he start. He could ride and shoot a little, and had camped in
small patches of timber like to Adirondacks and up about Moosehead Lake;
but he did not pretend to know it all, as the majority of Eastern men do
when they come out here, and so he had plenty of friends among men who
were willing to assist him. He fairly overflowed with delight when I
took him an invitation from Uncle Ezra to spend a month on his
sheep-ranch. His father was glad to let him accept, for old Ezra was a
particular friend of his, and often acted as guide when the major went
scouting. This hunt to Wind River Mountains had been undertaken for
Ben's especial benefit, and as we pushed him to the front as often as
the opportunity was presented, he shot more elk and blacktail than we
did.

I have spoken of Elam Storm, a particular friend of all of us. He was
somewhere in the mountains now and ought to have joined us two days ago,
but, seeing that it was Elam, we did not pay any attention to it. He was
a professional wolfer whom Uncle Ezra had befriended. Old Ezra said he
was shiftless; but he certainly was not lazy, for he would work harder
at doing nothing than any fellow I ever saw. He was game, too. He had
some sort of a notion in his head that governed all his actions, and
although I was as intimate with him as anybody in the country, I never
could find out what it was. But I did not push my enquiries, I want you
to understand, for Elam had a sharp tongue, which he did not hesitate to
use when he thought occasion demanded it, and, besides, he was handy
with his gun. I had often asked Uncle Ezra to tell me what he knew of
Elam's history, but could never get him started on the subject; so I was
glad to hear him say in response to Ben's importunities that he would
tell the story.

"How long ago was it since Elam came to you?" enquired Ben Hastings,
with a view of hurrying Uncle Ezra, who was refilling his pipe, gazing
with great deliberation the while into the fire, as if he there saw the
incidents he was about to describe.

"He never came to me at all," replied the old man. "I fetched him to my
ranch, and he's been there off and on ever since. He's a different boy
from Carlos, here,"--with a nod in my direction,--"the most
improvidentest fellow you ever saw, and always dead broke, so that I
have to grub-stake him every fall. I have offered more than once to take
him right along and give him his pay in stock, so that he could get a
start with some s