s hat to us
when we reached the canyon that branched off from his trail. "But I have
my doubts."

"Oh, of course we're cranks!" said Elam.

"I never said that of you," said Sandy reproachfully. "I always said
that if the nugget was there you'd get it."

"And how am I going to find out where the nugget is unless I have a
map?" demanded Elam. "I've got one now, and if I make a failure of this
thing, I am going to Texas. When you see me again I'll have the nugget.
Good-by."

We saw no Indians, although we kept a bright lookout for them, and about
three o'clock in the afternoon arrived at the springs, for I do not know
what else to call them. We had had no dinner, intending to leave it
until we got to our camping place, and while Tom and I unsaddled and
staked out the horses, Elam strolled away with his rifle on his shoulder
to look up the springs. He was gone fully an hour, and when he came back
he set his rifle down and never said a word. I knew that something was
the matter, but I thought I would wait until he got ready to tell it. He
ate his dinner; he ate a good hearty one, too, so that the news he had
brought did not interfere with his appetite, and filled his pipe; and
then I knew that something was coming.

"Carlos," said he, as he stretched his legs out in front of him, "those
springs have all been tampered with."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"They have been tampered with the same as this one has," continued Elam,
pointing to the spring at which our horses had drank. "All the stuff and
leaves have been pulled out of them."

"Well, what of it?"

"What of it? It means that somebody has been going in on our trail."

"All right; let it be so. You found all the springs, didn't you? We're
on their trail, and if we overtake them at the end of a week we will see
what we can do with them. You said yourself that it would make things
easier for us."

"Yes, I know I said it, but I don't like to see that people are so hot
after that nugget."

It did seem to me that everyone had got wind of that nugget, and were
going after it at the same time. How it came about I did not know. Here
they had gone on for two years and let Elam dig where he had a mind to,
and now when he knew where the gold was, other people knew it too and
were determined to have it. I suggested that it might be those men who
had robbed him, but Elam laughed at it.

"Those men never came near here," said Elam. "Otherwise, how did they
strike m