e cut had hardly had time to heal
before it got another. Elam plied the axe vigorously, and in a few
moments each boy had a foot which he was to take along to show to the
people "down there." Finally Uncle Ezra said he would take the head. It
was scarred and seamed all over, but he thought that anyone who had seen
a camel would be sure to recognize it. Then we brought up the horses,
but I tell you it took two men to saddle them. They couldn't bear the
scent of the camel; I had to take my nag out of sight of it, and it was
a long time before he quit snorting. With a good deal of merriment we
got them all saddled at last, and with Tom and Ben riding my horse and
Elam's, we bid good-by to our camp in the mountains. We had twenty miles
to go and then we were among friends again.

"Say," said Elam, when he had allowed the others to get so far ahead
that there was no danger of their overhearing our conversation, "I don't
think I am crazy; do you?"

"I never thought so," said I, although I knew there had been some talk
of it in the settlement. "I was sure if that nugget was there you would
find it. I shouldn't have offered to go with you if I had thought you
were crazy."

"You have seen the map and know just what there is onto it?" continued
Elam.

"I certainly have."

"And you know the place where it starts is over there by those springs?"

"I do certainly."

"And do you think that those men would carry around a map of that kind
unless there was something on it?" said Elam, going over the argument he
had used the night before with Uncle Ezra.

"No, I don't think they would. And it's your ditty-bag that they took
from you when you were shot."

"I know it; and many's the time I have thought of it, too, and never
expected to see it again. Thank goodness, I have two men with me who
don't think I am crazy! I have told Uncle Ezra that I never would give
it up again until I have that nugget in my hands. I know that gully up
there, and it is a pretty big place. Now, that is all I have to say. If
you want to know anything more, now is the time to ask me."

"Don't you think that there are other parties up there, hunting for it?"
I asked, knowing that his story had been noised abroad. "Just think; you
have been looking for it fourteen years."

"Longer than that; and I ought to get it, for they say that perseverance
conquers all things. As for other parties looking for it, why, they can
get it if they want it. But where's t