arrative that the old frontiersman had to tell, and I saw
that Elam was so much interested in it that he forgot all about the
supper, and I got up and assisted him; and that was all he wanted. He
left me to do the work, and sat down. The foreman heard Uncle Ezra
through without interruption, and then turned and gave Elam a good
looking over. After that he got up and assisted me with the supper.

"So Elam has really got a map of the place where that nugget is hid?"
were the first words he uttered. He didn't seem to care a straw about
the Indians, but he did care about the gold. "I wish I knew the man he
shot to get it."

After that the evening was just what you would expect of one spent in a
hunter's camp, or one passed in a sheep-herder's ranch, which was the
same thing. We ate supper; then those who were inclined to the weed
enjoyed their good-night smoke, and talked of ghosts, Indians, and
sheep-herder's life until we were all tired out and went to bed. We had
regular bunks to sleep in, and could thrash around all we had a mind to
without fear of disturbing anyone else. The foreman got up once to
replenish the fire and take a look at the weather, and I heard him say,
when he crawled back into his bunk, that it was a clear, cold
night--just the one that sheep enjoy.

When I awoke I found the foreman busy in the storeroom in putting up our
three months' supplies and Uncle Ezra engaged in cooking breakfast. Ben
was seated at one end of the table, engaged in writing a letter to his
father, and Elam had gone out after a certain stockman to carry it to
the fort for him. It was dark, and you couldn't see a thing.

"I think it best to let the boy's father know when he is well off," said
Uncle Ezra, returning my greeting. "It aint everybody who would go to
that trouble, I confess--sending a lone man off in a country that has
been infested with Indians. But I know how it is myself. If I had a
boy----"

"You have got one," I said. "There's Elam."

"Elam!" said the frontiersman in a tone of contempt. "Elam went to work
and got himself into a fuss without saying a word to me about it. Elam!
now he's got a map that he thinks will show him where the gold is
hidden."

"But don't you think there is something hidden there?" asked Ben.

"Now, wait till I tell you. I don't know; but every scrap he gets hold
of he thinks it is a map. That's what makes me mad at Elam. And you,
dog-gone you! You have got better sense than that."