of his map?" I chimed in. "I saw him have it a short time before they came up. What did you do with it, Elam?"
"It's there, close to where I was sitting on the rock. When we think we have given them time to get away, I'll go back there and get it. I didn't want them to find it on me."
"And do you say that you took it out of your bag and threw it on the rocks?" said Tom in utter amazement. "I sat close to you all the while, and I never saw you do anything like it."
"No; I took it out of my pocket," said Elam. "The name I gave, Toby Johnson, saved them from handling me mighty rough."
"Well, now I am beaten!" I exclaimed.
"You see, if I had told them what my name was, they would have said at the start that I had some sort of a map with me, and would have hazed till I give it up. But they would never have got it," said Elam quietly, and there was deep determination in his words. "But I know one thing, and that aint two. Those fellows have left their picks and spades up here. They got tired of them and didn't mean to take them back."
"Who were they, anyway?" asked Tom. "They were not the men who stole the skins."
"Now, wait until I tell you; I don't know."
"One of them might have been the man who got shot," I suggested.
"There are a good many things connected with this nugget that we will never find out," said Elam. "And that's one of them. We'll stay here until we get dinner, and then I will go back after my map. It is all in a lifetime. So long as I get my nugget I don't care."
"I never heard of men turning out so friendly after doing their best to rob us," said Tom, pulling the saddle off his horse. "And you met them half-way."
"Who? Me? I will always be friendly with a man who never tries to do me dirt," said Elam. "If they had had the nugget you would have seen more."
I was very glad indeed that they did not have the nugget. So long as they let us off without being hurt I was abundantly satisfied; but if they had had gold stowed away in their blankets, we probably should never have seen them. They would have slunk away among the rocks and tried to hide their booty for fear that we should try to take it away from them. Would Elam try to hide his nugget after he got it? Well, he had not got it yet by a long ways. We ate dinner where we were, and Elam shouldered his rifle, lighted his pipe, and started back after his map. He told us that we had better stay where we were, and this gave me an idea that Elam was afraid he might be shot. He was gone half an hour, and when he came back his face wore his old-time expression again.
"Have you got it?" asked Tom, who always wanted to make sure that he was in the right.
"Course I have," said Elam. "Catch up, and we'll go on. There is one thing about this map business that I don't exactly like. You see this nugget is hid in a pocket."
Of course, I was thunderstruck, but then Elam had been all over that country, and of course knew where every pocket went to. He knew which canyons ran back into the mountains and which did not.
"You see this man had a fight before he got the nugget, and he was too badly hurt to get off his course to find a pocket to bury his find," Elam hastened to explain. "Now, this canyon that we are in goes back into the mountains I don't know how far, and it was in this gully that the fight took place; consequently the find is buried right here alongside of this little stream."
"Who do you suppose that man was, anyway?" Tom remarked. "You have never heard of him since, have you?"
"Now, wait until I tell you. I don't know. But let us go ahead, and I will tell you what I mean in a day or two."
"What do you look for anyway, when you go off by yourself?" asked Tom. "If you would give us a pointer on that subject we might be able to help you."
"I don't mind telling you that I am looking for a trail," said Elam. "And it is so old that no one but myself would notice it. When I find that trail I'm a-going to follow it up. It isn't over ten feet long, for a man as badly hurt as that one was, aint a-going to go a great ways to hide a nugget."
"Do you mean to tell me that we are on his trail now?" exclaimed Tom in amazement.
"Certainly I do. I have found two or three places where he slept."
"Why didn't you speak about it?"
"Do you suppose I have come in here this far without following some trail? Of course not. Some of the marks he made are so badly obliterated by the wind and the rain, that you can't make head nor tail of them, unless you know what had been there in the first place. Why, I have found blood on the rocks where he slept."
"You're beaten, aint you, Tom?" I asked, when he gazed at me, lost in wonder.
"I should say I was. I wish you had showed me that spot."
"Well, I will the next time I come across one. Good gracious! if I didn't know any more about trailing than you do, I would never find that nugget."
"How do you suppose your father came by it in the first place? He must have got it in some honest way or he wouldn't have had it in his wagon."
"That is one thing that I don't know," answered Elam solemnly. "He got it, and how it ever came noised abroad that it belonged to me beats my time. I wish the man that started that story had it crammed down his throat."
Elam was getting excited again, and we thought it best to leave him alone until he got over thinking about the nugget. We didn't raise any objections when he spurred up his horse and got out of sight of us in the bushes. When we were certain that he had passed out of hearing, Tom said:
"Why, it is two years since that man, whoever he was, made that trail through here, and to think he can find some traces of it now! It bangs me completely."
"There are two things which must be taken into consideration," said I. "In the first place that man didn't know what he left of a trail; he hoped nobody would ever find it. A twig may have been broken down and he left it so, certain it would lead him back to the place where he had buried his find. In the next place there is some little sign for which Elam is looking that will lead him directly to the place he wants to find; some branch of a tree that has been broken down and looks as though somebody had been browsing there, and it will tell Elam that he is hot on the trail. Do you see?"
"Yes, I see; but I don't see how a man can follow a trail two years old. I wish you would show me his next camping ground. If I am a lucky omen, I may be able to find the nugget."
I laughed and promised Tom that I would show him the next place I found; but it was a long time before I found any. You could not have told that a man had passed through there in one year or ten, the weather had so completely done away with all his work. But it did not make any difference to Elam. Sometimes he would be gone before we were up, but he always came back to supper, which we took pains to have good and hot for him. We never made any enquiries, for he knew just how impatient we were, and he would not keep us waiting a moment longer than was necessary. We had been in the canyon six weeks, and, to tell you the truth, Tom and I were getting pretty tired of the search. It was the same thing over and over every day, and I was glad that nobody had connected my name with a lost nugget. Elam would go along on foot, leaving his horse to follow or not as he pleased; and if he found a little pile of stones on the bank that didn't look as though it had been thrown up by nature, he would go into the bushes and perhaps be gone for an hour. We had long ago passed the pocket, and were continuing on our way slowly and laboriously up the canyon, and one day Elam startled Tom by calling out:
"I reckon you will think I am all right now. Here is the place where that fellow camped."
In less than two seconds Tom and I were by Elam's side. Cautioning us not to go too far so as to disturb things, he plainly pointed out to us the marks of a person's figure on the leaves. Some of the bushes had been broken down, and the leaves had blown over where he lay, but by carefully brushing these aside the impress of a person's form could be seen. There was no doubt about it, and I told Elam so in a way that made him all right again.
"Where do you suppose that fellow is now?" said Tom.
"I don't know," said Elam. "My impression is that he died."
"But he wouldn't have given this map to a man when he knew it to be wrong, would he?"
"I tell you that there's a heap of things connected with this nugget that we shall never find out. We are on the right trail yet. I tell you I feel encouraged."
We all did for that matter, and every day we searched both sides of the stream to find that man's camping place, and when we found it we would call the others up; but one day Tom came into camp, and his face was full of news.
"I don't want to raise any false hopes," said he, "but if I have not found something I will give it up. It's on the left-hand side of the creek. In the first place there were four stones laid up the bank, and the bush at whose foot they lay had been broken down and leaned away from the bank. And further than that, it was held in position by two of the branches, which were firmly tied about it."
"Tom, I believe you have found it," said I.
"It is too far away to find it before dark, but I will go there the first thing in the morning," continued Tom, who was so excited that he could scarcely speak plainly. "We want to take along our picks and shovels, too."
We both glanced at Elam, but he didn't say anything. He was lying back on his blanket, with his pipe between his teeth and his hands under his head. He smiled all over, but said nothing.
"Go on," said he to Tom. "What else did you find?"
"And right there is where the fun comes in," said Tom. "The passage was about twenty feet long—he was too badly hurt to go further—and with every step of the way he had broken down a piece of the bushes, first on one side and then on the other, to enable him to keep a straight course. Right under the head of a rock that the passage brings up against, you will find something buried. It may not be the nugget, but there is something there."
"Why didn't you dig down and see what it was?" said I.
"It was pretty near night when I found it, and besides I wanted Elam to see it. I will go with you now, if you say so."
"No," said Elam, filling up his pipe for a fresh smoke. "I'll be happy for once in my life for twelve hours, and if at the end of that time I find that there is nothing there——"
"But I tell you there is something there," ejaculated Tom.
"I will go back and go to herding cattle," added Elam, paying no attention to Tom's interruption. "I will give it up as a bad job."
There wasn't much sleeping done in that camp that night, and although we stayed awake till toward morning, we had little to say to each other. We all wanted to see what was hidden up there. I had seen Elam become wonderfully excited whenever anyone spoke of the nugget and hinted that it wasn't there, but I had never seen him come so near finding it before. When daylight came Tom declared he couldn't wait any longer, so we got up and saddled our horses and followed along after him. We did not stop to cook breakfast, for in case we did not find the nugget nobody would want any. After going about a quarter of a mile, Tom stopped and dismounted from his horse.
"There are the stones," said Elam.
"You go along a little further and you will find everything just as I described it to you," said Tom. "Elam is about half wild," he added in a low tone to me, "so you and I had better take a pick along. Mind, I don't say it is the nugget, but there is something hidden in there."
Talk about Elam's being half wild! Tom and I were in that fix also. We saw Elam examine the broken bush, the one that was held in place by two limbs that were tied about it, and his face grew as white as a sheet. He worked his way into the bushes, making his way all too slowly to suit us who were following close at his heels, and finally stopped under the hanging rock, where there was a clear space about two feet in diameter. The bushes grew as thick here as they did anywhere else, but they had been cut with a knife to give the digger a chance to work. Not one of us said a word, because we were too highly excited. Elam reached his hand behind him, and I, knowing what he wanted, placed a spade within it; but you might as well have set a child to scraping it out with a teaspoon. His hand trembled so that it was scarcely any use to him.
"Here, Elam, give me that spade," I cried. "You will never get it up in the world. Now, stand back beside Tom, out of the way."
I did not think Elam would agree to this, but he did, and in two minutes I had the leaves and brush all out of the way, faster than it was put in, I'll bet. But what was this I struck against before I had gone down three inches? It was not as hard as a rock, because, when I placed my shovel against it and tried to pry it up, the instrument slipped from it and showed me the color of the pure gold.
"Elam, Elam, there's something here!" I shouted, so nearly beside myself that I did not know what I was saying. "Stand out of the way and let me handle it myself. When I get it out where the horses are, you can examine it till your head is as white as Uncle Ezra's."
I have since learned that the nugget weighed 130 pounds, but it did not seem half that weight as I pulled it out of the hole and started through the bushes with it. I paid no attention to the others, who followed along after me, lost in wonder. I carried it out to where the bushes ended, and then laid it down, hunted up a rock, and sat down and examined it.
"Elam, there's your nugget!" I said.
"By gum, I believe it is!" said Elam.
One would have thought by the way Elam went about it that he did not know whether it was or not. For fifteen minutes we sat there and watched him as he passed his hands carefully over it, brushing away a little particle of dirt here and pecking with his knife there to see if it was really gold, until he was satisfied; then he put up his knife and thrust out his hand to Tom.
"Tender-foot, I never would have found this if it hadn't been for you," said he, with something like a tremor in his voice. "Shake!"
"Thank you," said Tom, taking particular pains to keep his hands out of the way. "I'll take your word for it."
"I won't squeeze you, honor bright!" said Elam.
That was as good as though Elam had sworn to it, and Tom gave him his hand. He didn't squeeze it, but he shook it very warmly.