"Elam," said Uncle Ezra severely, "you are not telling me the truth! There is something back of this."
"All right. Come out and see for yourself."
Tom and I removed the saddles from our horses, and at the same time Uncle Ezra came out and began his examination. With the very first move he made he hit the nugget. I never saw a man more completely taken aback than he was.
"Hoop-pe!" was the yell he sent up which awoke the echoes far and near. "By gum, if you haven't got it. I don't want a cent!"
In less time than it takes to tell it Uncle Ezra had lifted out the nugget and carried it into the cabin beside the fire, so that he could have a light to see by. When we got in there he had the nugget on the floor, and was pawing it over to see if it was that or something else which we had tried to palm off on him. When he saw Elam he got up and gave his hand a good hearty shake. I looked at Tom and I saw him put his hands into his pocket. I will bet you he would not have had that shake for his share of the nugget.
"Well, sir, you got it," said Uncle Ezra. "I declare if it don't beat the world!"
"Now, while you are shaking me up you don't want to forget Tom," said Elam. "If it hadn't been for him I shouldn't have found it at all."
"Do you mean to say that Tom found it?"
"Certainly, for he found the trail that led to it," replied Elam; and then he went on to give Uncle Ezra a brief sketch of the manner in which Tom had got at the bottom of things. He added that if he hadn't shown Tom the place where the man camped, the nugget would have been up there now. Uncle Ezra listened in amazement, and when Elam stopped speaking he thrust out his hand to Tom.
"Where in the world did you learn to trail?" said he. "Shake."