pon his knees, and studied the paper long and
earnestly.

"Do you make anything out of it?" asked Tom.

"It's the very thing I want," declared Elam. "I have waited and looked
for a thing like this, and have never found it. The nugget is
mine--mine, and, Tom, I will give you half if you will stand by me till
I handle it."

"It's a bargain," replied Tom, and to show how very much in earnest he
was he offered to shake hands with Elam; but he resolved that he would
never do it again. All the years of waiting Elam had infused into that
grip; Tom didn't say anything, but it was all he could do to stand it.

"There is only one thing I can't see into," said he, when he had
recovered his power of speech, "and that is where that line begins. You
don't know where in the world it is."

"Do you see all these little dots here at the beginning of the line?
Well, those are springs. There's a dozen springs break out inside of
half an acre, and there's only one place in the country where you can
find them."

"How far is it from here?"

"It is forty miles in a straight line."

"Then what were those men doing here?"

"I give it up."

"And here's some money, too, with the thing," said Tom, undoing the
piece of buckskin that contained it. "There's forty dollars here."

"I am sure I don't know what brought them in here, unless they came
after somebody that had the map. I'd like mighty well to find him, but I
can't stop now to hunt him up. I must have the nugget in the first
place."

"Well, you had better keep this map," said Tom, as Elam got up and threw
the skins over his shoulder and picked up his rifle.

"No, you keep it until I come back. I've got to face a couple of rough
men, and there's no knowing what may happen to me. If I shouldn't come
back, find Uncle Ezra Norton and give it to him. He will go with you and
help you hunt it up."

"What have you got to face those rough men for?" said Tom anxiously.
"Those men who were here were afraid of their lives."

"Yes; but you take them out in the mountains and see if they are afraid
of their lives. They would shoot you as quickly as they would look at
you. One of them has more to answer for than he will care to. Uncle Ezra
Norton. Don't forget him. Now, I am going to leave you here while I go
on to the fort. I shall be gone three days. You can stand it that long,
can't you?"

"I can stand it for a week if you will keep those fellows from trading
off those wolf-skins for