"You seem to look upon this robbery as something that ought to have happened," said Tom. "I tell you that if I had worked as long as you have, and had seven hundred dollars" worth, I would be mad."
"Young man, if you had been out here as long as I have, and been in my circ.u.mstances, you would have learned to look upon these things as a matter of course," answered Elam. "This is the fourth time I have been robbed, and I never go to the mountains without expecting it."
"But you never told me about that man shooting at you so many times,"
answered Tom.
"Well, he did; and once he came so close to me that he laid me on the ground," said Elam, baring his brawny chest and showing Tom the ragged mark of a bullet there.
"By George!" exclaimed Tom.
"That was the time he stole that bag you have there," continued Elam.
"He looked at me and thought me to be dead, and so made no bones about taking it. But he got fooled for once in his life. He thought I had a map there telling him where to look for the nugget."
"Did you have a map of any kind with you?"
"Nary a map," said Elam, with a laugh.
"Well, there"s one here now, and I should like to have you look at it.
The loss of that map made Aleck think he was ruined."
Elam became all attention now, and watched Tom as he took out the piece of buckskin and carefully unfolded it. Finally he took out the paper and handed it to Elam, taking pains to smooth it out as he did so.
"He said he had to shoot a man in order to get it," said Tom.
"What man was it?"
"I don"t know. He didn"t describe him."
Elam had been fooled so many times in regard to that nugget that he took the paper with a smile, but he had scarcely glanced at it before a look of intense earnestness took the place of the smile. He laid down his rifle, rested his hands upon 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 provisions," said Tom. "I hope you"ll catch them right there among our soldiers, and make them give up the skins.
They"ve got a heap of cheek to take those skins to the fort."
"The people out here have cheek enough for anything," said Elam, with a frown. "This Aleck you speak of took some money off that dead man, and yet I"ll bet you he would go right to the fort and spend it."
Elam became all activity, and it was all Tom could do to keep pace with him as he walked along carrying the skins to the site of the cabin. It was a "site," sure enough, for the fire had made rapid headway, and now there was nothing but the smouldering remains to be seen. Elam looked at the smoking ruins and then at the numerous articles Tom had saved, and then said:
"If I had known as much on the day I built this cabin as I do now, I could have enjoyed myself better here than the ones who burned it. You have saved your boots, haven"t you? Well, the things that went up are comparatively of little value. Now, if you will punch together some of the coals and get me a big dinner, I"ll be off. There"s a blizzard coming up, and as they generally come from the south-west, I would advise you to put up a lean-to with its back that way," said Elam, motioning with his hand.
"I would really enjoy a blizzard, but not if you are going to be out in it," replied Tom, who, for some reason or other, could not bear that anything should happen to Elam. "I have never seen one in my life."
For an hour or two the boys were busy, Elam in catching and saddling his horse and doing up his blankets to be carried with him, and Tom employed with his cooking, and all the while the former was going on with some instructions which were destined to make things easier for Tom. He didn"t want to neglect that lean-to, he said, for in less than three days there would be a blizzard that would make him open his eyes. If he didn"t come back in three days, all Tom would have to do would be to take that map to Uncle Ezra Norton (anybody at the fort would show him where he lived), and he would know what to do under the circ.u.mstances.
Having said this much, Elam wrapped what was left of his dinner in his blankets, so as to carry it with him, shook Tom warmly by the hand (he did not put as much vim into it as he did before), mounted his horse, and rode down the path out of sight. When he thought a sufficient length of time had pa.s.sed, Tom wandered down to the edge of the evergreens and looked out. There was Elam on his horse, skurrying along; not going fast, for he had nearly a hundred miles to ride, but taking it easy, as though he could stand it. Elam didn"t know it, but he was to travel twenty miles at as fast a gait as he had ever ridden it before.
"There goes my luck again," said Tom, as he turned about and returned through the evergreens. "If anything should happen to him, I don"t know what I should do. I feel drawn toward the fellow. I will pay attention to what he told me, and in order to put it out of the power of those men to carry off this map and money I will just chuck the bag in here, where I know it is safe."
The place where Tom hid the bag was in a hollow tree. He pushed it in, put some leaves and brush over it, and turned away, satisfied, to begin work on his lean-to. He could not see any signs of the approaching blizzard, but Elam could, and he worked hard. That day he had the frame up, and the next day it was all done and the things carried under it.
"There," said Tom, with a smile of satisfaction. "We are all ready for what comes. Now, if Elam was only here, I"d be content. One more day, or at least I will give him two, and then he will have to show up."
The third day pa.s.sed without bringing any signs of the missing boy, but Tom paid little attention to it. On the fourth he began making trips to the edge of the evergreens, and then he saw that the sun was hazy and that it began to look stormy. It grew worse on the fifth day, and Tom really began to be alarmed. Toward evening a horseman suddenly made his appearance on the edge of the prairie, walking slowly along, as if his nag was tired almost to death. But it was Elam, for after he had made many steps he discovered Tom, and pulled off his hat and waved it to him.
"Something has gone wrong," muttered Tom, vigorously returning the salute. "Why don"t he whip up? If I was as close to home as he is, I would go faster than that."
Tom waited in the margin of the woods for him to come up, and when he drew nearer saw that his face was pale, and that he carried his arm in a sling, as if he had been wounded. When Tom saw that, he began to grow pale, too.
"Oh, it"s all over," said Elam. "Look there."
"What! Is your horse wounded, too?"
"Yes, and was hardly able to move when I rode him into the fort. Say, you told me that soldiers always wanted to see the fair thing done, didn"t you? They"re a mean set. But I got the start of them. Do you know what became of those two men who were here? Well, the Cheyennes have got them."
"The Cheyennes!" exclaimed Tom.
Elam looked at him and nodded, and got off his horse with difficulty.
Tom looked at the long ragged streak in his neck, and did not wonder that he was glad to be rid of his rider.