ELAM STORM, THE WOLFER

OR

THE LOST NUGGET

BY HARRY CASTLEMON

AUTHOR OF "GUNBOAT SERIES," "FOREST AND STREAM SERIES," "WAR SERIES," ETC., ETC.

PHILADELPHIA
HENRY T. COATES & CO.

Copyright, 1895,
BY PORTER & COATES.

The Red Ghost.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. Something about the Nugget
CHAPTER II. Tom Mason Again
CHAPTER III. Tom Begins his Wanderings
CHAPTER IV. The Wrong Boat
CHAPTER V. Tom's Luck
CHAPTER VI. Tom Admires the Cowboys
CHAPTER VII. A Temperance Lecture
CHAPTER VIII. A Home Ranch
CHAPTER IX. Lost in the Mountains
CHAPTER X. The Camp of Elam, the Wolfer
CHAPTER XI. Unwelcome Visitors
CHAPTER XII. Tom Finds Something
CHAPTER XIII. Elam Interviews the Major
CHAPTER XIV. Elam Under Fire
CHAPTER XV. Uncle Ezra Puts his Foot Down
CHAPTER XVI. A New Expedition
CHAPTER XVII. The Nugget is Found
CHAPTER XVIII. Conclusion

FAMOUS STANDARD JUVENILE LIBRARIES.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Red Ghost.

Tom's New Acquaintance.

Tom in hiding.

Elam's Fight with the Cheyennes.

ELAM STORM, THE WOLFER;

OR,

THE LOST NUGGET.

CHAPTER I.

SOMETHING ABOUT THE NUGGET.

"Yes, sir; it's just like I tell you. Every coyote on this here ranch, mean and sneaking as he is, is worth forty dollars to the man who can catch him."

"Then what is the reason Carlos and I can't make some money this winter?"

"You mout, and then again you moutn't. It aint everybody who can coax one of them smart prowlers to stick his foot in a trap. If that was the case, my neighbors would have had more sheep, and Elam Storm would be worth a bushel of dollars."

"And you are going to grub-stake him again this winter, are you, Uncle Ezra?"

"Sure. I always do."

"What is the reason you won't let us go with him to the mountains?"

"'Cause I know that your folks aint so tired of you that they are ready to lose you yet awhile; that's why."

"Only just a few days. We'll come back at the end of the week if you say so, won't we, Carlos?"

"'Taint no use of talking, Ben; not a bit. Man alive! what would I say to the major if anything should happen to you? And going off with Elam Storm! That would be the worst yet."

"But Elam is honest and reliable. You have said so more than once, Uncle Ezra."

"Oh, he's honest enough, as far as that goes, but shiftless—mighty shiftless. And I never said he was reliable except in one way. He's reliable enough to go to the mountains every fall and come back every spring with a hoss-back load of peltries, and that's all he is reliable for. I did make out to hold him down to the business of sheep-herding for a couple of years, but then the roaming fever took him again and nobody couldn't do nothing with him. He just had to go, and so he asked for a grub-stake and lit out."

"You think that while he is in the mountains he looks for something besides wolf-skins, don't you?"

"I know he does. He's got a fool notion that will some day be the death of him, just as it has been the death of a dozen other men who tried to follow out the same notion."

"You promised to tell me all about it some day, and about Elam, too; and what better time can we have than the present? We are here by