untains."

"Do you think you are not going to make anything by it?"

"Well, yes," said Mr. Parsons, with another laugh. "But I have got to do
something to help you. You ride pretty well, and I should think you
ought to go into the cattle business."

"Who will take me? Will you?"

"Well, no; I can't. I have had to discharge some parties, not having
work for them to attend to, and I don't know how I could use you. I will
tell you this much: when you come back in the spring, I will give you a
show."

"Thank you," replied Tom. "That's the first encouragement I have had.
But you say it took you four years to make up the money you had spent.
I'm not going to stay here four years."

"You aint? What are you going to do?"

"I am going to look for that nugget that Elam Storm has lost."

"Oh, ah!" said Mr. Parsons, the expression on his face giving way to one
of intense disgust. "Well, you'll never find it."

"Why not? The edge of Death Valley is just crowded with men who haven't
given up all hopes of finding it."

"Crowded! Young man, I wonder if you know how big Death Valley is?
Crowded! Now and then you'll find a man who still has that nugget on the
brain, but if the man who hid it himself, not more than two years ago,
can't find it, I think it is useless for others to try. There have been
landslides in all the canyons that run through there till you can't
rest. I'll tell you what I'll do: if you will find that nugget, I will
give you ten thousand dollars for it. That's a better offer than I made
you a while ago. And you may keep the nugget besides. If you are around
when anybody else digs it up, I will give you five thousand dollars."

There was something in this offer that completely shut off all
discussion of the finding of Elam Storm's nugget. Mr. Parsons did not
refer to the matter again, and neither did Tom; but the latter still
clung to the hope of finding the gold. The nugget was there, or why
should so large a number of men be on the lookout for it? And if he
_should_ happen to strike it, he would be a rich man. During all his
rides he kept that one thought in his mind, and nothing could shake it
out. There was one thing that ought to have opened Tom's eyes, and that
was that no nugget of gold had been struck in that country for miles
around. The nearest place at which any had been found was at Pike's
Peak, and that was over two hundred miles away. But Tom didn't know
that, and the only thing that kept the