are not first-class."

"Well, let them come," said Elam, getting up and stretching himself. He
stood more than six feet in his stockings, and when he brought his arms
back to show his biceps he fairly made the cabin tremble.

"Yes, you, dog-gone you," said Uncle Ezra, getting up and shaking a fist
in Elam's face. "You want to go off and lose a thousand dollars of it
and your life besides. Now, wait until I tell you. I'll sleep on it.
I'll see how it looks in the morning."

But in the morning there was not a word said about it. We ate breakfast
by the firelight, and then Tom's horse and mine were brought to the door
and saddled, preparatory to our ride to Mr. Parsons' ranch. In a pair of
saddle-bags which I carried I had cooked provisions enough to last four
days. As we were ready to start, Uncle Ezra came to the door and took a
look at the weather.

"How long do you think you will be gone, Carlos?" said he. "Two weeks?
Then you needn't mind coming back here. We shall probably get the sheep
out some time before that, and you had better come to our dugout on the
plains. I'll see to your cattle. Good-by."

In process of time we rode up to Mr. Parsons' cabin, and if I am any
judge of the exclamations that arose from all sides they found it
difficult to recognize Tom. It seemed that his two months in the
mountains had changed him wonderfully. When he spoke of the bronco and
repeated some words of advice that Mr. Parsons had given him, the latter
remembered him at once.

"Why, Tom, I am glad to see you," said he. "Alight and hitch. The bronco
didn't get away from you, I suppose. And you found the nugget, too?"

"Yes, sir; I did," replied Tom quietly.

"Gold sticking out all over it, I suppose. Well, how much do I owe you?"

"I've come here to see how much I owe you," said Tom. "That bronco has
gone up. The Red Ghost finished him."

Mr. Parsons began to get interested now. He looked at me and I nodded
assent.

"Do you mean to say that the Red Ghost finished him? And did you find
the nugget?" he exclaimed, hardly believing he had heard aright.

"It's all true, every bit of it," I said. "He found Elam in a canyon
where he got lost, and afterward found a map. He used that map, which
started in at the springs, and afterward found the nugget."

"There now!" exclaimed the elderly man, the one who had been in the
mountains just ahead of Tom, and whose camp the latter slept in every
night. "I told you that I did not th