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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Young Engineers in Mexico, by H. Irving
+Hancock
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Young Engineers in Mexico
+
+Author: H. Irving Hancock
+
+Release Date: June 29, 2004  [eBook #12778]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN MEXICO***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Jim Ludwig
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN MEXICO
+
+or, Fighting the Mine Swindlers
+
+by
+
+H. IRVING HANCOCK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTERS
+    I. The Land of Golden Eggs
+   II. The Wolf Who Showed His Teeth
+  III. Gato Strikes the Up Trail
+   IV. Tom Does Some Sampling
+    V. The Mine That Did and Didn't
+   VI. Watching the Midnight Lights
+  VII. Don Luis's Engineering Problem
+ VIII. Dangling the Golden Bait
+   IX. Don Luis Shows His Claws
+    X. The Spirit of a True Engineer
+   XI. A Piece of Lead in the Air
+  XII. Nicolas Does an Errand
+ XIII. Pining for the Good Old U.S.A.
+  XIV. Next to the Telegraph Key
+   XV. The Job of Being an Hidalgo
+  XVI. Two Victims of Rosy Thoughts
+ XVII. The Stranger in the Tent
+XVIII. Craft--Or Surrender?
+  XIX. The Hidalgo Plans Gratitude
+   XX. Two Real Signatures
+  XXI. The Final Touch of Tragedy
+ XXII. Mr. Haynes Asks a Few Questions
+XXIII. The Engineer Turns
+ XXIV. Conclusion
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE LAND OF GOLDEN EGGS
+
+
+Luis Montez, mine owner, stood on the broad veranda in front of
+his handsome home, looking out over the country sweeping away
+to the eastward.
+
+"Gentlemen, you are in a land of golden promise," began Senor
+Montez, with a smile and a bow.  "I should call it more than promise.
+Why not?  My beloved country, Mexico, has been shipping gold
+to the world ever since the days of Montezuma."
+
+"Yes; in a mineral sense Mexico has truly a golden history," nodded
+Tom Reade, one of the engineers to whom Montez was speaking.
+
+"And a golden history in every sense," added Senor Montez, with
+a quick rush of patriotism.  "Mexico is the finest country on
+earth.  And, though we are neither as numerous in population,
+or as progressive as your own great country, still Mexico has
+greater possibilities than the United States."
+
+Tom was too polite to argue that point.  And Harry Hazelton, whom
+a seventy-mile ride in an automobile over dusty roads, that day,
+had rendered very drowsy, didn't consider an argument worth while.
+
+"Mexico has almost incredible natural wealth," Montez went on,
+his voice soft and purring, his eyes glowing with something that
+might have passed for pride.  "Yet, through all the centuries
+that white men have been here, I am confident that not one per
+cent. of the country's natural resources has yet been taken from
+the ground.  Enough wealth lies at man's beck and call to change
+the balance of power between the nations of the world.  I have
+been in your great city, New York.  It is a place of tremendous
+wealth.  Yet, within ten years, gold enough can be taken from
+the ground within a radius of twenty miles of here to buy the
+whole great city of New York at any sane valuation."
+
+"That purchase would require billions of dollars," broke in the
+practical Hazelton.
+
+"But the wealth is here," insisted Senor Montez, still smiling.
+"Truly, _caballeros_, as I have told you, this is the land of
+golden--"
+
+Again the Mexican paused, eloquently.
+
+"The land of golden eggs?" suggested Harry.
+
+For an instant there was a flash in the Mexican's eyes.  Then
+the friendly smile reappeared.
+
+"Of course, you jest, senor," he replied, pleasantly.
+
+"Not at all, Senor Montez," Hazelton assured him.  "When gold
+is so plentiful that it can be picked up everywhere, there must
+be a goose at hand that lays golden eggs.  Eggs are among the
+most common things that we have.  When gold nuggets are as large
+and as abundant as eggs then we may properly call them golden
+eggs."
+
+Senor Montez, flipped away the cigar that he had finished, and
+reached for another.  This he carefully cut at the end, lighting
+it with graceful, elegant deliberation.  The Mexican was a
+distinguished-looking man above medium height.  A little past forty
+years of age, he possessed all the agility of a boy of twenty.
+Frequently his sudden, agile movements indicated the possession of
+unusual strength.  Dark, like most of his countrymen, constant
+exposure to the tropical sun had made his face almost the color of
+mahogany.  His carriage was erect, every movement instinctive with
+grace.  Clad in a white linen suit, with white shoes, he wore on his
+head a Panama hat of fine texture and weave.
+
+The house of which the broad veranda was a part, was a low, two-story
+affair in stone, painted white.  Through the middle of the house
+extended the drive-way leading into a large court in which a fountain
+played.  Around the upper story of the house a balcony encircled
+the court and around the windows there were also small balconies.
+
+Many servants, most of them male, ministered to the wants of those
+in the house.  There were gardeners, hostlers, drivers, chauffeurs
+and other employs, making a veritable colony of help that was
+housed in small, low white houses well to the rear.
+
+Some thirty acres of grounds had been rendered beautiful by the
+work of engineers, architects and gardeners.  Nature, on this
+estate, had been forced, for the natural soil was stony and sterile,
+in keeping with the mountains and the shallow valleys in this
+part of the little and seldom-heard-of state of Bonista.
+
+To the eastward lay, at a distance of some two miles, one of the
+sources of Senor Montez's wealth _El Sombrero_ Mine, producing
+some silver and much more gold.  At least so the owner claimed.
+
+It was Senor Luis Montez himself who had gone to the nearest railway
+station, seventy miles distant, and there had made himself known,
+that forenoon, to the two young engineers from the United States.
+
+Tom and Harry had come to _El Sombrero_ at the invitation of Montez.
+After many careful inquiries as to their reputation and standing
+in their home country, Montez had engaged the young men as engineers
+to help him develop his great mine.  Nor had he hesitated to pay
+the terms they had named--one thousand dollars, gold, per month,
+for each, and all expenses paid.
+
+Over mountain trails, through the day, much of the way had of
+necessity been made slowly.  Wherever the dusty, irregular roads
+had permitted greater speed, the swarthy Mexican who had served
+Senor Montez as chauffeur on the trip had opened wide on the speed.
+At the end of their long automobile ride Tom and Harry fairly
+ached from the jolting they had received.
+
+"There are other beautiful features of this gr-r-rand country
+of mine," the Mexican mine owner continued, lighting his second
+cigar.  "I am a noble, you know, Senor Tomaso.  In my veins flows
+the noble blood of the hidalgos of good old Spain.  My ancestors
+came here two hundred and fifty years ago, and ever since, ours
+has been truly a Mexican family that has preserved all of the
+most worthy traditions of the old Spanish nobles.  We are a proud
+race, a conquering one.  In this part of Bonista, I, like my ancestors,
+rule like a war lord."
+
+"You don't have much occupation at that game, do you, senor?"
+Tom asked, with an innocent smile.
+
+"That--that--game?" repeated Senor Montez, with a puzzled look
+at his young guest.
+
+"The game of war lord," Reade explained.  "Mexico is not often
+at war, is she?"
+
+"Not since she was forced to fight your country, Senor Tomaso,
+as you help to remind me," pursued Montez, without a trace of
+offense.  "Though I was educated in your country, I confess that,
+at times, your language still baffles me.  What I meant to say
+was not 'war lord,' but--but--"
+
+"Over lord?" suggested Reade, politely.
+
+"Ah, yes!  Perhaps that better expresses what I mean.  In Mexico
+we have laws, senor, to be sure.  But they are not for _caballeros_
+like myself--not for men who can boast of the blood of Spanish
+hidalgos.  I am master over these people for many miles around.
+Absolute master!  Think you any judge would dare sign a process
+against me, and send _peon_ officers of the law to interfere with
+me?  No!  As I tell you, I, Luis Montez, am the sole master here
+among the mountains.  We have laws for the _peons_ (working class),
+but I--I make my own laws."
+
+"Does it take much of your time, may I ask?"
+
+"Does what take much of my time?" repeated Senor Montez, again
+looking puzzled.
+
+"Law making," explained Tom Reade.
+
+Montez shot a swift look at the young engineer.  He wondered if
+the American were making fun of him.  But Reade's face looked
+so simple and kindly, his eyes so full of interest, that the Mexican
+dismissed the thought.
+
+"I spend no time in making laws--unless I need them," the Mexican
+continued.  "I make laws only as the need arises, and I make them
+to suit myself.  I interpret the laws as I please for my own pleasure
+or interests.  Do you comprehend?"
+
+"I think so," Tom nodded.  "Many of the big corporations in my
+country do about the same thing, though the privilege has not yet
+been extended to individuals in the United States."
+
+"Here," continued the mine owner, earnestly, "no man disputes
+my will.  That, of itself, is law.  Here no man sues me, for if
+he attempted to do so, he would go to prison and remain there.
+If I tell a man to leave these mountains, he does so, for otherwise
+he would never leave them.  If a man annoys me, and I tell one
+of my trusted servants to attend to my enemy--then that enemy
+never troubles me further."
+
+"That is interesting--it's so simple and effective!" cried Tom,
+pretended enthusiasm glowing in his eyes.  "Say, but that's practical!
+A man annoys you, and you send a servant to tell him to stop.
+Then he stops."
+
+"Because my enemy also vanishes, you understand," smiled Senor
+Luis, indulgently.
+
+"But doesn't the governor of Bonista ever hear of the disappearances?"
+suggested Reade, very casually.
+
+"What if he does?" demanded Don Luis, snapping his fingers gayly.
+"Are not his excellency, the governor, and I, the best of friends?
+Would he give heed to rumors against me, brought by evil-tongued
+men?  Oh, no!  _El gobernador_ (the governor) has, at times, even
+kindly lent me his troops to make sure that an enemy of mine doesn't
+travel too far.  No!  I tell you, Senor Tomaso, I am over lord
+here.  I am the law in these mountains."
+
+"It must be a great comfort, Don Luis--if you have many enemies,"
+suggested Tom Reade smilingly.
+
+"Ah, no!  I have no enemies to-day," cried the Mexican.  "Why
+should I?  I am generous and indulgent, and the soul of honor.
+No one has just reason to disagree with me.  Here I give all
+men the round trade--no, what in your country you call the square
+deal.  But you shall see.  You are now associated with me in a
+great, a gr-r-rand enterprise.  You shall soon see how just and
+generous I can be--am always.  You shall understand why the son
+of a noble house need have no foes.  Senor Tomaso, I have taken
+one great liking to you in the few hours that we have been together.
+And as for you, Senor Henrico--"
+
+With a courtly flourish Don Luis wheeled about to face young Hazelton.
+But the sound of deep breathing was all that came from Harry.
+Fatigued by the long, rough automobile ride, that young engineer
+had dropped fast asleep in the broad porch rocker.
+
+"Your friend is much fatigued," spoke Don Luis, with fine consideration.
+"If you deem it best, Senor Tomaso, we will arouse him and he
+shall go to his room for an hour's sleep before the evening meal."
+
+"If his sleeping in the chair doesn't annoy you, Don Luis, my friend
+will wake up, refreshed, in twenty minutes or so."
+
+"So be it, then.  Let him sleep where he is.  But you, Senor Tomaso,
+would you not like to step inside and lie down for a while?"
+
+"No, I thank you," Reade answered.  "Unlike Hazelton, I feel very
+wide awake.  When shall we go to the mine?"
+
+"To-morrow, or the next day," replied the Mexican, with a gesture
+which almost said that "any day" would do.  "First, you must both
+rest until you are wholly refreshed.  Then you may want to stroll
+about the country a bit, and see the odd bits of natural beauty
+in these mountains, before you give too serious thought to work."
+
+"But that is not our way, Don Luis," Tom objected.  "When we are
+paid a thousand dollars a month apiece we expect to do an honest
+day's work six days in every week."
+
+"Ah, then, to-morrow, perhaps we will talk about the work.  And
+now, if you will pardon me, I will go inside for a few minutes
+in order to see about some business matters."
+
+Readers of the "_Grammar School Boys Series_," the "_High School
+Boys Series_" and of the preceding volumes in the present series,
+will feel that they are already intimately acquainted with Tom
+Reade and Harry Hazelton, a pair of young civil engineers who,
+through sheer grit, persistence and hard study had already made
+themselves well known in their profession.
+
+In the first volume of the "_Grammar School Boys Series_," Dick
+Prescott and his five boy chums, Greg Holmes, Dave Darrin, Dan
+Dalzell, Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton, were introduced under the
+name of Dick & Co. These six chums, standing shoulder to shoulder,
+made a famous sextette in school athletics.  Their start was made
+during their grammar school days, when they had many adventures
+and did much in the field of junior sport.  Their high school
+life, as set forth in the series of that name, was one of athletics,
+mixed with much study and efforts to find their true paths in
+life.  In high school athletics the members of Dick & Co. won
+a statewide reputation, as to-day members of winning high school
+athletic teams are bound to do.  It was during their high school
+days that Dick & Co. determined on their professions through life.
+Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes both secured competitive appointments
+to the United States Military Academy, and their further doings
+are set forth in the "_West Point Series_."  Dave Darrin and Dalzell,
+with a burning desire for naval life, obtained appointments to
+the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.  What befell them
+is fully told in the "_Annapolis Series_."  As for Tom Reade and
+Harry Hazelton, while still in high school they became seized
+with a strong desire for careers as civil engineers.  They were
+fortunate enough to secure their first practice and training in
+a local engineering office in the home town of Gridley.  Then,
+with vastly more courage than training, Tom and Harry went forth
+into the world to stand or fall as engineers.
+
+Their first experiences are told in the opening volume of this
+series, "_The Young Engineers In Colorado_."  Joining a western
+engineering force as "cub" engineers, at first the laughing-stock
+of the older engineers on the staff of a new railroad then building
+in Colorado, the two boys did their best to make good.  How well
+they succeeded is known to readers of that volume.  Their adventures
+in the Rocky Mountains were truly astounding; some of them, especially
+those with "Bad Pete," a braggart and scoundrel of the old school,
+were sometimes mirth-provoking and sometimes tragic.  Other adventures
+were vastly more serious.  When the boys reached the crisis of
+their work it seemed as though every tree in the mountains concealed
+an enemy.  All these and many more details are told in that first
+volume.
+
+In "_The Young Engineers In Arizona_," we found the pair engaged
+in a wholly new task--that of filling up an apparently unfillable
+quicksand in the desert so that a railway roadbed might be built
+safely over the dangerous quicksand that had justly earned the
+name of the "Man-killer."  Here, too, adventures quickly appeared
+and multiplied, until even the fearful quicksand became a matter
+of smaller importance to the chums.  How the two young engineers
+persevered and fought pluckily all the human and other obstacles
+to their success the readers of the second volume now know fully.
+
+Then Tom and Harry, who had been putting in many spare hours,
+days and weeks on the study of metallurgy and the assaying of
+precious metals, went, for a "vacation," to Nevada, there further
+to pursue their studies.  Quite naturally they became interested
+in gold mining itself, and all their adventures, their mishaps,
+failures, fights and final successes were fully chronicled in
+the third volume, entitled "_The Young Engineers in Nevada_."  The
+mine that finally proved a dividend payer was named "The Ambition
+Mine."  A staunch Nevadan, Jim Ferrers, by name, became their
+partner in the Ambition.  Jim, who was an old hand at Nevada mining,
+was now managing the mine while Tom and Harry, after going East
+and establishing an engineers' office in a large city not far
+from New York, had traveled to other states, studying mines and
+assay methods.  Within the last few months, so rapid had been
+their progress in mine engineering, that they had been consulted
+by a number of mine owners.  Articles that they had written had
+appeared in journals devoted to mining and engineering, and the
+fame of our two friends had been rapidly spreading.
+
+Both scrupulously honest in all things, Reade and Hazelton had
+also won a reputation as "square" mining men.  With their skill
+and honesty established, the opinions of the two partners on mining
+problems were generally respected wherever they happened to be
+known.
+
+So, in time, Luis Montez had heard of them, and had decided that
+he needed their services at _El Sombrero_ (The Hat) Mine in the
+Mexican state of Bonista.  After some correspondence the two engineers
+had been speedily engaged, and the opening of this volume deals
+with the time of their arrival at the handsome country house of
+Senor Montez.
+
+After his host had gone inside, and Harry Hazelton slept on, Tom,
+who had risen--to bow to Senor Montez, remained on his feet,
+pacing slowly and thoughtfully up and down the porch.
+
+"Now that I've seen my new employer," mused Tom, under his breath,
+"I wonder just how much I really like him.  He's a polished man,
+and a charming fellow from the little that I've seen of him.
+But his talk of ruling these hills, even in life and death--does
+that speak well for him.  Is he a knave, or only a harmless braggart?
+Is he a man against whom one should be seriously on his guard?
+Don Luis's manners, in general, I admire, but I don't quite like
+the cruel expression about his month when he laughs.  However,
+that may be the way of the country, and I may be the victim of
+prejudice.  Anyway, as far as Harry and I are concerned, we needn't
+worry much about the kind of man Don Luis is.  The few thousands
+of dollars that he will owe us as his engineers we are pretty
+certain to get, for Don Luis is a very wealthy man, and he couldn't
+afford to cheat us.  For the rest, all he wants us to do is to
+work hard as engineers and show him how to get more valuable ore
+out of his mines.  So, no matter what kind of man Don Luis may
+be, we have nothing to fear from him--not even being cheated
+out of our pay."
+
+Having settled this in his mind, Tom Reade sank into one of the
+roomy porch chairs, half closing his eyes.  He was soon in danger
+of being as sound asleep as was Harry Hazelton.
+
+Certainly Reade would have been intensely interested had he been
+able to render himself invisible and thus to step into one of
+the rooms of the big, handsome house.
+
+In a room that was half office, half library, Senor Luis Montez
+was now closeted with another man, whom neither of the engineers
+had yet met.  This man was short, slight of build and nervous
+of action and gesture--a young man perhaps twenty-six years of
+age.  Carlos Tisco was secretary to Don Luis.  Tisco was a graduate
+of a university at the capital City of Mexico, a doctor of philosophy,
+no mean chemist, a clever assayer of precious metals and an engineer.
+In a word Dr. Tisco had been so well trained in many fields of
+science that it was a wonder that Don Luis should feel the need
+of employing the two young American engineers.
+
+"You have seen my new engineers, Carlos?" queried Don Luis, almost
+in a whisper, as the two men, bending forward, faced each other
+over a flat-top desk.
+
+"Through the window shutters--yes, Don Luis," nodded the secretary,
+a strange look in his eyes.
+
+"Then what do you think of the Gringo pair, my good Carlos?" pursued
+Don Luis.
+
+"Gringo" is a word of contempt applied by some Mexicans to Americans.
+
+"I--I hardly like to tell you, Don Luis," replied the younger
+man, with an air of pretended embarrassment.
+
+"Ah!  Then no doubt you feel they are not as clever as they have
+been rated--my two Gringos," smiled the mine owner.  "Rest easy,
+Carlos.  It may be better if they be not too clever."
+
+"It--it is that which I fear, Don Luis," replied the secretary,
+in a still lower voice.  "I have been studying their faces--especially
+their eyes as they spoke.  Don Luis, I much fear that they are
+very clever young men."
+
+"Ah!  Then again that is not bad," laughed the master gayly.
+"If they be clever, then they will not need so much explanation."
+
+Now the secretary became bolder.
+
+"Don Luis, though you have spent many years in the United States,
+I fear you do not at all understand some traits of the Gringo
+character," warned Dr. Tisco.  "For example, you want these young
+men for a special service, and you are willing to pay them
+generously--lavishly in fact.  Has it escaped you, Don Luis, that
+some of these obstinate, mule-headed Gringos are guilty of an
+especial form of ingratitude which they term honor?"
+
+"I know that some Gringos make much bombastic use of that term,
+while other Gringos scoff at the word 'honor,'" replied the mine
+owner, thoughtfully.  "But even suppose that these Gringos have
+absurdly fanciful ideas of honor?  They will never guess for what
+I really want them.  Their work will be done, to my liking, and
+they will go away from here with never a suspicion of the kind
+of service they have performed for me."
+
+"Pardon me, Don Luis," murmured Dr. Tisco, "but to me they do not
+look like such fools.  They will suspect; they will even know."
+
+"It matters little what they suspect, if they hold their tongues,"
+replied the mine owner.
+
+"You will have to appeal to their love of money, then," suggested
+the secretary.  "You will have to pay them extremely well.  Even
+then they may balk and refuse."
+
+"Refuse?" repeated Don Luis opening his eyes wide.  "Carlos, you
+do not seem to understand how hopeless it would be for them to
+refuse.  I am master here.  None knows better than you that I
+hold life and death in my hand in these mountains.  Do not all
+men hereabouts obey my orders?  Will _el gobernador_ ask any awkward
+questions if two Gringos should stroll through these mountains
+and never be heard from again?  Who can escape the net that I
+am able to spread in these mountains?  The Gringos refuse me--betray
+me?  Are they such fools as to refuse me when they find that I
+hold their lives in the palm of my hand?"
+
+"They may even refuse your bait with death as the alternative,"
+persisted the secretary.  "Don Luis, you know that there are such
+foolish men among the Gringos."
+
+"Then let them refuse me," proposed Don Luis, jestingly, though
+his white teeth shone in a savage smile.  "If they are difficult
+to manage--these two young Gringos--then they will quickly disappear,
+and other Gringos shall come until I find those that will serve me
+and be grateful for their rewards."
+
+"I wish you good fortune with your great schemes, Don Luis," sighed
+young Dr. Tisco.
+
+"Carlos, you have not eaten for hours.  You are so famished that
+the whole world is colored blue before your eyes.  Come, it is close
+to the hour for the meal.  You shall meet and talk with my Gringos.
+You will then be able to judge whether I shall be able to tame them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE WOLF WHO SHOWED HIS TEETH
+
+
+A rare host at table was Don Luis Montez.  He possessed the manner,
+even if not the soul, of a great nobleman.
+
+His daughter, Francesca, reputed to be a beauty, did not appear
+at table.  So far the young engineers had not met her.  They would
+be presented, however, within a day or two, after the Mexican
+custom, for Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton were to be guests in
+the white palace during their residence in this part of Mexico.
+
+Dr. Tisco, too, tried to be most entertaining, and succeeded.
+
+"You are the surgeon at the mine?" Harry ventured.
+
+"A _medico_?" suggested Dr. Tisco, with a bow of humility.  "Ah,
+no, senor, I have not that honor.  I am a doctor of philosophy,
+not of medicine."
+
+"Then you may be a scientific expert," Harry hazarded.  "You are
+the expert here at the mine?"
+
+"Not so," broke in Don Luis, gently.  "It is true that Carlos has
+some knowledge of chemistry, but he is not a mining expert.  He is
+my secretary, my man of affairs."
+
+"Oh, really the manager of the mine, then?" pursued Harry.  "Pardon
+me if I ask too many questions.  I do not mean to be impertinent.
+But, as we are going to work here I wish to know who's who is
+Senor Montez' representative."
+
+"Carlos," broke in Don Luis, again, "is rather more than the mine
+manager.  He serves me in a variety of interests, and the mine
+is only one of them."
+
+"If you wish to know whether you are to be under my instructions,"
+Dr. Tisco continued, "I can assure you that you are not.  I seldom
+give orders except as the direct--I might say the directed--mouthpiece
+of Don Luis."
+
+"I have a separate manager at the mine," added Don Luis.  "You shall
+meet him to-morrow.  His name is Pedro Gato.  You will find him a
+self-opinionated fellow, and one used to having his own way.  He has
+to be somewhat turbulent, or he would never hold some of my _peons_
+(laborers) in check.  But under the surface you will find Pedro Gato
+an excellent fellow if you do not rub him too hard the wrong way."
+
+"Gato will not attempt to give us any orders, of course?"  Tom
+asked very quietly.
+
+"Possibly not," dubiously replied Don Luis.  "I really do not
+know.  That point has not before come up to me for consideration."
+
+"Then I hope you will make it clear to Senor Gato, Don Luis, that
+we are engineers, wholly in charge of our own work; that we have
+been engaged as experts and that we manage our own work in the way
+that appears to us best to serve our employer's interests."
+
+"That can all be arranged very amicably, I am certain," replied
+Don Luis, as though to dismiss the matter for the present.
+
+Dr. Tisco, covertly, was intently watching the eyes and faces of the
+young engineers.  The secretary was most anxious to take an
+accurate measure of these two young Americans, who were now highly \
+important to his plans.
+
+After the evening meal, Don Luis summoned a number of his home
+retainers, who played mandolins and guitars.  Some of them sang
+with considerable sweetness and power.  The full moon, soon to
+wane, shed lustrous light over the tropical scene of beauty.
+It was a delightful evening.  Tom and Harry, when they retired,
+found themselves ready to sleep instantly.  Their bedrooms opened
+into a common parlor.  Early in the morning they were astir.
+
+"What shall we wear, Tom?" inquired Hazelton, going toward his trunks.
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"I wonder what people wear in Mexico," Harry continued.  "I don't
+want to make any mistake in my clothing."
+
+"The best clothing for engineers about to go down into a mine will
+be top-boots, khaki trousers and flannel shirts."
+
+"But will that be suitable to go to breakfast in?" Harry asked.
+"Will it be showing sufficient courtesy to our host?  And suppose
+the daughter should be at table?"
+
+"That's so," Reade nodded.  "I am sorry that we didn't fish for points
+last evening."
+
+A knock came at the door.
+
+"Aqui!" (here) Tom answered.
+
+The door opened slowly.  A man servant of perhaps twenty-five years,
+attired in clean white clothes, but bare-footed, stood in the
+doorway, bowing very low.
+
+"_Buenos dias_, _caballeros_!" (good morning, gentlemen) was his
+greeting.
+
+Tom invited him to enter.
+
+"_Caballeros_," announced the _peon_, "I am your servant, your
+slave, your dog!  My name is Nicolas."
+
+"How do you do, Nicolas," responded Tom, holding out his hand,
+which the Mexican appeared too dazed, or too respectful to take.
+"We may find a servant useful.  But we never kept slaves, and
+we wouldn't dream of calling any man a dog."
+
+"I am your dog, _caballeros_," Nicolas asserted.  "I am yours to do
+with as you wish.  Beat me, if I do not perform my work well."
+
+"But I wouldn't beat a dog.  Almost any dog is too fine a fellow
+to be served in that fashion," Tom explained.
+
+"_Caballeros_, I am here to receive your pleasure and commands
+concerning breakfast."
+
+"Is it ready?" demanded Harry hopefully.
+
+"The kitchen is open, and the cooks there," Nicolas responded.
+"When your excellency's orders have been given the cooks will prepare
+your meal with great dispatch."
+
+"Has Don Luis come down yet?" Tom inquired.
+
+"No; for his great excellency has not yet eaten," answered the _peon_.
+
+"Oh!  Then your master eats in his own room?" Tom asked.
+
+"Don Luis eats always his breakfast in bed," Nicolas told them.
+
+"Then I guess we were too fresh, Tom, in getting up," laughed Harry.
+
+As this was spoken in English, Nicolas, not understanding, paid
+no heed.  Tom and Harry, on the other hand, had a conversational
+smattering of Spanish, for in Arizona they had had a large force
+of Mexican laborers working under them.
+
+"Nicolas, my good boy," Tom went on, "we are quite new to the ways
+of Mexico.  We shall have to ask you to explain some matters to us."
+
+"I am a dog," said Nicolas, gravely, "but even a dog may speak
+according to his knowledge."
+
+"Then of what does the breakfast here usually consist?"
+
+"Of anything in Don Luis's larder," replied the _peon_ grandly.
+
+"Yet surely there must be some rule about the meal."
+
+"The only rule, excellency, is the pleasure of the host."
+
+"What does Don Luis, then, usually order?"
+
+"Chocolate," replied the servant.
+
+"Nothing else?"
+
+"And a roll or two, excellency."
+
+"What does he eat after that?" Harry demanded, rather anxiously.
+
+"Nothing, _caballero_, until the next meal."
+
+"Chocolate and a roll or two," muttered Harry.  "I am afraid that
+wouldn't hold me through a day's work.  Not even a forenoon's
+toil.  I never did like to diet on a plan of tightening my belt."
+
+"Anything for which the _caballero_ will ask shall be brought,"
+replied Nicolas, with another bow.
+
+"How about a steak, Tom?" Harry asked, turning to his chum.
+
+"Pardon, excellency, but we have no such thing here," Nicolas
+interposed, meekly.
+
+"Eggs?" Harry guessed.
+
+"Excellency, we shall hope to have some eggs by to-morrow,"
+
+"Harry, you idiot, why didn't you ask for mince pie and doughnuts,
+too?" laughed Reade.
+
+"Nicolas, my boy, the trouble with me," Harry explained, "is that
+chocolate and rolls will never hold my soul and body together
+for more than an hour at a time.  Chocolate and rolls by all means,
+but help us out a bit.  What can we call for that is more hearty."
+
+"There are _tortillas_ to be had sometimes," the servant answered.
+"Also, sometimes, _frijoles_."
+
+"They both sound good," Harry assented vaguely.  "Bring us some."
+
+"_Caballeros_, you shall be served with the speed at which the
+eagle flies!" exclaimed the servant.  With a separate bow to each
+he withdrew, softly closing the door after him.
+
+"Now Harry, let's hustle into some clothes," urged Tom.  "Since we
+are to eat here mine clothes will be the thing.  Hustle into them!"
+
+Bred in the ways of the camps, ten minutes later Tom and Harry
+were washed, dressed and otherwise tidy in every respect.
+
+"I've a mind to go outdoors and get some glimpses of the scenery
+for a few minutes," Harry hinted.
+
+"Don't think of it.  You don't want to come back to a cold breakfast."
+
+So both seated themselves, regretting the absence of morning newspapers.
+
+Then the time began to drag.  Finally the delay became wearisome.
+
+"I wonder how many people Nicolas is serving this morning?" murmured
+Hazelton, at last.
+
+"Everyone in the house would be my guess," laughed Tom.  Still time
+dragged by.
+
+"What on earth will Don Luis think of us?" Harry grunted.
+
+"There is only one thing for it, if this delay lasts any longer,"
+Tom answered.  "If this delay lasts much longer we shall have
+to put off breakfast until to-morrow and get to work."
+
+"Put off breakfast until to-morrow?" Hazelton gasped.  "That's
+where I draw the line.  Before I'll stir a step from here I must
+have at least food enough to grubstake a canary bird."
+
+Some minutes later, Nicolas rapped at the door.  He then entered,
+bearing a tray enveloped in snowy linen.  This tray he put down,
+then spread a tablecloth that he had brought over one arm.
+
+"Will you be seated, _caballeros_?" he asked, respectfully, as
+he took his stand by the tray.  Then he whisked away the linen
+cover.  Gravely he set upon the table a pot of chocolate, two
+dainty cups and saucers and a plate containing four rolls.
+
+"Where's the butter, Nicolas?" asked Harry.
+
+"Butter, _caballero_?  I did not understand that you wished it.
+I will get it.  I will run all the way to the kitchen and back."
+
+"Never mind the butter this morning, Nicolas," spoke up Tom, at
+the same time kicking Harry gently under the table.
+
+"Can I serve you further, now, _caballeros_" inquired Nicolas,
+with great respect, "or shall I bring you the remainder of your
+breakfast?"
+
+"Bring us the rest of the breakfast, by all means," begged Harry,
+and the servant left them.
+
+"Why did you tell him not to mind the butter?" grunted Hazelton.
+
+"Because," Tom answered, "it struck me that, in Mexico, it may
+not be customary to serve butter in the morning."
+
+Harry took a bite of one of the rolls, finding it to be soft,
+flaky and delicious.  Then he removed another linen covering from
+the pot and started to pour the chocolate.  That beverage did
+not come as freely as he had expected.
+
+"What ails the stuff?" grunted Hazelton.  "This isn't the first
+of April."
+
+Then Harry removed the lid from the pot, glancing inside, next
+he picked up a spoon and stirred the contents of the pot.
+
+"I wish Nicolas were here," said Hazelton.
+
+"Why?" Tom wanted to know.
+
+"I'm bothered about what's etiquette in Mexico.  I don't know
+whether it's right to eat this stuff with a knife, or whether
+we're expected to spread the stuff on the rolls."
+
+"It is pretty thick stuff," Tom agreed, after taking a look.
+"But let me have the pot and the spoon.  I think I can manage it."
+
+After some work Tom succeeded in reducing the chocolate to a
+consistency that admitted of pouring, though very slowly.
+
+"It took you almost three minutes to pour two cups," said Harry,
+returning his watch to his pocket.  "Come on, now!  We've got
+to make up for lost time.  What will Don Luis think of us?  And
+yet it is his household arrangements that are keeping us away
+from our work."
+
+Chocolate and rolls were soon disposed of.  Then the two engineers
+sat back, wondering whether Nicolas had deserted them.  Finally,
+both rose and walked to stretch their legs.
+
+"No restaurant in New York has anything on this place for slow-march
+service!" growled Hazelton.
+
+As all things must come at last, so did Nicolas.  He carried a
+tray and was followed by a second servant, bringing another.
+
+The _tortillas_ proved to be, as Harry put it, "a cross between
+a biscuit and flapjack."  The _frijoles_ were just plain boiled
+beans, which had evidently been cooked on some other day, and
+were now mushy.  But it was a very solid meal that now lay before
+them, and the young engineers ate heartily.
+
+"Will the _caballeros_ have some more chocolate?" suggested Nicolas.
+
+"Not now," said Hazelton.  "But you might order some for to-morrow's
+breakfast, and then we shan't have to wait for so long next time."
+
+The additional servant had gone, noiselessly, but Nicolas hovered
+about, silently.
+
+At last the meal was finished.  Tom had chewed his food thoroughly,
+what he had eaten of it, but Harry, in his hunger, had eaten hurriedly.
+
+"Now we'll have to find Don Luis and apologize," hinted Tom.
+"Hereafter I can see that we shall have to rise much earlier.
+Confound it, it's a quarter of nine, already."
+
+The two youngsters hastened out to the veranda.  A man servant
+was lazily dusting and placing porch chairs.
+
+"Has Don Luis gone to the mine?" asked Tom in Spanish.
+
+"Don Luis?" repeated the servant, in evident astonishment.  "Presently
+his excellency will be dressing."
+
+"Thank you," nodded Tom, and paced the veranda, leisurely.  "Harry,
+we didn't make such a bad break after all, then.  Plainly Don Luis
+didn't plan an early start."
+
+"Is Dr. Tisco around?" asked Harry, of the servant.
+
+"The learned doctor must be dressing by this time, _caballero_,"
+replied the servant respectfully.
+
+"Hm!" mused Harry.  "Can it be that the people in Bonista do their
+work at night?"
+
+"Oh, I'll wager the poor _peons_ at the mine have been at work
+for some time," Tom smiled.  "Anyway, I'm glad we haven't kept
+everyone else waiting."
+
+At half-past ten o'clock Dr. Tisco appeared, immaculate in white.
+He bowed low and courteously to the guests.
+
+"I trust, _caballeros_, that you have enjoyed perfect rest."
+
+"Yes," answered Harry.  "And now we're fidgeting to get at work.
+But, of course, we can't start for the mine until Don Luis gives
+us the word, and we are at his pleasure."
+
+"It is nearly time for Don Luis to appear," said Tisco gravely.
+
+"Is he always as late as this?"
+
+"Here, Senor Hazelton, we do not call eleven o'clock a late hour
+for appearing."
+
+Twenty minutes later Don Luis appeared, clad in white and indolently
+puffing at a Mexican cigarette.
+
+"You will smoke, gentlemen?" inquired their host, courteously, after
+he had inquired concerning their rest.
+
+"Thank you," Tom responded, pleasantly.  "We have never used tobacco."
+
+Don Luis rang and a servant appeared.
+
+"Have one of my cars ordered," commanded Don Luis.
+
+Ten minutes later a car rolled around to the entrance.
+
+"You will come with us, Carlos?" inquired Don Luis.
+
+"Assuredly, Don Luis," replied the secretary, in the tone of a man
+who was saying that he would not for worlds miss an expected treat.
+
+It was a seven-passenger car of late design.  Into the tonneau
+stepped the two Mexicans and the two young engineers.
+
+"To the mines," ordered Don Luis.
+
+"Do you wish speed, excellency?" inquired the chauffeur.
+
+"No; we will go slowly.  We may wish to talk."
+
+Gravely, in military fashion, the chauffeur saluted, then allowed
+the automobile to roll slowly away.
+
+"It is not an attractive road, after we leave the _hacienda_,"
+explained Don Luis Montez to Tom.  "It is a dusty road, and a
+somewhat hard one.  The mining country is not a beautiful place
+in which to live."
+
+"It is at least more beautiful than the country in which our mine
+is located," Tom replied.
+
+"Are you gentlemen, then, mine owners as well as mine experts?"
+inquired their host.
+
+Tom told Don Luis briefly about their mine, the Ambition, in the
+Indian Smoke Range, Nevada.
+
+"And is your mine a profitable one?" inquired the Mexican.
+
+"It hasn't made us millionaires," Tom rejoined, modestly, "but
+it pays us more money, every month, than we really need."
+
+Don Luis glanced covertly at his secretary, with a look that conveyed:
+
+"If these young Gringos have all the money they want, and more,
+then we may find it difficult to appeal to their avarice."
+
+Dr. Tisco's return glance as much as said:
+
+"I am all the more certain that we shall find them difficult."
+
+Don Luis commented to the two young men on the country through
+which they were passing.  Finally the car drew up before the entrance
+to _El Sombrero_ Mine.  There was the shaft entrance and near it a
+goodly-sized dump for ore.  Not far from the entrance was a small
+but very neat looking office building, and a second, still smaller,
+which might have been a timekeeper's office.
+
+"Hello, Pedro!" called Don Luis.
+
+Out of the office building sprang a dark-featured Mexican, perhaps
+forty years of age.  He was truly a large man--more than six feet
+in height, broad of shoulder and deep of chest, a splendid type
+of manhood.
+
+"My good Gato," purred Don Luis, "pay your respects to _Los Caballeros_
+Reade and Hazelton."
+
+Gato approached, without offering his hand.  His big, wolfish
+eyes looked over the young American pair keenly.
+
+"So Don Luis has brought you here to show whether you are any good?"
+said the mine manager, in a voice as big as his frame.  "I shall
+soon know."
+
+Before the big, formidable manager Harry Hazelton remained silent,
+while Don Luis and his secretary slid softly into the office building.
+
+"Gato, just what do you mean by your remark?" asked Tom Reade, very
+quietly.
+
+"I mean that I shall put you at work and find out what you can do,"
+leered the mine manager.
+
+"Mistake number one!" rejoined Tom coolly.  "I do not understand that
+you have any authority to give us orders."
+
+"You shall soon learn, then!" growled the man.  "I am the mine
+manager here."
+
+"And we are the engineers about to be placed in charge," Tom continued.
+"If we stay, Gato, you will assist us in all ways that you can.
+Then, when you have received our instructions you will carry them
+out according to the best of your ability."
+
+The two looked each other sternly in the eyes, Pedro Gato appearing
+as though he enjoyed young Americans better than any other food in
+the world.  Indeed, he might have been expected to eat one of them
+right then and there.
+
+Behind a shade in the office building Dr. Tisco stirred uneasily.
+
+"What did I say to you, Don Luis?" inquired the secretary.  "Did
+I not suggest that these Gringos would not be easily controlled?"
+
+"Wait!" advised Don Luis Montez.  "Wait!  You have not yet seen what
+my Gato will do.  He is not a baby."
+
+"These Gringos will balk at every hour of the day and night,"
+predicted Dr. Tisco.
+
+"Wait until you have seen my good Gato tame them!" chuckled Don
+Luis, softly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+GATO STRIKES THE UP TRAIL
+
+
+"When you speak to me, Gringo," bellowed Pedro Gato, "you will--"
+
+"Stop, Greaser!" shot back Tom, sternly, though he did not even stir
+or raise his hands.
+
+"Greaser?" bellowed Pedro Gato.  "That is foul insult!"
+
+"Not more so than to call me a Gringo," Tom Reade went on coolly.
+"So we are even, though I feel rather debased to have used such
+a word.  Gato, if you make the mistake, again, of using an offensive
+term when addressing me, I shall--well, I may show a somewhat
+violent streak."
+
+"You?" sneered Gato.  Then something in the humor of the situation
+appealed to him.  He threw back his head and laughed loudly.
+
+"Gringo," he began, "you will--"
+
+"Stop that line of talk, fellow," commanded Tom quietly.  "When
+you address me, be good enough to say either 'senor' or 'sir.'
+I am not usually as disagreeable as this in dealing with my fellow
+men, but you have begun wrong with us, Gato, and the first thing
+you'll have to learn to do will be to treat us with proper courtesy."
+
+From the shaft entrance showed the faces of four grinning, wondering
+Mexicans of the usual type.  The talk had proceeded in Spanish, and
+they had been able to follow it.
+
+As for the mine manager, his bronzed face was distorted with rage.
+The veins near his forehead were swelling.  With a sudden roar,
+Pedro Gato sprang forward, aiming a blow with his open right hand
+at Reade's face.
+
+Bump!  That blow failed to land.  It was Gato, instead, who landed.
+He went down on his back, striking the ground with jarring force.
+
+"What did I say?" whispered Dr. Tisco.
+
+"Wait!" responded Don Luis, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+Well-nigh frothing at the mouth, Pedro Gato leaped to his feet.
+All was red now before his eyes.  He rushed forward bellowing
+like a bull, intent on crushing the young American who had dared
+to treat him thus.
+
+Tom's left fist drove into the fellow's unguarded face.  His right
+followed, and Gato, big as he was, staggered back.  Tom's right
+foot performed a trip that sent the big Mexican bully to earth again.
+
+"Now get up, Gato, like a man of intelligence, and behave yourself,"
+advised Reade coolly.  "Just because we have had a bad introduction
+is no reason why we should continue enemies.  You treat me with
+proper respect and I'll do as much for you."
+
+But Gato snarled like a wild beast.  He was not armed.  With every
+man in these Bonista mountains afraid of him, Gato had never felt
+the need of carrying weapons.  But now he plunged to the doorway
+of the shaft house, then came bounding back, flourishing a knife
+that he had snatched from one of the _peons_.
+
+"Back!  Back, Gato!" shouted Dr. Tisco, rushing from the office
+building.
+
+To the secretary Gato paid no heed.  He was close to Tom now,
+circling cautiously around the young engineer.  Harry, though not
+at all minded to bolt, had stepped back far enough to give Reade
+elbow room.
+
+"Stop, Gato!" shouted Don Luis.  "It is I who command it--I, Don
+Luis.  Throw your knife on the ground."
+
+Gato snarled, but he was cowed.  The brutal manager held his employer
+in awe.  He was about to cast his weapon down when Tom Reade
+interposed.
+
+"Don Luis, I ask you to let the fellow go on.  This question will
+have to be settled right before we can proceed.  This fellow is
+only a coward, or he wouldn't need a knife in fighting with a man
+half his size."
+
+"Better throw away your knife, my good Gato," purred Don Luis,
+"or Senor Reade will shoot you."
+
+"I won't," Tom retorted.  "I couldn't, anyway.  I am not armed.
+I never was enough afraid of any one to carry weapons.  But let
+Gato go on with his knife.  If he fails, then I shall hit him until
+my arm aches."
+
+"Stop, Senor Reade!  I command it!" cried Don Luis, imperiously.
+"And you, Gato, throw down your knife.  I will not have fighting
+here among men who must be friends."
+
+But Gato, after hearing himself described as a coward, saw only
+red before his eyes.  He must have this Gringo's life, and that
+quickly.  Afterwards he would explain and seek Don Luis's pardon.
+
+"If you prefer, Gato, we will shake hands and forget this," suggested
+Tom Reade.
+
+"Ah, so you are afraid?" sneered the mine manager.
+
+"Try me and see, if you prefer that," Tom retorted.
+
+With a snarl Gato circled closer.  Don Luis Montez snatched from
+one of his pockets a silver-mounted revolver, but Hazelton caught
+the flash and in the next instant he had wrenched the pistol away
+from the mine owner.
+
+"This is Reade's fight, Don Luis," Harry explained.
+
+"Hand back my pistol instantly," hissed Don Luis.
+
+"Not until the fight is decided, Don Luis," Harry rejoined.  Slipping
+the weapon into one of his own pockets he retreated a few yards.
+
+Suddenly Gato sprang, the knife uplifted.  Tom Reade leaped in
+the same fraction of a second.  Tom's shoulder landed under Gato's
+right shoulder, and the knife did not descend.  Like a flash Tom
+bent as he wheeled.  Gripping the mine manager by the captured
+arm, Tom threw him forcefully over his own shoulder.  Pedro Gato
+landed, half-dazed, on the ground.  Tom, snatching the knife,
+hurled it as far as he could throw it.
+
+Snarling, the big fellow started to rise.  As he did so Tom Reade's
+fist landed, sending the Greaser bully to earth.  The big fellow
+made several efforts to rise, but each time Tom's fist sent him
+flat again, until a final heavy blow silenced him.
+
+"Don Luis," explained Tom, quietly, turning and bowing, "I can't
+begin to tell you how much I regret this unavoidable scene.  When
+I encountered this big bully I was at once tempted to resign my
+position here with you, for I realize, of course, that I cannot
+hope to go on with any such man in a position where I would have
+to depend so much upon his cheerful and friendly service.  I would
+have resigned, but I realize, Don Luis, how much expense you have
+gone to in the matter of getting us here, and I know, also, that
+there might be a good deal of delay in getting some one else to
+take our places."
+
+"Gato will not trouble you again," promised Don Luis, bowing charmingly.
+
+"Of course not, sir," Tom rejoined.  "I couldn't work here and
+let him go on annoying me all the time.  Don Luis, I shall have
+to crave your indulgence to the extent of discharging this fellow
+and securing another manager who is less of a wild beast and more
+of a man."
+
+"Oh, but I cannot let Pedro Gato go," protested Don Luis, quickly.
+"He is too old an employ, too valuable a man.  No other could
+manage my _peons_ as he does."
+
+"Let me go!" begged Gato, harshly.  "Let me go, that I may have
+all my time to myself that I may find the best way to avenge myself
+on this miserable Gringo.  Don Luis, do not think of attempting
+to keep me penned in _El Sombrero_.  I must be idle that I may
+have the more time to think."
+
+Tom remained silent.  He had stated his case, and the decision must
+be found by Don Luis.
+
+"For many reasons," whispered Dr. Tisco, "let Gato go.  For either
+good or bad reasons it will be best to let him go."
+
+"You are right, Carlos," nodded the mine owner quickly.  Then,
+raising his voice:
+
+"My good Gato, you shall have your wish," he went on, in his purring
+tone.  "Yet do not think there is anger behind my words.  I let
+you go because it is your wish.  I do not so decide that I may
+humiliate you, but because you have served me well.  When you
+need a friend, Gatito, you will know to whom to send word.  Go your
+way in friendship."
+
+Even Tom Reade, with his somewhat scant knowledge of Spanish,
+was quick to note, mentally, the meaning of that term, "Gatito,"
+which meant "little Gato," and was used as a term of affection.
+It was a form of telegraphy that was not wasted on the departing
+mine manager, either, for it told him that Don Luis had some excellent
+reason for thus quickly falling in with the wishes of the new
+American chief engineer.
+
+With a grateful smile at Don Luis, then with a scowl of unutterable
+hatred flung in Tom Reade's direction, Pedro Gato next turned on his
+heel and strode up the path.
+
+From his pocket Harry Hazelton drew forth the silver-mounted revolver
+and approached the owner of the mine.
+
+"Allow me to return this to you, Don Luis," urged Hazelton.  "I
+must also apologize for having snatched it from you so rudely.
+I did not know what else to do, for I feared that you intended
+to interfere in the quarrel."
+
+"And what if I had so intended?" asked the Mexican mine owner,
+with one of his puzzling smiles.
+
+"Just this," Harry answered, candidly.  "Mr. Reade never gets
+into a fight if he can help it.  When he does find himself in
+one I have learned, from long experience, not to interfere unless
+he calls for help.  So I did not want any one to interfere between
+him and Gato."
+
+"It was a most unfortunate affair," said the Mexican.  "Senor
+Tomaso, I must warn you that Pedro Gato is one who never forgives
+an injury.  He will devote himself to thoughts of a revenge that
+shall be terrible enough to satisfy his wounded feelings.  You
+will do well to be on your guard."
+
+Tom smiled as he replied:
+
+"Don Luis, I trust that I have seen the last of the fellow."
+
+"Be assured that you have not seen the last of him, Senor Tomaso."
+
+"Then it may go hard with Gato," smiled Tom, carelessly.  "But
+I trust I have not offended you in this matter, Don Luis.  If
+I have, I am willing to withdraw, and I will reimburse you for
+the expense you have incurred in bringing us here."
+
+"I shall not let you go," smiled the Mexican, "unless you feel that
+you no longer wish to remain in the same country with Pedro Gato."
+
+"That thought has not entered my mind, sir," Reade responded,
+almost stiffly.
+
+"Then we will say no more about the matter, and you will remain,"
+nodded the Mexican.  "And now we will go down into the mine and
+give you your first chance to examine our problems there."
+
+As they entered the shaft house it was discovered that the elevator
+cage was at the foot of the shaft.  While they waited for the
+cage to come up, keen Dr. Tisco whispered to Tom:
+
+"Senor Reade, night and day you must be unceasingly on your guard
+against Gato.  In these mountains a hundred men will follow his
+beck and call."
+
+"If they are all like him, then Gato should turn bandit," laughed
+young Reade.
+
+"It is not unlikely that he will do so," sighed Tisco, with a
+slight shrug of his shoulders.  "In Mexico, when a defeated man
+seeks blood revenge it is no uncommon thing for him to turn bandit
+until he has accomplished his hope of a terrible revenge.  Then,
+afterwards, if the bandit has annoyed the government enough, and
+has repeatedly escaped capture, the bandit makes his peace with
+the authorities and receives his pardon."
+
+The cage arriving at this moment, the four men entered, and started
+downward.  Three hundred and sixty feet from the earth's surface
+Don Luis led them from the car into a tunnel.
+
+"I will now show you," promised Don Luis, "something of the problem
+that confronts the engineers of this mine."
+
+"Keep your eyes open, and your wits about you, Harry," whispered
+Tom Reade.  "I may be wholly wrong, yet, somehow, I can't quite
+rid myself of a notion that Don Luis wants us for some piece of
+rascally work, though of what kind I can't imagine."
+
+"I shall watch these two Gringos like a cat," reflected Dr. Tisco.
+"I half suspect that they will foolishly sacrifice their lives
+sooner than serve us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TOM DOES SOME SAMPLING
+
+
+At sight of Don Luis's party a Mexican foreman came running forward.
+
+"How runs the ore this morning?" asked Don Luis.
+
+"Not quite as well as usual, excellency," replied the man, with
+a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"How!  Do you mean to tell me that the ore is running out for
+a streak!"
+
+"Oh, no, excellency.  Yet it is the poorest ore that we have struck
+for a fortnight.  However, it will pay expenses and leave something
+for profit, too, excellency."
+
+"Show us what you have been doing," Don Luis directed.
+
+Leading the way with a lantern that threw a brilliant light, the
+foreman went on down the tunnel to the heading.  As he neared
+the end of the tunnel the man called loudly and a number of workmen
+stepped aside.
+
+As they reached the spot, Tom's quick eye saw that the morning's
+blasts had loosened some eight tons or so of ore.  Drillers stood
+ready to drive through the rock for the next blast.
+
+"Let us look at the ore, Senor Tomaso," suggested the mine owner.
+
+Tom began to delve through the piles of shattered, reduced rock.
+The foreman held the lantern close, that the young engineer might
+have all the light he wanted, and called to miners to bring their
+lights closer.
+
+Then Harry, also, began to examine the rock.  For some minutes
+the two young engineers picked up specimens and examined them.
+
+"What do you make of it?" inquired Don Luis Montez at last.
+
+"Is this what you call a run of poor luck?"  Tom asked the foreman,
+dryly.
+
+"Yes, senor; rather poor," answered the foreman.
+
+"Then it must be rather exciting here when the ore is running
+well," smiled Tom.  "At a guess I should say that this 'poor'
+stuff before us will run thirty dollars to the ton."
+
+"It usually runs fifty, senor," broke in Don Luis.  "Sometimes,
+for a run of a hundred tons, the ore will show up better than
+seventy-five dollars per ton."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Reade.  "Then no wonder you call this the land
+of golden promise."
+
+"By comparison it would make the mines in the United States look
+poor, would it not?" laughed the mine owner.
+
+"There are very few mines there that show frequent runs of fifty
+dollars to the ton," Harry observed.
+
+"Are you going to clear out this ore, and send it to the dump"
+Tom asked the foreman.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then I would be glad if you would do so at once," Tom remarked.
+
+For answer the Mexican foreman stared at Tom in a rather puzzled
+way.
+
+"I will do so as soon as I am ordered," he responded, respectfully.
+
+"All right," returned Reade.  "I'll give you the order.  Clear
+this stuff out and get it up in the ore cage.  Clear this tunnel
+floor with all the speed you comfortably can."
+
+"Perhaps the senor will explain?" suggested the foreman.
+
+"These _caballeros_ are the new engineers in charge of the mine,"
+said Dr. Tisco.
+
+"Ah!  So?  Then if Pedro Gato will only give the order--" began
+the foreman.
+
+"If Pedro Gato gives you any orders," Tom suggested, briskly, "you
+will ignore them.  Pedro Gato is no longer connected with the mine."
+
+"Not connected?" gasped the foreman, who plainly doubted his ears.
+
+"No," broke in Don Luis.  "You will take no more orders from Gato.
+These _caballeros_ are the engineers, and they are in charge.  You
+heard the order of Senor Reade.  You will clean out this tunnel,
+sending the ore above to the dump."
+
+"It shall be done," cried the foreman, bowing low before the mine
+owner.
+
+"And now, Senor Tomaso, if it suits you, we will go to another
+tunnel," proposed Don Luis.
+
+"Very good, sir," Tom assented.  "What had been in my mind was
+to order the drillers at work here and see a blast made."
+
+"We can be back long before the next blast can be prepared," replied
+Montez.  "Carlos, lead the way to tunnel number four."
+
+The secretary turned, retracing his steps, Don Luis bringing up
+the rear.
+
+"Oho!  I have dropped my cigar case," remarked Don Luis a minute
+later.  "I will go back and get it."
+
+The others waited near the shaft.  Tom wondered, slightly, why
+Dr. Tisco had not volunteered to go back after his employer's
+missing cigar case.
+
+Presently Don Luis appeared.
+
+"Now we will go to number four," he said.
+
+The cage carried them to a lower level.  Here another foreman came
+forward to meet them and to conduct them to the heading.  Here were
+some five tons of rock.  Tom and Harry found it to be about the same
+grade of ore as that seen above.
+
+"Is this ore as good as you usually find in this vein?"  Tom inquired
+of the second foreman.
+
+"Not quite, senor, though to-day's blasts have turned out to be
+very fair ore," responded the foreman.
+
+"I should say it is good ore," Tom remarked dryly.  "Now, will
+you set the shovelers at work moving this stuff back a little
+way?  I want to see a new drilling made and watch the results
+of the blast."
+
+"If Pedro Gato--" began the foreman, reluctantly.
+
+"Pedro Gato has nothing to do with this," Tom answered quickly.
+"Mr. Hazelton and I are privileged to give such orders as we deem
+best.  Will you kindly tell the foreman so, Don Luis?"
+
+"It is quite true," replied the mine owner.  "Gato is no longer
+with us, and these gentlemen are in charge."
+
+"Then I will have the ore moved back at once," agreed the foreman.
+
+"But first we will go back out of the dirt and out of the danger
+from the blast," spoke Don Luis, using a good deal the tone of
+an order.
+
+"The rest of you may go back," suggested Reade.  "But I wish to
+see the drilling done."
+
+"It is unnecessary, Senor Tomaso," smiled Don Luis, blandly.
+"Come back with us."
+
+"I must see the men work, Don Luis, if I am to understand the work
+here," Tom rejoined, very quietly, though with a firmness that was
+wholly apparent.
+
+"Oh, very good then," smiled Montez, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+
+Three of the inspecting party went back, but Tom remained close
+behind the drillers.  Twice he stopped them in their work, to
+collect small samples of the pulverized stuff that the drills
+turned back.  These specimens he placed in sample envelopes and
+stored in his pockets.  From the ore that was being shoveled back
+he chose other small specimens, labeling the envelopes in which
+he stored them.
+
+By the time that the ore had been shoveled well back the drillers
+had completed their work.  Now the "dope men" came forward, putting
+the sticks of dynamite in place.  Tom watched them closely.
+
+"Do you call this last work well done?"  Tom inquired of the foreman
+of the tunnel.
+
+"Yes, yes, senor, as well as I have been able to see," responded
+the Mexican.
+
+"Then come with me.  Just look at the tamping.  Hardly worthy
+of the name of tamping, is it?"  Tom asked, poking at the material
+that had been forced in as tamping.
+
+"Senor, my men must have been indolent, this time," admitted the
+foreman.
+
+"Very indolent, or else indifferent," Tom smiled, grimly.  "Here,
+you men, come here and let me show you how to set dynamite and
+tamp it.  Perhaps I do not understand the job very well, but we
+shall see."
+
+Ten minutes later Tom Reade abandoned his work, rather well satisfied.
+
+"Now, when we fire the blasts, we shall move some rock, I believe,"
+he smiled.
+
+The wires were attached, and all hands went back, most of them
+going considerably to the rear of the man at the magneto battery.
+
+A rocking explosion followed.  Tom was among the first to run forward.
+At the heading were heaps of rock.
+
+"Get in and pry it loose.  Shovel it back," Tom ordered, in Spanish.
+
+Shortly after, Don Luis, Dr. Tisco and Harry appeared on the scene.
+They found Tom turning over the ore as it came back.  More than a
+dozen samples he dropped into envelopes, labeled them and put them
+away in his pockets.
+
+"What ails this lot of ore?" inquired Harry, after looking at
+specimens.
+
+"It is not running as well," said Tom briefly.  "Go through the
+stuff and see what you think of it."
+
+"But we have much more to see, _caballeros_," interposed Don Luis.
+
+"If you will be kind enough to indulge me here, for a few minutes
+more, I shall be grateful," Tom informed him.
+
+"Oh, very good," assented Don Luis, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+"But it is not my purpose to tire you with too many observations
+on our first trip through the mine."
+
+With a fine sample of Castillian courtesy and patience, Don Luis
+waited, smoking, until Reade had quite finished his inspection.
+
+"I am now at your service, Don Luis," announced the young chief
+engineer, rising and going toward his employer.
+
+The remaining four tunnels of _El Sombrero_ Mine were visited. In
+each tunnel was the same pile of ore awaiting them, and it all
+looked good.  That in number three was the richest ore of all.
+
+"Now, I think we have seen enough for today," announced Don Luis,
+when they had inspected number three tunnel.
+
+"Then if you will go along and let me join you later, I shall
+appreciate it," Tom suggested politely.
+
+"You wish to linger?" queried Don Luis, looking amused.
+
+"I wish to see a blast made here," Tom replied.
+
+"I, too, would like to see one," Harry added.
+
+"Then we will wait for you," agreed Don Luis, with a sigh that
+contained just a trace of impatience.
+
+A drilling and a blast were made.  Again a lot of poor rock was
+loosened.  Tom and Harry collected specimens, labeling them.
+
+"Now, we will return to the house," said Don Luis.
+
+"I would really like to put in a long day here at the mine," proposed
+Reade, reluctantly.
+
+"To-morrow, then," nodded Don Luis.  "But, for to-day, I am tired
+of this place.  There is much about which I wish to consult you,
+_caballeros_, at my office."
+
+Tom glanced swiftly, covertly at Harry, then responded:
+
+"In that case, my dear Don Luis, we are wholly at your service."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE MINE THAT DID AND DIDN'T
+
+
+At the head of the shaft, Nicolas, the servant, awaited them.
+
+"Nicolas, you rascal!" exclaimed Don Luis, angrily.  "You have
+not been attending your _caballeros_."
+
+"Your pardon, excellency, but the automobile moved too swiftly for
+me," pleaded Nicolas.  "All the way to the mine I ran, and here I
+have waited until now."
+
+"Keep pace with your duties hereafter, scoundrel," commanded Don
+Luis, angrily.
+
+Nicolas stepped meekly to the rear of the party.  It was his business
+to attend Tom and Harry everywhere.  In Mexico one of the grade
+of gentleman, if he wishes only a glass of water, does not go
+for it; he sends the attending servant.
+
+This time Nicolas slipped up on the front seat of the car beside the
+chauffeur.  The car traveled at a high rate of speed over the rough
+road.
+
+"It must cost you a mint of money for tires and repairs, not to
+speak of new cars," laughed Tom, after he had been bounced up
+two feet in the air as the automobile ran over a rough place in
+the road.
+
+"Pouf!  What does it matter, to a man who owns _El Sombrero_?"
+smiled Don Luis Montez.
+
+"I am answered," Tom agreed.  "The price of a few imported cars
+cannot matter much to you."
+
+"How many better mines than _El Sombrero_ have you seen?" questioned
+the mine owner, leaning forward.
+
+"None," said Tom, promptly.
+
+"If all days' indications are as good as those of to-day," Harry
+added.
+
+"To-day has been but a poor day at the mine," murmured Dr. Tisco.
+
+"Then _El Sombrero_ is indeed a marvel," Tom declared.
+
+"It is a very rich mine," nodded Don Luis.  "Yet there may be richer
+ones, in these mountains, yet undiscovered."
+
+"Where is the next best mine around here?" Tom inquired.
+
+"Perhaps it is _El Padre_," murmured Don Luis, after a slight pause.
+
+"Where is _El Padre_ (the Priest) located?" Tom wanted to know.
+
+"It is about four miles from here, up over that road," Don Luis
+rejoined, pointing out the direction.
+
+"May I ask if _El Padre_ is one of your properties, Don Luis?"
+Tom continued.
+
+"No; why should I want it when I own _El Sombrero_?"
+
+"Not unless you wish to own as many mines as possible."
+
+"_El Sombrero_ should be enough for my greatest dreams of wealth,"
+declared Don Luis, closing his eyes dreamily.
+
+Then the car stopped before the house.
+
+Don Luis alighted, Tom and Harry at his heels.  A servant appeared
+at the entrance to the court and informed him that the midday meal
+was ready to serve.
+
+"We will go to the table, then," exclaimed the Mexican.  "After
+having luncheon we shall be ready for an afternoon of hard work."
+
+No sooner had the young engineers slipped into their seats at
+table than Nicolas appeared behind their chairs.  He served them
+gravely and without a word.
+
+For nearly an hour the luncheon lasted.  Finally the dishes were
+cleared away and several boxes of cigars were brought.  Tom and
+Harry both declined them.  Dr. Tisco lighted a cigar at once;
+Don Luis spent much time in selecting his cigar.  This he lighted
+with the same deliberation.  At last the mine owner settled back
+in his seat.
+
+"_Caballeros_," he inquired, suddenly, "what did you think of
+_El Sombrero_?"
+
+"I would call it, Don Luis," Harry replied, with enthusiasm, "the
+finest mine I have seen or heard of."
+
+"You did not see the best of the ore to-day," Montez assured them.
+
+"What ore we did see is as fine as any we would ever wish to see,"
+Tom said.
+
+"Then you were delighted with the mine?" inquired their host,
+turning to Reade and speaking more eagerly.
+
+"If the ore always runs as well," Tom rejoined, "it ought to be
+one of the richest gold and silver properties in the world."
+
+"Pouf!  The ore usually runs much better--is worth much more
+than that which you saw to-day," protested Don Luis.
+
+"Then you are to be congratulated on possessing a treasure among
+mines," Tom commented.
+
+"I am delighted to hear you say that."
+
+"But when we adjourn to your office," Reade continued, "there
+are a few questions that I shall want to ask you."
+
+"Why not ask them here, Senor Tomaso?" queried Don Luis, in his
+purring, half affectionate voice.
+
+"Here at your table?" protested Reade.
+
+"But this is not dinner.  This is a mere business luncheon," replied
+Don Luis, with another smile.
+
+"Yet I would like to discuss some of the samples with you, Don Luis,"
+Tom explained.  "Surely, you do not wish me to bring out dirty
+samples to spread on your fine linen."
+
+"It would matter not," declared the Mexican.  "Still, if you have
+scruples about the proprieties, then we will go to the office
+within a few minutes."
+
+The two who were smoking continued to do so.  Don Luis started
+to describe some of his experiments in raising Spanish mules.
+The finest mules that come out of Spain, class, in price, with
+blooded horses.  Don Luis talked with the enthusiasm of one who
+understood and loved mules.
+
+Then, finally, they passed to the office.
+
+"Now, I shall be glad to talk with you for hours," the Mexican
+hidalgo assured the young engineers.
+
+Dr. Tisco, as though to show that he took no personal interest in
+the talk, retired to an armchair at the further end of the room.
+Nevertheless, the secretary observed carefully all that was said.
+Covertly he studied the faces of the young engineers at all times.
+
+"Ask me what you will," begged Don Luis, as he sank into an easy
+chair close to the table on which Tom began to arrange his envelopes
+of specimens taken from the mine.
+
+"First of all, Don Luis," Tom began, "you spoke of some problems
+that you wished us to solve in the operation of your mine."
+
+"Yes, Senor Tomaso."
+
+"I would like to ask you what the problems are that we are to
+consider," Tom announced.
+
+"Did you not see some of the problems before you, while we were
+going through the mine?" inquired Montez.
+
+"At the risk, Don Luis, of appearing stupid, I must confess that
+I did not."
+
+"Ah, well, then we shall come to the problems presently.  You
+have other questions.  Ask some of them."
+
+For a moment or two Reade studied what he had written on the various
+envelopes before him.  Then he picked out two.
+
+"Here, Don Luis," the young chief engineer went on, "are samples of
+two lots of ore.  The first is from the pile that we found pried
+loose when we went into the first tunnel that we visited.  It
+is rich ore."
+
+"It is good enough ore," Montez replied, with a polite shrug of
+the shoulders.
+
+"Now, from the second tunnel that we entered, and where we also
+found a pile of loose ore, here is another sample.  It is as rich
+as the first sample."
+
+"Certainly, Senor Tomaso."
+
+"But in this second tunnel I had a drilling made and a blast fired.
+Here," picking up a third envelope and emptying it, "is a sample
+of the ore that we saw taken from that blast.  If this sample
+contains any gold or silver the quantity is so small, evidently,
+as to render this kind of ore worthless."
+
+"Yes?" murmured Don Luis, softly.  "What is it that you have to say?"
+
+"Why, sir, how does it happen that, right on top of such extra-fine
+ore we run upon blank rock at the very next blasting."
+
+"That sometimes happens in _El Sombrero_," Don Luis replied, smoothly,
+
+"How often has it happened?" asked Tom, looking up from the table
+and glancing keenly at Don Luis.
+
+Dr. Tisco, though he appeared to be almost asleep, stirred uneasily.
+
+"How often has it happened?" repeated Don Luis.  "Oh, perhaps
+a dozen times in a few months, taking all the tunnels together."
+
+"How long have these streaks of blank rock been?" insisted Tom
+Reade, while Harry wondered at what his chum was driving.
+
+"How long?" echoed Montez, with a shrug of his shoulders.  "Oh,
+how should I know?  Personally I am not interested in such things."
+
+"But have you gone as much as a whole week drilling and blasting
+through blank rock?"  Tom pressed.
+
+"A week?  No; not for two days.  Of that I am certain.  But why
+do you ask all this, Senor Tomaso?"
+
+"In order that I may better understand the nature of the mine,"
+Reade responded.  "I want to know what the chances are, as based
+on the record of the mine to date.  Of course, Don Luis, you know
+what it means, often, when pay ore fails to come out of a streak,
+and a solid wall of blank rock is encountered."
+
+By "blank rock" Tom meant rock that did not contain a promising
+or paying amount of metal in the ore.
+
+"What it means?" Montez asked.  "No; I can't say that I do."
+
+"The wall of blank rock, found at the end of a vein of gold, Don
+Luis, often, if not usually, means that the vein has run out,
+and that it is useless to dig further."
+
+"I did not know that," murmured the Mexican, in a tone of merely
+polite astonishment.  "Then you believe that _El Sombrero_ will
+not turn out much more profitable ore?"
+
+"I didn't say that," Tom continued.  "But I will admit that finding
+the wall of blank rock ahead made me a bit nervous.  Some great
+mines have been started, Don Luis, as you must be aware.  For
+a few weeks they have panned out ore of the highest value.  Much
+capital has been put into such mines, and for a time men have
+thought they owned a new Golconda.  Then--suddenly--the blank
+wall, and no more gold has ever come out of that mine.  In other
+words, it was but a pocket of rich gold that had been struck, and
+nothing more.  Hundreds of men have ruined themselves by investing
+in such mines."
+
+"I see," murmured Don Luis, thoughtfully.
+
+"You did not know this before?" Tom asked, in some amazement.
+
+"No, Senor Tomaso.  I have been a good business man, I suppose,
+for I have prospered; and much of my money has been made in mining.
+Yet I have never had the assurance to consider myself a practical
+mining man.  Dr. Tisco, here, is--"
+
+"An ignoramus on the subject of mining," declared the secretary,
+who appeared just then to wake up.
+
+"Carlos is modest," laughed Don Luis.  "True, he is not a skilled
+mining man, yet he knows so much on the subject that, compared
+with him, I am an ignoramus.  But that is what you are here for,
+you two.  You are the experts.  Investigate, and then instruct
+us."
+
+"Have you any record of the number of times that you have encountered
+the blank rock, and the number of feet in thickness of the wall in
+each case?" Tom asked.
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"That is unfortunate," said Reade, thoughtfully.  "Hereafter we
+will keep such a record carefully.  Don Luis, I will admit that
+I am perplexed and worried over this blank rock problem.  I know
+Hazelton is, too."
+
+"Yes, it is very strange," agreed Harry, looking up.  Truth to
+tell, he had hardly been following the talk at all.  Harry Hazelton
+was quite content to be caught napping whenever Tom Reade had
+his eyes open.
+
+"Now, I would like to go back to the mine and stay there until
+some time in the night," Tom proposed.  "I would like to take
+Hazelton with me.  Soon we will arrange it, if necessary, so that
+Harry and I shall divide the time at the mine.  Whenever, in any
+of the tunnels, blank rock is struck, whichever one of us is in
+charge will stay by the blank rock blasting, keeping careful record,
+until pay ore is struck again."
+
+"You two young engineers are too infernally methodical," grumbled
+Dr. Tisco under his breath."
+
+"That is a very excellent plan," smiled Montez, amiably.  "We will
+put some such plan into operation as soon as we are fairly under
+way.  But not to-day."
+
+"I would like to start at once," Tom insisted.
+
+"Not to-day," once more replied Don Luis, though without losing
+patience.  "Yet, if you are anxious to know how the blank rock is
+coming I can telephone the mine and get all the information within
+five minutes.  That will be an excellent idea.  I will do it now,
+in fact."
+
+Crossing the room, Don Luis rang and called for the mine.
+
+"Our young engineers are very sharp--especially Senor Reade,"
+murmured Dr. Tisco to himself, while the telephone conversation
+was going on in Spanish.  "Yet I wonder if our young engineer
+does not half suspect that Don Luis has no man at the other end
+of the wire?"
+
+Tom did not suspect the telephone trick.  In fact, the young chief
+engineer had as yet no deep suspicion that Don Luis was a rogue
+at heart.
+
+"The report is excellent," called Don Luis, gayly, as he came
+back.  "In that tunnel where we saw the blasting done the blank
+rock has been penetrated, and the rich ore is coming again."
+
+"How I'd like to see it!" Tom glowed.
+
+"Why?" asked Don Luis, quickly.
+
+"Because I am anxious to know all the secrets, all the indications,
+of fine old _El Sombrero_."
+
+"It _is_ a fine mine, isn't it, Senor Tomaso?" demanded Don Luis,
+enthusiastically.
+
+"From all indications it ought to be," Reade answered.  "Yet it's
+a new formation of rock to me--this sandwich formation as I might
+call it, with the alternate layers of rich ore and blank stuff."
+
+"I have been drawing up a report on the mine," murmured Montez,
+opening a drawer in his desk.  "This report describes the operations
+and the profits so far.  Glance through it with me."
+
+The report had been written in English, by either Dr. Tisco or
+his employer.
+
+Tom and Harry listened carefully to the reading.
+
+"But why do you put so much enthusiasm into the report, Don Luis,
+when the mine is not for sale and is not to be run as a stock
+company property?"
+
+"Of course, _El Sombrero_ is my sole property, and of course I
+shall keep it so," smiled the Mexican.  "But I like, even in a
+report to myself, for my own use, to have the report set forth
+all the truths concerning the mine."
+
+"That is reasonable," Tom agreed.
+
+"Now, Senor Tomaso, as you have seen, this report is couched in
+my own English.  I would be glad if you would write this out for
+me, putting it into better English."
+
+"It would seem like presumption in me to think that I could put
+it into better English," Reade protested.
+
+"Nevertheless, to please me, will you put this report into your
+own English?" requested Don Luis.
+
+"With all the pleasure in the world," Tom assented.
+
+"Here are writing materials, then."
+
+"But I see that you have a typewriting machine over in the corner,"
+suggested the young chief engineer.  "I can write the report much
+better and more rapidly on the machine."
+
+"Ah!" breathed the Mexican, looking highly pleased.  "If you will
+but do that!  We will go outside so as not to disturb you."
+
+The report, being a long one and containing several tables of
+figures, Reade was occupied nearly three hours.  During this time
+Don Luis conducted Harry over the estate, pointing out many things
+of interest.  At last Tom, with a slight backache from bending
+so long over the machine, leaned back and carefully read what
+he had written.
+
+"Do you wish anything, _caballero_?" inquired Nicolas, appearing
+as though from hiding.
+
+"You might be good enough to tell Don Luis that I have finished,
+and that I await his pleasure."
+
+Nicolas disappeared.  Five minutes later Montez, his secretary
+and Hazelton came in.  Tom read through his typewritten draft
+of the report.
+
+"Excellent!  gr-r-r-rand!  glorious!" breathed Don Luis.  "Ah,
+you are a master of English, Senor Tomaso.  Myself, I understand
+Spanish better.  And now one stroke of the pen for each of you,"
+added the _hidalgo_, crossing the room to his desk.  "As my new
+engineers you shall both sign this report, and I shall have much
+pleasure from reading this, many times, when I am an old man."
+
+Don Luis dipped a pen in ink, then held it up.  Harry was about
+to take the pen when Tom Reade drawled:
+
+"It wouldn't be quite right for us to sign this report, Don Luis."
+
+"Why not?" queried the Mexican, wheeling like a flash.
+
+"Just for the simple reason," Reade answered, "that to sign the
+report would be to state all the facts contained in the report
+as being of our personal observation.  We haven't seen enough
+of the mine, as yet, for it to be right for us to sign the report.
+An engineer's signature to a report is his statement--ON HONOR--that
+he personally knows such report to be true.  So I am very certain
+you will understand that it would be a breach of honor for us to
+sign this document."
+
+"Ah!  He is clever--and now the real trouble must begin!"  Dr.
+Tisco told himself.  "These engineers are not easily duped, but
+in Don Luis's hands they will destroy themselves!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WATCHING THE MIDNIGHT LIGHTS
+
+
+Don Luis Montez laid down the pen.  Outwardly he was as amiable as
+ever; certainly he was all smiles.
+
+"A thousand pardons, _caballeros_!" he murmured.  "Of course, you
+are quite right.  It had not occurred to me in that light before.
+True, the report was intended only for my own pleasure in later
+years, but that does not alter the nice point of honor."
+
+Tom Reade was deceived by Don Luis's manner.  He did not suspect
+that, at this very instant, the Mexican was consumed with demoniacal
+rage.
+
+"I shall not be patient another time," muttered Don Luis, between
+his teeth and under his breath.  Yet aloud he said:
+
+"We have had too much of business to-day.  We are tiring ourselves.
+Until dinner time let us go outside and be gentlemen.  Business
+for to-morrow or next week.  And my dear daughter.  Brute!  I
+have been forgetting her."
+
+Senorita Francesca, a darkly beautiful girl of eighteen, shy and
+retiring from the convent schooling that had ended but lately,
+soon came downstairs at her father's summons.  Dr. Tisco bowed
+low before the charming girl.  Tom and Harry were presented, and
+tried to make themselves agreeable to the young Mexican girl.
+Senorita Francesca's shyness, however, made this somewhat difficult,
+so the young engineers felt inwardly grateful when Dr. Tisco strolled
+down the porch with her.
+
+Dinner proved to be a somewhat formal affair.  Yet, as soon as
+the meal was finished Senorita Francesca was escorted from the
+dining room by her father and returned to her room.
+
+"What did you think of the young lady, Tom?"  Harry asked his
+chum when he could do so privately.
+
+"A fine-looking girl," Reade answered briefly.  "But I fear she
+would be highly offended if she knew that, all through dinner,
+my every thought was on the mine and the problems that we shall
+find there."
+
+"I want to talk with you about that mine, and about some impressions
+that I have formed here," murmured Hazelton.
+
+"Then another time, my dear fellow, for here comes Don Luis, and
+I see Dr. Tisco returning from the garden."
+
+That forestalled conversation for the time being.  When the young
+engineers, still relentlessly attended by Nicolas, sought their
+own rooms Hazelton was so drowsy that he undressed hurriedly and
+dropped into bed.
+
+Later in the night Harry sat up suddenly in the dark.  Some one
+was moving in the parlor that separated the two bedrooms.  An
+instant after awakening Harry slipped off the bed, then stole
+toward the next room.
+
+In the darkness he made out a moving figure.  Like a panther Harry
+sprang, landing on the all but invisible figure.
+
+"Now, I've got you!" Hazelton hissed, wrapping his arms around
+the prowler.
+
+"And small credit to you," drawled Tom's dry voice.  "Hist!"
+
+"What's up?" demanded Hazelton, dropping his voice to a whisper.
+
+"You and I are."
+
+"But what's the matter?"
+
+"I couldn't sleep," Tom whispered.
+
+"You--troubled with nerves!" gasped Hazelton.
+
+"Not just the way you understand it," returned Tom.  "But I was
+thinking, thinking, and I sat by the window yonder.  Come over
+there, Harry, but step without noise."
+
+Wondering what it all meant, Hazelton softly followed his chum
+to the open window.
+
+"Now, look," said Tom, pointing, "and tell me what you see."
+
+"A moment ago I thought I saw a light twinkling over there among
+the hills."
+
+"Look sixty seconds longer, and you'll see more lights, Harry;
+those lights are on the trail that leads from the nearest gold
+mines to _El Sombrero_.  It is the trail Don Luis pointed out
+to us to-day."
+
+"But what--"
+
+"Harry, I'm going to get on my clothes and slip over in that direction.
+Do you want to go with me?"
+
+"Yes; but what--"
+
+"I can tell you better when we're on the way.  Come on; dress!  We can
+easily leave the house without being detected."
+
+Though Harry had already been through hosts of adventures, he
+felt creepy as he dressed with speed and stealth, bent on slipping
+unobserved out of their employer's house.  But he was used to
+following his chum's lead.
+
+When both were ready, which was very soon, Tom softly opened the
+door of their parlor, thrusting one foot out into the broad corridor.
+As he did so he kicked against a man lying prostrate on the floor.
+It was Nicolas, the Mexican attendant, sleeping across their
+threshold that he might be on hand when wanted.
+
+The man stirred, muttered something almost inaudible, then gradually
+began to breathe more deeply.  Tom, after waiting, took a step
+over the body of Nicolas.  Harry closed the door behind them,
+then followed.  Soon after they stood out on the lawn.
+
+"I'm glad Nicolas went to sleep again," muttered Tom, in a low
+voice.  "The fellow would have insisted on following us, and I
+wouldn't want him with us to-night, to tell Don Luis everything."
+
+"But what on earth--"
+
+"Harry, old fellow, Don Luis is the essence of courtesy.  He has
+been very polite to us, too.  Yet something has aroused a suspicion
+in me that Don Luis Montez wishes to use us in some way that we
+wouldn't care to be used.  So I'm saying little, but my eyes are
+going to be open all the time from now on."
+
+"Oh, Don Luis must be on the square," Hazelton retorted.  "What could
+he want of us that is crooked?"
+
+"I don't know, yet," Tom replied, as he led the way rapidly down
+the road.  "But I'm going to watch, and, if there's anything wrong,
+I'm going to get a line on it."
+
+"_El Sombrero_ is Don Luis's own mine.  Surely he hasn't hired
+us to fool him about his own property."
+
+"I don't know what it is that's wrong," Tom admitted.  "Nor am
+I sure that anything is wrong.  But I'm going to do my own watching
+and gather some of my own information.  See, there are the lights
+on that trail beyond, and there are several lights.  It looks
+like a caravan moving down the trail."
+
+"A caravan?" Harry repeated.  "Of what?"
+
+"I don't know, Harry.  That's what I'm here to-night to find out."
+
+Brisk, soft walking brought them nearer and nearer to the twinkling
+lights along the trail that ran into their own road at a point
+lower down.
+
+"I wish I knew what on earth Tom is thinking about," Harry muttered
+to himself.  "However, I may as well save my breath just now.  If I
+hang to him I'm likely to know what it is."
+
+"We'll reach a hiding place from which we can watch that caravan,
+or whatever it is, turn from the hill trail into this road," Tom
+whispered, after they had gone somewhat further.
+
+At this point the main road that ran from.  Don Luis's estate
+to his mine was decidedly irregular.  Many boulders jutted out,
+making a frequent change in the course of the road necessary.
+It was Tom's intention to gain the nearest ledge of rock of this
+sort to the hill trail, and there hide to watch the caravan.
+
+They had nearly reached this point when out of the darkness a figure
+stole softly to meet them.
+
+"Nicolas!" muttered Tom, in a low voice, all but rubbing his eyes.
+"How on earth did you get here?"
+
+"Am I not commanded to keep with you everywhere, and serve you
+in all things?" demanded the servant.  "Do not go around that
+next point in the road, _caballeros_.  If you do, you will run
+straight into Pedro Gato, who has other men with him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+DON LUIS'S ENGINEERING PROBLEM
+
+
+"Gato?" whispered Harry.  "What is he doing around here?"
+
+"There is no reason why we should care what he is doing," Tom
+returned.  "He isn't in the employ of the mine.  Come along, Harry."
+
+But Nicolas seized the young chief engineer by the arm.
+
+"Beat me, if you will, Senor Americano," pleaded Nicolas.  "But
+don't encounter Gato.  It would be as much as your life is worth."
+
+"Why?  Is Gato on the warpath for us?" Tom questioned.
+
+"I fear so," Nicolas answered.  "Don't let him see you."
+
+"But I must see him, if the fellow is out for us," muttered Tom.
+"Show me where he is."
+
+"He and three or four men are camped just around there," said
+the Mexican servant, pointing.
+
+"Come along, Harry," Tom whispered.  "Go cat-foot."
+
+Ere the young engineers came in sight around the turn a slight
+glow of light against the stones caught their glance.  Tom held
+a hand behind him as a signal to Hazelton to slow up.  Then Reade
+peered around a jutting ledge of rock.
+
+On the ground, around a low camp-fire, were seated four Mexicans.
+Two of the number had rifles, that lay on the ground near them.
+Behind them, an ugly scowl on his face, sat Gato, his back resting
+against a rock.
+
+"But you will not find your enemies out here to-night, Senor Gato,"
+softly remarked one of the quartette around the fire.
+
+"No," admitted Gato, in a growling voice.
+
+"Then why are we waiting here?"
+
+"Because it pleases me," snapped the big fellow.  "What ails you?
+Am I not paying you?"
+
+"But two of us--and I am one of them--do not like to be seen,"
+rejoined the speaker at the fire.  "The troops hunt us.  There
+is a price on our heads."
+
+"Bandits!" muttered Tom Reade, under his breath, as he drew back.
+"I have heard that Mexico is overrun with bandits.  These gentlemen
+are some of the fraternity."
+
+"Take us up to the house, Gato," urged one of the men at the fire.
+"We shall know how to enter and find your friends.  Everyone sleeps
+there.  It will be the safer way."
+
+"It does not suit me," retorted Gato, sullenly.
+
+"But why not?"
+
+"Am I not paying you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then take my orders and do not ask questions."
+
+At this there were sounds of dissatisfaction from all four of
+these bad men.
+
+"For one thing," Gato explained, "Don Luis would not like it.  He
+would accuse me of treachery--or worse.  I do not want Don Luis's
+ill will, you see."
+
+"But Don Luis will be angry, in any case, if you injure his engineers,
+won't he?" asked one of the men.
+
+"A little, but after a while, Don Luis will not care what I do to
+the Americanos," growled Pedro Gato.
+
+"Humph!  That's interesting--if true," whispered Tom Reade.
+
+"Yet what are we doing here?" insisted one of the men.  "Here,
+so close to where the troops might pick us up?"
+
+"You are obeying orders," snarled Gato.
+
+"But that information is not quite enough to suit us," objected
+one of the Mexicans.
+
+"You might go your own way, then," sneered Gato.  "I can find
+other men who are not so curious.  However, I will say that, when
+daylight comes, we will hide not far from here.  None of you know
+the Americanos by sight.  I will point them out to you as they
+pass by in the daylight."
+
+"And then--what?" pressed one of the rough men.  "Are we to kill
+the Americanos from ambush?"
+
+"Eh?" gasped Tom Reade, with a start.
+
+"If you have to," nodded Pedro Gato.  "Though, in that case, I shall
+call you clumsy.  I shall pay you just four times as much if you
+bring them to me as prisoners.  Remember that.  Before I despatch
+these infernal Gringos I shall want the fun of tormenting them."
+
+"Oh, you will eh?" thought Tom, with a slight shudder.
+
+"I heard, Gato," ventured one of the Mexicans, incautiously, "that
+one of the Americanos beat you fearfully--that he threw you down
+and stamped on you."
+
+"It is a lie!" uttered Gato, leaping to his feet, his face distorted
+with rage.  "It is a lie, I tell you.  The man does not live who
+can beat me in a fight."
+
+"I was struck with amazement at the tale," admitted the Mexican
+who had brought about this outburst.
+
+"And well you might be," continued Gato, savagely.  "But the Americanos
+procured my discharge.  And that was humiliation enough."
+
+"Yet what difference does it make, Gato.  As soon as Don Luis
+is through with the Americanos he will restore you to your old
+position."
+
+"It is because the Americanos treated me with such contempt,"
+retorted Pedro.  "No man sneers at me and lives."
+
+"You unhung bandit!" muttered Tom under his breath.  "Why don't
+you tell your bandit friends that you are angry because of the
+trouncing I gave you before a lot of men?  But I suppose you hate
+to lose caste, even before such ragged specimens as your friends."
+
+Suddenly one of the men around the fire snatched at his rifle.
+Next scattering the embers of the fire, the fellow threw himself
+down flat, peering down the road.
+
+"The troops are coming," he whispered.  "I hear their horses."
+
+"The horses that you hear are mules," laughed Gato, harshly.
+"It is the nightly transport of ore down to _El Sombrero_.  Just
+now Don Luis is having fine ore brought over the hills from another
+mine and dumped into _El Sombrero_."
+
+"Why should he bring ore from another mine to _El Sombrero_?"
+asked one of the men, curiously.
+
+"How should I know?" demanded Gato, shrugging his shoulders and
+spitting on the ground.  "Why should I concern myself with the
+business that belongs to an hidalgo like Don Luis?"
+
+"It is queer that--"
+
+"Silence!" hissed Gato.  "Do not meddle with the secrets of Don
+Luis Montez, or you will be sorry for it."
+
+Gato's explanation about the mule-train had quieted the fears
+of the bandits as to the approach of troops.  In some mountainous
+parts of Mexico the government's troops are nearly always on the
+trail of bandits and the petty warfare is a brisk one.
+
+"Go to sleep, my friends.  There will be nothing to do until day
+comes."
+
+"Then, good Gato, take us somewhere off this road," pleaded one
+of the men.  "It is too public here to be to our liking."
+
+"You may go to a quieter place," nodded Gato.  "You know where--the
+place I showed you this afternoon.  As for me, after the mule-train
+has left the mine, I must go there.  I will join you before daybreak."
+
+"We'll go now, then," muttered one of the men, rising.
+
+They were coming up the road in the direction of the young engineers.
+There was no time to retreat.  Tom glanced swiftly around.  Then
+he made a sign to Harry.  Both young engineers flattened themselves
+out behind a pile of stones at the roadside.  Their biding-place
+was far from being a safe one.  But four drowsy bandits plodded
+by without espying the eavesdroppers.  As for Nicolas, he had
+vanished like the mist before the sun.
+
+"Ha-ho-hum!" yawned Pedro Gato, audibly.
+
+Tom raised his head, studying their immediate surroundings.  He
+soon fancied he saw a safe way of slipping off to the southward
+and finding the road again below where Gato stood.
+
+Signing to Hazelton, Reade rose softly and started off.  Two or
+three minutes later the young engineers were a hundred yards away
+from Gato, though in a rock-littered field where a single incautious
+step might betray them.
+
+"Come on, now," whispered Tom.  "Toward the mine."
+
+"And run into Gato?" grimaced Harry.  "Great!"
+
+"If we meet him we ought to get away with him between us," Tom
+retorted.  "One of us did him up this morning."
+
+"Go ahead, Tom!"
+
+Reade led the way in the darkness.  They skirted the road, though
+keeping a sharp lookout.
+
+"There are the lights of the mule-train ahead," whispered Tom.
+"Now, we're close enough to see things, for there is _El Sombrero_
+just ahead."
+
+"What's the game, anyway?" whispered Harry.
+
+"Surely you guess," protested Tom.
+
+"Why, it seems that Don Luis is having ore from another mine brought
+down in the dead of the night."
+
+"Yes, and a lot of it," Tom went on.  "Did you notice how much
+rich ore there was in each tunnel to-day?  And did you notice,
+too, that when blasts were made with us looking on, no ore worthy
+of the name was dug loose?  Don Luis has been spending a lot of
+money for ore with which to salt his own mine!"
+
+"Salting" a mine consists of putting the gold into a mine to be
+removed.  Such salting gives a worthless mine the appearance of being
+a very rich one.
+
+"But why should Don Luis want to salt his own mine?" muttered
+Harry.
+
+"So that he can sell it, of course!"
+
+"But he doesn't want to sell."
+
+"He says he doesn't," Tom retorted, with scorn.  "This afternoon,
+you remember, he got me to copy a report in English about his
+mine and then he wanted us to sign the report as engineers.  Doesn't
+that look as though he wanted to sell?  Harry, Don Luis has buyers
+in sight for his mine, and he'll sell it for a big profit provided
+he can impose on the buyers!"
+
+"What does he want us for, then?  He spoke of engineering problems."
+
+"Don Luis's engineering problem," uttered Tom Reade, with deep
+scorn, "is simply to find two clean and honest engineers who'll
+sign a lying report and enable him to swindle some man or group
+of men out of a fortune."
+
+"Then Don Luis is a swindler, and we'll throw up the job," returned
+Harry Hazelton, vehemently.  "We'll quit."
+
+"We won't help him swindle any one," Tom rejoined.  "We won't
+quit just yet, but we'll stick just long enough to see whether
+we can't expose the scoundrel as he deserves!  Harry, we'll have
+to be crafty, too.  We must not let him see, too soon, that we
+are aware of his trickery."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DANGLING THE GOLDEN BAIT
+
+
+Creeping closer to the mine, Tom and Harry saw the ore dumped
+from a train of forty mules.  They also heard the fellow in charge
+of the train say that he would be back with two more loads that
+night.
+
+"We don't need to wait to see the rest of the ore brought," Tom
+whispered to his chum.  "We know enough now."
+
+"Look over there," urged Hazelton.  "There goes the rest of the
+trick.  Men are shoveling the borrowed ore into the ore hoists."
+
+"Of course," nodded Tom, disgustedly.  "The ore is going below,
+to be piled in the tunnels.  It will be 'salted' there all right
+for us to inspect in the morning.  Oh, this trickery makes me
+sick!"
+
+"What are you going to do now?" Hazelton asked.
+
+"We may as well go back to the house and get some sleep."
+
+"I'm strong for getting out of here in the morning," Harry muttered.
+
+"Fine!" Tom agreed.  "So am I.  But what I want to do is to find
+out who is marked out for the victim of this gigantic swindle.
+I want to put the victim wise.  I'd be wild if I failed to find
+Don Luis's intended dupe and tell him just what he's in for."
+
+"Do you imagine that Montez will ever allow us to get face to face
+with the man who's to be fleeced?"
+
+"He won't do it intentionally, Harry.  But we may have a way of
+locating the victim in time to save him from being robbed."
+
+"Anyway, I should think the victim would have every chance in
+the world to sue and get his money back," Harry mused.
+
+"How is one to get back the money that he has put into a gold
+mine?" Tom demanded.  "Everyone knows that the most honest mine
+is a gamble.  It may stop turning out paying ore at any hour.
+Besides, what show would a stranger have in the courts in this
+part of Mexico?  You have heard Don Luis boast that he practically
+owns the governor of Bonista.  No, sir!  The only way to stop
+a swindle will be to stop it before it takes place."
+
+Tom rose from his hiding place, back in the dark away from the
+lights at the mine shaft.  He nudged his chum, then started to
+creep away.  Presently they rose and moved forward on foot.  Ere
+long they had left the mine well behind.
+
+"I hate to go back into that polished robber's house at all,"
+Harry muttered.  "Tom, what do you say?  We can cover at least
+the first dozen miles between now and daylight.  Let's make a
+streak for the railway and get back to the States."
+
+"But what about saving the victim of the intended swindle?" objected
+Reade.
+
+"We could come out with a newspaper exposure that would stop any
+American from buying the mine, or putting any money into it,"
+proposed Hazelton.
+
+"We might, only no newspaper would print such stuff.  It would
+be libelous, and subject the newspaper editor to the risk of having
+to go to jail."
+
+"All I know," sighed Harry, "is that I want, as speedily as possible,
+to put as much distance as possible between us and Don Luis's home."
+
+"We'll go out through the front door, though, when we go," Tom
+proposed.  "We won't sneak."
+
+They did not encounter Gato on the way back to the big, white
+house.  Though they did not know it, the boys were being trailed
+by the alert, barefooted Nicolas.  Nor did that servant feel easy
+until he had seen them softly enter the house.  Then Nicolas,
+as before, stretched himself on the floor before the door of the
+rooms occupied by the young engineers.
+
+Tom's alarm clock woke him that morning.  In another moment Reade
+was vigorously shaking Hazelton.
+
+"Now don't give a sign to-day," Tom whispered to his friend.
+"If Don Luis is going to be crafty, we shall have to fight him
+with craft--at the outset, anyway."
+
+"I hate to eat the old scoundrel's food," muttered Harry.
+
+"So do I, but it can't be helped for the present.  We're not guilty
+of a breach of hospitality in planning to show the rascal up.
+It is Don Luis who is guilty in that direction.  He is planning
+to use his guests as puppets in a dishonest game.  Keep up your
+nerve, Harry, and don't let your face, your manner, or anything
+give you away."
+
+Nicolas knocked as soon as he heard the boys stirring.  He moved
+with speed this morning, spreading the table and then rushing away
+for chocolate, _frijoles_ and _tortillas_.
+
+As soon as the boys had finished their breakfast they hastened
+out to the porch, but they found their host ahead of them.  More,
+Don Luis wore field clothing and high-topped, laced walking boots.
+
+"Going afield, sir?" Tom inquired, genially.
+
+"I have been afield, already," replied Montez, bowing and smiling.
+"Down to the mine I have been and back.  The air is beautiful
+here in the early morning, and I enjoyed the walk.  You, too,
+will enjoy our walks when you become used to them."
+
+Dr. Tisco came out, bowing most affably to the young Americans.
+
+"You look as though you had been walking, too," suggested Tom,
+noting Tisco's high-topped shoes.
+
+"I went with Don Luis," replied the secretary.  "Oh, by the way,
+Senor Hazelton, I believe some of your property has come into
+my possession.  This is yours, is it not?"
+
+Tisco held out a fine linen handkerchief, with an embroidered
+initial "H" in one corner.  Harry was fond of fine linen, and
+effected these handkerchiefs.
+
+"Yes; it's mine, thank you," nodded Harry, accepting the proffered
+bit of linen and pocketing it.
+
+"I found it in a field, just this side of _El Sombrero_," remarked
+Tisco, artlessly, turning away.
+
+Though the secretary did not watch Hazelton's face, Don Luis did,
+and saw the slight start of surprise and the flush that came to
+the young engineer's face.
+
+"You, too, have been walking then, Senor Hazelton?" inquired Don
+Luis, pleasantly, though with an insistence that was not to be
+denied.
+
+Harry didn't know how to lie.  He might have dodged the question,
+but he was quick enough to see that evasion would make the matter
+worse.
+
+"Tom and I took a stroll last night," he admitted, indifferently.
+"How far did we go, Tom?"
+
+"Who can say?" replied Reade, lightly.  "It was so dark, and the
+way so unfamiliar that we were glad when we got home, I know."
+
+"They have been prowling," muttered Don Luis, sharply, under his
+breath.  "I must have them watched."
+
+"Are we going to the mine this morning, Don Luis?" Tom asked,
+carelessly.
+
+"Do you care to go, Senor Tomaso?"
+
+"Why, that's just as you say, sir," Reade rejoined.  "Of course,
+we would like to get actively engaged at our work.  In fact, it
+seems to me that Harry and I should rise earlier and be at the
+mine at least from eight in the morning until six at night."
+
+"You would soon tire yourselves out.  The mine is a dirty hole."
+
+"By the way, sir," Reade went on, carelessly, "how far do you
+have to send ore to have it smelted."
+
+"About sixty miles."
+
+"By mule-train, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, Senor Tomaso."
+
+"It must be costly shipping."
+
+"So it is," sighed Don Luis, "and yet the ore is rich enough to
+bear easily the cost of shipping."
+
+"In what direction is the smelter?"
+
+Don Luis pointed.
+
+"Straight ahead, as I am showing you," he added.
+
+"We saw the lights of a train last night," Tom went on.  "I judged
+that the mule-train came from the mines above.  Yet the mule-train
+did not follow the direction that you have just shown me.  The
+road runs crooked, I take it."
+
+"Oh, yes," nodded their host, as carelessly as Tom had spoken.
+
+"Do the other mines pay as well as _El Sombrero_?"
+
+"Oh, no, Senor Tomaso," Montez replied quickly.  "The other mines
+yield not anywhere near as rich ore as comes from _El Sombrero_."
+
+"Are you going to take us to see the other mines?" Tom hinted.
+
+"Gladly would I do so, Senor Tomaso, only I am not on good terms
+with the owners."
+
+"I'm sorry," Tom sighed.  "While we are here I wish that we could
+see much of Mexican mines.  Nevertheless, when we are through
+here I have no doubt that you can give us letters to other mine
+owners."
+
+"Beyond a doubt," smiled Don Luis, "and it will give me great
+pleasure.  But I, myself own many mines, and I am seeking to locate
+more.  If you are suited with my employment, and if we agree,
+I shall be able, undoubtedly, to keep you both engaged for many
+years to come.  Indeed, if you display sufficient resourcefulness
+in handling mines I do not believe it will be long ere I shall
+be able to pay you each fifty thousand dollars a year.  I have
+plenty of money, and I pay generously when I am pleased and well
+served."
+
+"The scoundrel is fishing for something," thought Tom Reade, swiftly.
+"I must not let him beat me in craft."
+
+So he exclaimed, aloud:
+
+"Fifty thousand dollars a year, Don Luis?  You are jesting!"
+
+"I beg to assure you that I am not," replied Montez, smiling and
+bowing.
+
+"But fifty thousand a year is princely pay!" cried Reade.
+
+"Such pay goes, of course, only to the most satisfactory of employes,"
+declared Don Luis.
+
+"At such pay," Tom said, "Harry and I ought to be satisfied to
+remain in Mexico all our lives."
+
+"We shall see," nodded Montez.  "But the sunlight is growing too
+strong for my eyes.  Suppose, _caballeros_, that we move into
+the office?"
+
+The others now rose and followed Don Luis.
+
+"What on earth is Tom driving at?" Harry wondered.  "He's stringing
+Don Luis, of course, but to what end?"
+
+Montez stood at the door of his office, indicating that the young
+engineers pass in ahead of him.  The instant they had done so
+Montez turned to his secretary, whispering:
+
+"Send my daughter here."
+
+Dr. Tisco vanished, though he soon reappeared and entered the office.
+
+Don Luis, after indicating seats to the young Americans, crossed
+to a ponderous safe, toyed with the combination lock, threw open
+the door and then brought out a ledger that he deposited on one
+of the flat-top desks.  Five minutes later his daughter Francesca
+entered the room.
+
+"Now, what part is the girl to play here?" wondered Tom, instantly.
+"If I know anything of human nature she's a sweet and honest
+girl.  She is no rascal, like her father.  Yet he has sent for
+her to play some part!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+DON LUIS SHOWS HIS CLAWS
+
+
+Senorita Francesca greeted her guests with extreme courtesy.
+
+"She's a fine young woman," thought Harry, with a guilty feeling.
+"Blazes, but it's going to come hard to show her father up as
+a scoundrel."
+
+"_Chiquita_," (pet) called her father, "it has not been the custom
+of this country to train our women in the ways of business.  But
+you are my only child.  Every _peso_ (dollar) that I earn and
+save is for you one of these days.  I have much money, but I crave
+more, and it is all for you, _chiquita_.  It is my wish to see
+you, one of these days, a very queen of wealth, as you are already
+a queen of goodness and tenderness.  Since you must handle the
+great fortune that I am building for you I have concluded to override
+the customs of our people for generations.  In other words, I
+am going to begin to train you, _chiquita_, in business."
+
+"Business?" murmured the girl.  "Ah!  That word frightens me--I
+am so ignorant."
+
+"Your first lesson shall not tire or dismay you," promised Don
+Luis, gently.  "Now, place your chair close beside mine, and look
+over this ledger with me.  I shall not attempt to make you comprehend
+too much at first."
+
+With pencil and paper beside the ledger, Don Luis read off many
+items.  Occasionally he did some figuring on the sheet of paper,
+as though to make the matters more clear to his daughter.  She
+made a very pretty picture, trying to follow her father's explanations,
+but the perplexed wrinkling of her brow showed how hard it was
+for her to do so.
+
+The figures that Don Luis took from his ledger all tended to show
+the immensity of the wealth already produced from _El Sombrero_.
+Tom and Harry listened courteously, for they had been invited
+to join the group.
+
+"You are tired, _chiquita_," said her father, at last.  "I have
+taken you too far on our first excursion into the realm of finance.
+This morning we will have no more figures.  But here is something
+that cannot fail to interest you in parts at least."
+
+Shoving aside the ledger, Don Luis drew from a drawer a bulky
+document.
+
+"This is the report which Senor Reade prepared for me yesterday,"
+Montez explained, looking at the young engineers for an instant.
+"The report is written in English, as I desired it written so.
+But I will read the most interesting parts in Spanish to you,
+_chiquita_.  You will observe that this report is a masterpiece
+of business composition."
+
+"I am sure that it must be," murmured Francesca, and Tom bowed
+his thanks.
+
+"This report, too, is a part of your fortune," continued Don Luis.
+"That is, it will help to make your fortune, for it concerns
+_El Sombrero_, one of the finest parts of your fortune.  We have
+been planning, these _caballeros_ and I, that they shall remain
+in my employ indefinitely, and they are to be paid better and
+better if they serve you through me and serve us well.  I shall
+reward them as an hidalgo ever rewards."
+
+"I do not need to be told that my father is generous when he is
+pleased," murmured Francesca.
+
+"Listen, then, to what Senior Reade has written.  It cannot help
+but give you much pleasure."
+
+"The shameless rascal!" Tom exclaimed, inwardly, as the trick
+became clear to him.  "Don Luis is trading upon our sympathies
+for the girl in order to induce us to sign his lying report."
+
+Don Luis began to read the report, translating into Spanish as
+he went along.  When he came to tables of tedious figures Montez
+skipped over them hurriedly.  He dwelt eagerly, however, on the
+paragraphs of the report that asserted such vast wealth to exist
+in _El Sombrero_.  Francesca listened with rising color.  Once
+in a while she shot a pretty, sidelong glance at Tom to show her
+pleasure over the report, the whole authorship of which she plainly
+believed to belong to him.
+
+"Why, it reads like a romance!" the girl cried, clapping her hands
+when the reading had finished.
+
+"A romance?  Yes!" ground Tom, under his  breath.  "It is romance--pure
+fiction and absurdly false in every line!"
+
+"It must be a wonderful talent to possess, senor," said Francesca,
+turning to Tom Reade.  "A wonderful talent to be able to describe
+a matter of business in such eloquent language."
+
+"It is a rare gift," Tom admitted modestly, though he had a design
+in what he was saying.  "A rare gift, indeed, and one which I
+must not claim.  This is your father's report, not mine.  He had
+written it in English, and all I did was to copy it on the typewriter,
+and to make the English stronger at points.  So I am not the
+author--merely the clerk."
+
+Don Luis frowned for a fleeting instant.  Then his brow cleared, and
+one of his charming smiles lighted his face.
+
+"The report is a superb piece of work, and you must not believe
+as much as Senor Tomaso's modesty would lead him to believe, chiquita.
+But this is an engineer's report, and, as such, it is not complete
+until it is signed.  Hand it to Senor Reade, _chiquita_, and ask
+him to sign it.  Then Senor Hazelton will do the same."
+
+Francesca accepted the document from her father, turned, and,
+with a fascinating smile, handed it to the young chief engineer.
+
+It was a cleverly contrived bit of business, in which the girl
+played a wholly innocent part.  Francesca dipped a pen in ink
+and offered it to Tom, who accepted it.  Surely, he could not
+embarrass the girl, nor could he seem to refuse to add to her
+fortune by any means within his power.  Don Luis had brought about
+the climax with great cleverness, for he felt certain of Tom Reade's
+gallantry.
+
+And gallant Tom Reade ever was.  Yet he was keen and self-possessed
+as well.  While he held the pen in his hand be turned to the Mexican
+with one of his pleasantest smiles.
+
+"Don Luis," said the young engineer, "I feel certain that you
+did not wholly understand what I said yesterday.  What I meant
+to make clear was that an engineer's signature to a report is
+his written word of honor that every word in the report is true,
+to his own knowledge.  As I merely transcribed this report from
+your own, and have not yet had sufficient opportunity to prove
+to myself the value of the mine, I could not in honor sign this
+report as yet.  As a man of honor you will certainly understand
+my position."
+
+"But you are too particular on a point of honor," insisted Don
+Luis Montez, with a shrug of his shoulders.  "You do not need
+to draw the line so sharply with a man of honor.  I assure you
+that every word in the report is true.  Therefore, will you not
+be so good as to sign the report?"
+
+"I regret that I have not yet succeeded in making an engineer's
+point of honor clear," Tom replied, placing the pen back on the
+stand.  "It will be some weeks, Don Luis, before Hazelton and
+I can possibly hope to find ourselves sufficiently well informed
+about the mine to sign the report."
+
+Francesca was by no means stupid.  While she did not understand
+business matters, she was sufficiently keen to note, from her
+father's very insistent manner, and from Tom's equally firm refusal
+to sign, that some point of honor was in dispute between the two.
+She flushed deeply, glanced wonderingly from one to the other,
+and then her gaze fell to the floor.
+
+"_Chiquita_," said Don Luis, tenderly, "I have been thoughtless,
+and have given you too long a lesson in business.  Besides, Senor
+Reade is not yet ready to serve us in this matter.  You may go
+to your room, my daughter."
+
+Without a word Francesca rose and left the room.
+
+As soon as the door had closed Don Luis broke forth bitterly:
+
+"You have done well to insult me before my daughter.  She understands
+only enough to realize that you have doubted my honor, and she
+certainly wonders why I permitted you to live longer.  Senor Reade,
+whether or not your American ideas of courtesy enable you to understand
+it, you have grievously insulted me in my own house, and have
+intensified that insult by delivering it before my daughter.
+There is now but one way in which you can retrieve your conduct."
+
+Don Luis Montez rose, dipped the pen freshly in ink, and thrust
+it into Reade's hand.
+
+"_Sign that report_!" ordered the Mexican.
+
+Tom rose to his feet.  So did Harry.
+
+"Don Luis," spoke Reade calmly, though he was inwardly raging.
+"I always like to do business like a gentleman.  I feel very
+certain that I must have made it very clear to you yesterday that
+I could not possibly sign any such report at the present time.
+I still prefer to keep our talk within the limits of courtesy
+if that be also your wish."
+
+"Sign that report!"
+
+"_I won't do it!_"
+
+Tom accompanied his response by tossing the pen across the room.
+
+"Don Luis, I don't believe that you are a fool," continued the
+young chief engineer, calming down again.  "If you consider that
+I am utterly a fool, either, then you are doing your own intelligence
+an injustice.  I refuse to sign this report until I have gained
+the knowledge for myself that every word in it is true.  Further,
+I don't believe that I would sign it after I had made the fullest
+investigation.  I am aware that, last night, mule-trains brought
+ore down over the hills from another mine, and that ore was sent
+down by the ore hoists into _El Sombrero_."
+
+"That's a lie!" cried the Mexican, hoarsely.
+
+"I am describing what I saw with my own eyes," Tom insisted.
+
+"You will sign this report, and at once!" quivered Don Luis Montez,
+a deadly look glittering in his eyes.
+
+"I am quite satisfied that I shall never sign it," Tom retorted.
+
+"That goes for me, too," put in Harry, stolidly.
+
+"I feel that we have finished our work here, since we can do nothing
+more for you, Don Luis," Tom went on.  "I therefore ask you to
+consider our engagement at an end.  If you are disinclined to
+furnish us with transportation to the railway, then we can travel
+there on foot."
+
+"Do you hear the Gringo, my good Carlos?" laughed Don Luis, derisively.
+
+"I hear the fellow," indifferently replied Dr. Tisco, from the
+other end of the room.
+
+"Will you furnish us with transportation from here?" Tom inquired.
+
+"I will not," hissed Montez, allowing his rage to show itself
+now at its height.  "You Gringo fools!  Do you think you can defy
+me--that here, on my own estates, you can slap me in the face
+and ride away with laughter?"
+
+"I haven't a desire in the world to slap your face," Tom rejoined,
+dryly.  "All I wish and mean to do is to get back to my work in
+life."
+
+"Then listen to me, Gringos," said Don Luis Montez, in his coldest
+tones.  "Your work here is to sign that report.  If you do not,
+then you shall never leave these mountains!  Your lives are in
+my hands.  If you do not serve me as I have ordered, then I shall
+feel obliged--in self-defense--to destroy you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE SPIRIT OF A TRUE ENGINEER
+
+
+"Do you know, Don Luis," drawled Tom, "that you have one fine quality?"
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded the Mexican.
+
+"You are very explicit.  You are also extremely candid!  You don't
+leave the other fellow guessing."
+
+Don Luis Montez frowned.  He felt certain that fun was being poked
+at him.
+
+"I am trying to make you young men understand that you must do
+exactly what I wish of you," he returned, after a moment.
+
+"And we have tried to make it plain, sir, that we haven't, any idea
+of doing what you want," Tom Reade answered him.
+
+"You will change your minds," retorted the mine owner.
+
+"Time will show you that, sir.  In the meantime, since we cannot
+live here, what do you expect us to do?"
+
+"I have said nothing about your not living here," uttered Don
+Luis, looking astonished.  "You are very welcome to all that my
+poor house affords."
+
+"Thank you; but we can't live here, just the same."
+
+"And why not, _caballeros_?"
+
+"Because we shall henceforth be on the most wretched sort of terms
+with the owner of this house."
+
+"There is no need of that, _caballeros_.  You will, I think, find
+me extremely courteous.  My house is open to you, and there is
+no other place that you can go."
+
+"Nowhere to go but out," mimicked Harry Hazelton, dryly.
+
+"You will find yourselves unable to get out of these hills," Don
+Luis informed them, politely, though with an evil smile.  "You
+may decide to leave us, and you may start at any time, but you
+will assuredly find yourselves stopped and brought back.  You
+simply cannot leave me, _caballeros_, until I give my consent.
+Remember, no king could rule in these hills more absolutely than
+I do.  No one may enter or leave this part of the state of Bonista
+without my consent."
+
+"As to that, of course we shall know more later, Don Luis," Tom
+returned.  "However, we cannot and shall not remain longer as guests
+in your house."
+
+"I trust you will consider well and carefully on that point,"
+retorted the Mexican.
+
+"No; we simply can't and won't remain here unless--well, unless--"
+
+"What are you trying to say, senor?"
+
+"Then possibly you have overlooked building any dungeons under the
+house?  Dungeons, I understand, were a part of the housekeeping
+scheme in old Mexico."
+
+"There are no dungeons here," said Don Luis icily.
+
+"You relieve me, sir.  Then the last obstacle is removed to our
+departure.  We shall go at once.  Come on, Harry."
+
+Tom turned to leave the room, Hazelton at his heels.  But Montez,
+with an angry exclamation, leaped to the doorway, barring their
+exit.
+
+"_Caballeros_, you shall not leave like this!"
+
+"No?" Tom inquired.  "Harry, our late host wishes us to leave
+by the windows."
+
+"All right," nodded Hazelton, smiling.  "I used to be something
+of an athlete."
+
+"You shall not leave me in any such childish spirit," Don Luis
+insisted, stubbornly.
+
+"If you are going to try to reopen the proposition that you made us,"
+said Reade, "you may as well stop."
+
+"You will come to your senses presently."
+
+"We are in full possession of them at present."
+
+"We shall yet come to a sensible arrangement of the matter," Montez
+continued, coaxingly.  Indeed, the Mexican had suddenly come to
+see that he was absolutely dependent upon the young Americans
+if he hoped to sell his mine in the near future.
+
+"You are wrong, Don Luis," Reade continued.  "We can come to no
+understanding.  Matters have now gone so far that we are no longer
+bound by the rules of courtesy.  Nor do the laws of hospitality
+weigh with us, for you have chosen to bully and threaten us under
+your own roof.  I will therefore be frank enough to tell you that
+we regard you as a mere rogue.  Am I right, Harry?"
+
+"Wholly right," nodded Hazelton.  "Don Luis, I cannot see that
+you are one whit more honest, or in any sense more of a gentleman,
+than any of the outlawed bandits who roam these mountains.  Therefore,
+as Americans and gentlemen, we find it wholly impossible for us
+to remain either your employs or your guests.  There can be no
+hope whatever that we shall consent to serve you, even in the
+most innocent way."
+
+Don Luis heard them with rising anger, which, however, he kept down
+with a fine show of self-control.
+
+"_Caballeros_, you are young.  You have not seen much of the world.
+You are mere boys.  You have not even, as yet, developed good
+manners.  Therefore I overlook in you what, in men, might arouse
+my anger.  Take my advice.  Go to your rooms.  Think matters over.
+When you have cooled we will talk again.  No--not a word, now."
+
+Don Luis stepped aside.  Tom bowed, very stiffly, in passing the
+Mexican.  Harry merely gazed into the Mexican's eyes with a steadiness
+and a contempt that made the mine owner wince.
+
+Straight down the hallway, to their rooms, Tom marched, Harry
+following.  Barefooted Nicolas sprang forward, bowing, then swinging
+open the door.  He bowed again as the young engineers stepped
+inside.  Then Nicolas pulled the door shut.
+
+"Are you going to stay, Tom, and have any further talk with this
+thief?" sputtered Harry, who had held in about as long as was
+safe for him.
+
+"What do you think?" Tom asked, grimly, as he knelt upon his trunk
+and tugged at the strap.
+
+"I reckon I think about the same as you do," rejoined Hazelton,
+closing his own trunk and strapping it.
+
+"One--two _hoist_!" ordered Reade, settling his own trunk upon
+his shoulder.
+
+Harry followed suit.  In Indian file they moved across the room.
+
+"Nicolas," called Tom, "be good enough--the door!"
+
+The barefooted servant swung the barrier open.
+
+"Thank you," said Tom, marching out.  Then he dumped the trunk,
+noiselessly, to the floor.  Going into an inner pocket he produced
+a five dollar bill.
+
+"Nicolas," said the young chief engineer, "you have certainly
+done all in your power to make us comfortable.  I am sorry that
+we are not longer to have the comfort of your services.  Will
+you do me the favor of accepting this as a remembrance?  It is
+American money, but you can easily get it changed.  And now, let
+us shake hands."
+
+Nicolas appeared dazed, both by the money and by Tom's desire to
+shake hands with him.  The hand that Tom clasped trembled.
+
+"Same here," murmured Harry, also producing a five-dollar bill.
+"Nicolas, you're a Mexican, but I wish they produced more of your
+kind on the American side of the Rio Grande."
+
+"The _caballeros_ have been too generous with me," protested the
+poor fellow, in a husky voice.  "I have not deserved this.  And,
+though I have been a stupid servant, you have not once beaten
+me with your canes."
+
+"If you can find the canes you may keep them, then, as a souvenir
+of what you didn't get," laughed Reade.  "And now, Nicolas, we
+must hasten, or we shall lose our trains."
+
+The Mexican would have said more, but he was too dazed.  In his
+left hand he held ten dollars in American money, about the same
+thing as twenty in Mexican coin.  It was more money than he had
+ever held of his own before--it was almost a fortune.  Surely,
+these _Americanos_ must suddenly have taken leave of their senses!
+Then, too, Senor Reade had just spoken of missing the train.
+Did they not realize that the nearest railway train was seventy
+miles away?  Assuredly, they must be mad!
+
+In the meantime Tom and Harry, having once more shouldered their
+trunks, kept on down the broad hallway and out on to the porch.
+There was no one there to oppose them, though Don Luis was secretly
+regarding them through the crack of a nearly closed door.  There
+was an evil, leering smile on the face of the Mexican mine owner.
+
+Down the steps, along the drive--it was not a short one, and
+then out into the road, Tom continued.  His back was beginning
+to feel the unaccustomed load on his shoulder.
+
+"Drop it, pretty soon, Tom," muttered Hazelton, behind him.
+
+"I believe I will Reade nodded.  Reaching the farther side of
+the road he dropped one end of the trunk to the ground.  Harry
+did likewise.
+
+"Whew!" sputtered Tom.  "I'd rather be an engineer, any day, than
+a delivery wagon!"
+
+"Well, we're here," announced Harry.  Then inquired, "What are
+we going to do now?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A PIECE OF LEAD IN THE AIR
+
+
+"Get your wind back," advised Tom. "Also ease your shoulder a bit."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"We'll carry the trunks up the slope and dump them in some depression
+in the rock."
+
+"What's the use of the trunks, anyway?"  Harry wanted to know.
+"No one else will shelter us in this country.  We can't get a
+wagon to take our trunks away in.  Surely, you don't intend to
+shoulder these trunks to the railway station--seventy miles away?"
+
+"No," Reade admitted.  "We'll have to abandon our trunks.  All
+I wanted to be sure about was to get them out of Don Luis's house.
+And now I am just as anxious to get them out of sight of his
+porch.  As long as the trunks stand here they'll tell Don Luis
+of our discomfort.  I don't want that thieving rascal to have
+the satisfaction even of laughing at our trunks."
+
+"All right, if that's the way you feel about it," Hazelton grunted.
+"I'm ready to shoulder mine."
+
+"Come along, then," Tom nodded.  "Up the slope we go."
+
+Their climb was a hard one.  But at last they halted, dropping
+their heavy baggage on a flat surface of rock that was not visible
+from the big white house.  Then up a little higher the now unencumbered
+engineers trod.  When they halted they could see far and wide
+over this strange country.
+
+"Now, what?" asked Hazelton.
+
+"Luncheon, if I had my choice," muttered Tom.  "But that's out
+of the question, I fear."
+
+"Unless we can catch a rabbit, or something, with our hands."
+
+"Harry, I wonder if we can find the trail all the way back to
+the railroad.  These mountain paths are crooked affairs at best."
+
+"We know the general direction, and our pocket compasses will serve
+us," Hazelton nodded.
+
+"Don Luis seems to think that he can stop us from getting through
+to the railroad."
+
+"I'm not so sure that he can't, either, Tom.  Hang these little
+Mexicans.  With our hands either one of us could thrash an armful
+of these people, but a Mexican with a gun is almost the size of
+an American with a gun.  Tom, if we only had a brace of revolvers
+I believe we could go through to civilization without mishap."
+
+"We haven't any pistols, so there's no use in talking about them,"
+Reade retorted.
+
+"But we would have had revolvers, at least in our baggage, if
+you hadn't always been so dead set against carrying them," Harry
+complained.
+
+"I'm just as much set against firearms as ever," Tom answered,
+dryly.  "Revolvers are made for killing people.  Now, why any sane
+man should desire to kill any one goes beyond me."
+
+"Humph!  We'll be lucky if we can get out of these mountains without
+killing any one," grunted Hazelton.
+
+"Cheer up!" laughed Tom.  "The whole world hasn't turned black just
+because we've skipped our luncheon."
+
+"I wouldn't mind the luncheon," Harry began, "if--"
+
+He stopped short, as he caught a glimpse of the spot where they
+had left their trunks.
+
+"Tom, let's hustle back to where we left our trunks," he whispered.
+"I just saw some one moving about on that spot"
+
+"Oh, if any thief is after our baggage, let him have it," smiled
+Tom. "The stuff all goes to a thief in the end, anyway, for we
+know that we can't carry our trunks with us."
+
+But that didn't suit.  Hazelton, who still felt as though he owned
+his own trunk.  So he started back, soft-footed.  Presently they
+came in sight of a human being seated on Reade's trunk.
+
+"Nicolas!" breathed Tom.
+
+"_Si, senor_," (yes, sir) returned the servant.
+
+"But what are you doing here?"
+
+"I am your servant," replied the Mexican, calmly.
+
+"Wrong; you're Don Luis's servant."
+
+"But he ordered me to wait on you both unceasingly, senor."
+
+"We have left Don Luis's house, for good," Tom continued, walking
+over to where the barefooted one sat.
+
+"That may be true, senor; it is true, since you say it, but my
+orders have not been changed.  Until Don Luis tells me differently
+I shall go on serving you."
+
+"Did Don Luis send you after us, Nicolas?" Reade demanded, wonderingly.
+
+"No, senor."
+
+"Did any one at the house send you?"
+
+"No, senor.  I did not need to be sent.  I am faithful."
+
+Nicolas followed this with a smile that showed his white teeth.
+He spoke in utter simplicity.
+
+"And now what can I do for you, _caballeros_?" the Mexican inquired.
+
+"Nicolas," asked Tom, with sudden inspiration, "is there any store
+hereabouts?  Any place where food can be purchased?"
+
+"No, senor; there is a store not far from the shaft entrance of
+_El Sombrero_ Mine.  That is where the _peons_ of the mine draw
+their food, and have it charged against their pay accounts.  But
+no one may buy there for cash."
+
+"Is there no place where you can buy food for us?"
+
+"_Caballeros_, of course, I will not pretend not to understand
+that you are on bad terms with Don Luis.  Hence, both his storekeeper
+and his _peons_ would hesitate to sell food for you or to you.
+But I have a relative who works in the mine, and he is a brave
+man.  I think I can persuade him to sell me food and ask no questions.
+In fact, _caballeros_, that is what I will do."
+
+"It won't get your relative into any trouble, will it, Nicolas?"
+Tom asked.
+
+"I can manage it, senor, so that no trouble will follow."
+
+"Then take this money and get some food, my good Nicolas, if you
+can manage it without getting any one into trouble."
+
+"It will have to be very plain food, Senor Reade, such as _peons_
+eat," urged Nicolas.
+
+"Plain food never killed any man yet," Tom laughed.  "Well, then,
+take this money and serve us at your convenience."
+
+"I have no need of money," replied the Mexican, shaking his head.
+"I am well supplied, _caballeros_."
+
+Displaying the two banknotes that he had received an hour before,
+Nicolas took three steps backward, then vanished.
+
+"There goes a faithful fellow!" glowed Tom.
+
+"If he isn't doing this under Don Luis's orders," muttered Hazelton.
+
+"Harry, I'm ashamed of you," retorted Tom, finding a soft, grass-covered
+spot and stretching himself out.  He pulled his sombrero forward
+over his face and lay as though asleep.  Any one, however, who
+had tried to creep upon Reade would speedily have discovered that
+he was far from drowsy.
+
+"Humph!" said Harry, after glancing at his chum.  "You don't appear
+to realize that there's any such thing as danger around us."
+
+"If there is, I can't keep it away," Tom rejoined.  "Harry, this
+idle life is getting into my blood, I fear.  Now, I know just
+how happy a tramp feels."
+
+"Go ahead and enjoy yourself, then," laughed Hazelton.  "For fifteen
+minutes at a time you'd make an ideal tramp.  Then you'd want to go
+to work"
+
+"I wouldn't mind having a little work to do," Reade admitted.
+"Harry, it took nerve to throw up our connection with Don Luis.
+At least, that meant some work to do."
+
+"It did not," Harry contradicted.  "Don Luis didn't want us in
+his mine at all, and showed us that as plainly as he could.  All
+the work he wanted out of us was the writing of two signatures.
+The need of the signatures was all that ever made him bring us
+down from the United States."
+
+"He'd he such a charming fellow, too, if he only knew a little
+bit about being honest," sighed Tom, regretfully.
+
+"There is one thing about his rascality that I shall never forgive,"
+growled Hazelton.  "That was, dragging his innocent daughter into
+the game, just in the hope that her presence would influence us
+to sign."
+
+"I trust, _caballeros_, that you did not find me too slow and
+lazy," broke in the soft voice of Nicolas, as that servant stole
+back in on them.  He was well laden with parcels, at sight of
+which Reade sat up with a jerk.
+
+"Anything in that lot that's all ready to be eaten without fussy
+preparation, Nicolas?" the young chief engineer asked eagerly.
+
+"Oh, _si senor_!"
+
+"Then lead us to it, boy!"
+
+The Mexican servant unwrapped a package, revealing and holding
+up a tin.
+
+"Food of your own kind, from your own country, _caballeros_,"
+the Mexican announced proudly.
+
+"Canned baked beans," chuckled Harry, after glancing at the label.
+"Hurry and get the stuff open."
+
+Nicolas opened two tins of the beans, then produced a package of
+soda biscuits.
+
+"This will be enough for one meal, _caballeros_?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, plenty," nodded Tom.
+
+"And then I have some of our Mexican beans, dried," Nicolas continued.
+"They will do when we are not so near a food supply.  I have
+also a little dish in which to boil them over a fire.  Oh, we
+shall get along excellently, _caballeros_."
+
+Shortly the very simple meal was ready and eaten in record time.
+
+"And here is something else that we shall drink in the morning,"
+Nicolas announced, presently as he held up a package.  "It is
+chocolate."
+
+As Tom and Harry both detested this beverage, they were forced
+to feign their enthusiasm.
+
+"Now, I feel as though we ought to do some walking," Tom declared,
+rising and stretching.
+
+"Walking?" queried Nicolas.  "Where?"
+
+"Over the hills to the nearest telegraph station.  There is one
+within twenty miles, is there not?"
+
+"There is, _caballero_," Nicolas assented, gravely, "but it will
+be impossible for us to reach it."
+
+"Impossible?  Why?" Reade demanded.
+
+"On my way back I kept my eyes open," the Mexican explained.
+"As a result I discovered who is in these hills about us."
+
+"Who, then?" Harry asked.
+
+"Pedro Gato," Nicolas affirmed solemnly.
+
+"Who?" said Tom.  "Oh, Gato?  Only he?"
+
+"Only he and some of his worthless, criminal companions," the
+servant went on, solemnly.  "Senor Reade, at no greater distance
+than this from Don Luis you may be safe from Gato.  Yet, if you
+stroll but a few miles from here Pedro Gato will not so greatly
+fear the hidalgo.  Then Gato will work his own will with you."
+
+"He will, oh?" Tom demanded grimly.
+
+"Of a surety, senor!"
+
+"If I should see Pedro Gato first, he would be likely to come in for
+another walloping," Tom laughed, dryly.
+
+"But you would not see him, senor.  You would hear him only, and
+Gato's message would be a bullet."
+
+"Can Gato shoot any better than he fights?" smiled Reade.
+
+Bang!  An unseen rifle spoke.  Judged by the sound the marksman
+was not more than three hundred yards away.
+
+"Sz-z-z-zz!" the leaden missile sang through the air.  It flattened
+against a rock in front of which the young chief engineer was
+standing.
+
+"You are answered, _mi caballero_!" cried Nicolas, throwing himself
+flat on the earth.  "Drop to the earth, senor, before the second
+shot is fired!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NICOLAS DOES AN ERRAND
+
+
+Tom did not follow the advice to flatten himself on the ground.
+Instead, he stood straighter--even rose on his toes and stared
+in the direction whence he judged the shot to have come.
+
+"Gato, you treacherous scoundrel!" Read roared, in Spanish.  "Do
+you call yourself a brave man, to fight an unarmed foe like this?"
+
+All was silent amid the rocks in the distance.
+
+"Have you too little courage to answer me?" Tom again essayed.
+"Or are you man enough to show yourself--to come forward and
+listen to me.  Don't be afraid.  I can't hurt you.  I have no
+weapon worse than my fists."
+
+As the young chief engineer spoke in Spanish, Nicolas understood.
+
+"Don't!  Don't, _mi caballero_," implored the Mexican servant
+"Don't let him know that you are unarmed.  Make a move as though
+to draw a pistol, and Gato may run away instead of sighting his
+rifle once more at you."
+
+"Now I know you, Gato, for the wolfish coward that you are," Tom
+Reade shouted mockingly.  "You are desperately afraid when you
+won't meet me, unarmed as I am."
+
+"If Senor Reade is so utterly brave when he has no weapons," thought
+the barefooted servant, "then if he had a gun in his hand he would
+be the bravest man in all the world!"
+
+"I guess that yellow dog isn't going to bark at us again, just
+now," laughed Tom, carelessly, when some moments had passed without
+another shot.  "Doubtless, the fellow was frightened away by the
+sound of his own rifle."
+
+"That shot was a warning," chattered Nicolas.  "It is his way
+of sending you his defiance.  When Gato fires again he will try
+in earnest to kill you, and he will keep on firing until he succeeds.
+Oh, _mi caballero_, if you will give me some more of your Americano
+money, I will hasten about until I find some one who will sell
+me a gun for you.  You must have one in your hands all the time."
+
+"Not for mine," smiled Reade.  "To tell you the truth, Nicolas,
+guns sometimes make me nervous.  If I had one I might be clumsy
+enough to shoot myself with it."
+
+"Nicolas is talking sense," interrupted Hazelton, speaking in
+English.  "Both you and I should be armed."
+
+"By all means have Nicolas get a gun for you, Harry, if you will,"
+Reade answered, coolly.  "But none for me."
+
+"I'd like to meet Gato face to face and on equal terms," Harry
+went on, dropping back into the Spanish tongue.
+
+"So would I," agreed his chum.  "I have much to say to Gato.
+If there were mail boxes in this wild country I'd drop him a letter."
+
+"Do you really wish to send Gato a letter?" asked Nicolas, eagerly.
+
+"Why, I'd send him one if I could," nodded Tom.
+
+"Have you writing materials?" pressed the servant.
+
+"Yes--but what's the use?"
+
+"Write your letter, _mi caballero_, and I will hand it to Gato,"
+urged the Mexican.
+
+"You?" gasped Tom.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"I will hand the letter to him in person."
+
+"You--go to Gato?"
+
+"Yes.  Why not?"
+
+"Gato would kill you!"
+
+"Kill a poor _peon_?" smiled Nicolas.  "Oh, no; I am not worth
+while.  I am not a fighting man."
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," demanded Tom, astonished, "that you
+could go openly and safely to Gato?"
+
+"Assuredly," declared Nicolas, composedly.  "Gato would not harm
+me.  I am one of his own people, a Mexican, and have not the courage
+to fight.  So he would only disgrace himself in the eyes of his
+countrymen if he tried to do me harm."
+
+"Is that the truth?" Reade persisted.
+
+"Certainly, Senor Reade.  If there were a priest here I would
+swear to it as the truth."
+
+"And you have the courage to try to hand a note to Gato?"
+
+"Under the circumstances it does not require courage, since I
+am safe," replied Nicolas, steadily and easily.
+
+"Hanged if I don't think I will write a note to Pedro Gato!" chuckled
+Tom.
+
+"Do so, _mi caballero_; at your convenience."
+
+Tom tore a page out of a notebook, and with his fountain pen wrote
+the following note in Spanish:
+
+"Pedro Gato: If you had half the courage of a rabbit you would
+not go skulking through the hills, shooting at me without giving
+me any chance to tell you or show you what I think of you.  A
+shot has just struck near my head, yet no glimpse was to be had
+of the man who fired the shot.  If you did that, then you are
+a coward of a low, mean type.  If you do not feel like accepting
+my opinion of you, then will you meet me and explain your conduct
+as one real man talks with another?  If you will not give me this
+explanation, and persist in trying to shoot at me, then I warn
+you that I will and must pummel you with my fists if I ever have
+the pleasure of meeting you face to face."
+
+"Thomas Reade."
+
+Harry glanced through the note and smiled.  "That ought to scare
+the bold, bad man," said he.
+
+"Read this, Nicolas, and see if you think the note will shame
+the scoundrel," laughed Tom.
+
+"Pardon, _mi caballero_," objected Nicolas, "but I am no scholar.
+I do not know how to read or write."
+
+"Oh!" said Tom simply.  "Then let me read it to you."
+
+Tom repeated what he had written, then asking:
+
+"Do you think, Nicolas, that it will be safe for you to take this
+to Pedro Gato?"
+
+"Assuredly, senor."
+
+"And you are sure you can find the scoundrel?"
+
+"I think so, though it may take considerable time."
+
+Nicolas took the note, holding it tight in his left hand.  He
+was visible for a few steps, after which he dodged down behind
+a rock and was seen no more.
+
+Moving stealthily over the hillsides, Nicolas spent a full hour
+in obtaining the first glimpse of Gato.  That worthy was seated
+on the ground, smoking and chatting in low tones with his
+desperate-looking companions.  Suddenly Pedro caught sight of the
+servant and started up.  He beckoned, and Nicolas approached.
+
+"You have come to serve us," said Gato, delightedly.  "You are
+a good youth, and I shall reward you handsomely some day.  You
+are ready to tell us how we can trap the two Gringos.  How many
+weapons have they, and of what kind?"
+
+"Truly, I do not know, Senor Gato," Nicolas answered.
+
+"That taller Gringo taunted me with the claim that he was not
+armed at all," grinned Gato, ferociously.  "But I am too old a
+man to be caught by any such lie as that.  He was trying to lead
+us on, that we might walk into their Gringo trap.  Was he not?"
+
+"Truly I do not know," Nicolas repeated.
+
+"Then what are you doing here, if you bring us no news?" snarled
+Gato, whereat Nicolas began to tremble.
+
+"I--I bring a letter from his excellency, _el caballero_, Reade,"
+faltered the servant.
+
+"A letter?" cried Gato, hoarsely.  "Why did you not say so before."
+
+"I have been waiting, Senor Gato, until you gave me time to speak,"
+protested the messenger.
+
+"Hand me the letter," ordered Gato, stretching forth his hand.
+
+Nicolas handed over the page torn from Tom's notebook.  Gato slowly
+puzzled his way through the note, his anger rising with every
+word.
+
+"The insolent Gringo!" he cried.  "He insults my courage!  This
+from one who is a mere Gringo--the most cowardly race of people
+on the earth.  Oh, I shall exact revenge for this insolence.
+And you, Nicolas, had the impudence to come here with such an
+insult."
+
+"I assure you, Senor Gato, I was but the unfortunate messenger."
+Nicolas replied, meekly.
+
+"Since you brought this insolence to me you shall take back my
+message.  Tell the dogs of Gringos that I laugh at them.  Tell
+the Gringo, Reade, that, in these hills, I shall do as I please.
+That I shall let him pass safely, if I am so minded, or that
+I shall shoot at him whenever I choose.  Assure him that I regard
+his life as being my property.  Begone, you rascal!"
+
+Nor did Nicolas linger.  From the outset he had been badly scared,
+though he had been truthful in assuring Tom Reade that a bandit
+would hardly hurt a poor _peon_.
+
+When Nicolas at last reached the young engineers he delivered
+the message that Pedro Gato had regarded the whole matter as
+insolence, and had been very angry.
+
+"Gato added," continued Nicolas, "that he would shoot at you when
+and where he pleased.  And he will do it.  He is a ferocious fellow."
+
+"Humph!" muttered Tom.  "If your feet don't mind, my good Nicolas,
+I have a good mind to send Gato another and much shorter note.
+Is it far to go!"
+
+"N-not very far," said Nicolas, though he began to quake.
+
+"Of course, I shall pay you well for this and all the other trouble
+you are taking on my account," Tom continued, gently.
+
+"I am finely paid by being allowed to serve you at all, Senor
+Reade," Nicolas protested.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+PINING FOR THE GOOD OLD U.S.
+
+
+"You will have to be very careful that Gato does not get another
+chance to shoot at you, _mi caballero_," Nicolas went on.  "He
+does not believe that you are unarmed, or he would speedily settle
+with you.  But he will shoot at you frequently, from ambush, if
+you give him the chance."
+
+"Then I hope he'll do it frequently," grimaced Reade.  "The need
+of frequent shooting indicates bad marksmanship."
+
+"Senor," begged Nicolas, "I would not joke about Gato.  He means
+to kill you, or worse."
+
+"Worse?" queried Tom, raising his eyebrows.  "How could that be?"
+
+The Mexican servant made a gesture of horror.
+
+"It is worse when our Mexican bandits torture a man," he replied,
+his voice shaking.  "They are fiends--those of our Mexicans who
+have bad hearts."
+
+"Then you believe that Gato plans something diabolical, just because
+I walloped him in a fair fight--or in a fight where the odds
+were against me?"
+
+"It matters not as to the merits of the fight," Nicolas went on.
+"Gato will never be satisfied until he has hurt you worse than
+you hurt him."
+
+"And perhaps Don Luis may be behind the rascal, urging him on
+and offering to protect him from the law?  What do you think about
+that, Nicolas?"
+
+"I cannot say," Nicolas responded, with a slight shrug.  "I am
+Don Luis's servant."
+
+"Pardon my forgetting that," begged Harry.  "I should not have
+spoken as I did."
+
+"For more than one reason," Tom muttered, "we shall do well to
+get out of this unfriendly stretch of country.  Harry, we're pining
+for the good old U.S., aren't we?"
+
+"Just a glimpse of the American side of the border--that's all
+we want," laughed Hazelton.
+
+"And, if we're to be killed, we'll at least be killed while trying
+to reach the border," Reade proposed.
+
+"Do you intend starting now, senor?" asked Nicolas, in a low voice.
+
+"Not before dark," Tom murmured.
+
+"Then why do you two not sleep for a while?" begged the servant.
+"You will need some strength if you are to travel through these
+mountains all night.  Sleep!  You can trust me to keep awake and
+to warn you if danger gets close."
+
+"Thank you, old fellow; I know we can trust you," Tom replied.
+He stretched himself out on the ground, pulling his hat down
+over his eyes.  Within two minutes he was sound asleep.  Not more
+than a minute after that Harry, too, was dozing.
+
+It was still daylight when Tom awoke.  He sat up.  Harry was sleeping
+soundly, and Nicolas was not in sight.
+
+"Abandoned?" thought Reade.  "No; that's hardly likely.  Nicolas
+rings true.  Hiding close to here, undoubtedly, that he may keep
+better watch.  A call will bring him here."
+
+Tom rose, to look about.
+
+"Be cautious, senor," came the whispered advice from an unseen
+speaker.  "If you expose yourself you may invite a bullet."
+
+Tom promptly accepted the advice.  Going toward the sound of the
+voice, he found Nicolas crouched in a trough of rock not far from
+where they had lain down.
+
+"Now, Nicolas, it's your turn," whispered Reade.
+
+"My turn for what, senor?"
+
+"Sleep!"
+
+"I am but a servant, senor.  I do not need rest."
+
+"Nicolas, you go in and lie down near Hazelton, and go to sleep."
+
+The Mexican grumbled a little, but all his life he had been taught
+to obey orders.  Within sixty seconds the servant was sound asleep.
+
+An hour later it began to darken.
+
+Harry Hazelton awoke with a start, to find Tom with his finger
+on his lips.
+
+"Nicolas is asleep," whispered Reade.  "Don't make any noise that
+will awaken him.  I have no doubt that he would go through with
+us and be our guide.  But that would put him in bad with Don Luis,
+and we have no right to expose the poor fellow to blame.  Move
+about without noise, and we'll eat some of the stuff that Nicolas
+brought us."
+
+This was done.  It was dark by the time that the simple meal had
+been finished.  Tom drew out another five-dollar bill, which he
+pinned to the shirt of the poor Mexican.
+
+"Now we'll take all the food with us," Tom whispered.  "Nicolas
+won't need any of it, as he's less than twenty minutes' walk from
+a square feed.  Come along--on tip-toe."
+
+Tom led the way through the darkness, not halting until they were
+well away from the Mexican.
+
+"Now, wait a moment, until we get our bearings from the stars,"
+Tom proposed.  "Then we'll make a straight, fast, soft hike to
+the telegraph station."
+
+"Only twenty miles away, over the boulders," murmured Hazelton.
+
+"This is where our past physical training comes in finely," Tom
+rejoined.  He looked up at the sky, pointing to and naming several
+of the fixed stars.
+
+"Now, as we know our course, we can hardly, go astray," Reade
+suggested.  "Ready!  Forward march!"
+
+Tom took the lead in this, as he did in nearly everything else.
+For more than an hour the young engineers trudged ahead.  When
+at last they halted for breath they had covered at least three
+miles of their way.
+
+"Nicolas will feel insulted when he wakes, I'm afraid," suggested
+Hazelton.
+
+"I'm afraid he will.  Nicolas may have a copper skin, and be under-sized
+and illiterate, but he's one of the old-fashioned, true-to-the-death
+kind.  But, if he helped guide us out of this wilderness, Don Luis
+would probably flay the poor fellow alive afterwards."
+
+"I wonder if we're going to make the telegraph station by daylight!"
+Harry went on.
+
+"I'm afraid not.  But we ought to be there some time during the
+forenoon."
+
+"That will give Don Luis time, perhaps, to wake up to our disappearance
+and send men after us," hinted Harry.
+
+Tom's face grew long at this suggestion.  He was well aware that
+Don Luis Montez was a man who was both dreaded and obeyed in these
+mountains.
+
+"Oh, well, we'll do all we can for ourselves," Tom proposed.
+"We'll keep cheerful about it, too--until the worst happens."
+
+"I'm rested, Tom.  Shall we start along?"
+
+"Yes; for we're both anxious to get through!"
+
+Once more Reade took the lead.  They trudged another mile, often
+without finding the semblance of a trail.  Finally, they discovered
+what seemed to be a crude road leading in their general direction.
+
+Ahead boulders loomed up.  They were getting into a rough part
+of the mountains.
+
+As Tom plodded around a bend in the road, past a big rock, he
+heard a low laugh.
+
+"Oblige me, senores, by showing me how high you can reach in the
+air!" came a mocking voice.
+
+Tom and Harry had both stepped around into the plain range of
+vision of Pedro Gato.
+
+That scoundrel stood with rifle butt to his shoulder, his glance
+running along the barrel.  The weapon covered them.
+
+"Don't forget!  Your hands, _caballeros_!" insisted Gato, jubilantly.
+
+For a brief instant Tom Reade hesitated.  He was doing some lightning
+calculating as to whether he would be able to spring forward under
+the rifle barrel and knock up the weapon.
+
+But a second glance showed him that he could not hope to do it.
+Pedro Gato was completely master of the situation.
+
+"For the third time--and the last, _caballeros_ your hands!
+Up high!" commanded Gato exultantly.
+
+"Now, stand just so, until I get back of you," ordered Gato.
+"Do not attempt any tricks, and do not turn to look back at me.
+If you do I shall pull the trigger--once and again.  This rifle
+shoots fast."
+
+While talking Gato had placed himself to the rear of his captives,
+who, with hands up, remained facing ahead.
+
+"Do you want us to keep our hands up forever?" demanded Tom Reade,
+gruffly.
+
+"To take them down will be the signal for death," replied Gato
+coolly.  "Take your hands down, or turn this way, if you deem
+it best.  Possibly you will prefer to die, for to-night's entertainment
+may strike you as being worse than death.  The matter is within
+your own choice, wholly, _caballeros_.  Perhaps on the whole it
+would be far better for you to lower your hands and die."
+
+"Cut out the thrills and the mock-comedy, Gato, and tell us what
+else you want us to do," Tom urged, stiffly.
+
+"Oho!  My Gringo wild-cat is much tamer, isn't he?" sneered Gato.
+"But he shall be tamer still before the night is over.  Now--are
+you listening?"
+
+Harry made no sign, but Tom shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Keep your noses pointed the same way.  March!" commanded Gato.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+NEXT TO THE TELEGRAPH KEY
+
+
+Tom and Harry started along the trail, side by side.
+
+Something whizzed through the air.  Then something struck the
+earth heavily, and there was a slight, quickly repressed groan.
+
+"Quick, _caballeros_!"
+
+For the life of him Tom could not help halting and wheeling about.
+The next second he uttered a low cry of glee.
+
+For Pedro Gato lay flat on the ground, Nicolas bending over him.
+
+"Quick, _caballeros_!" implored Nicolas again.
+
+"You fine chap," chuckled Reade, bounding back and bending over
+Gato, as Nicolas was doing.
+
+"There was no other way to save you," whispered the servant.
+"I had to do it."
+
+As Nicolas raised his right hand, Reade could not help seeing
+that it was stained with blood.
+
+"See here," gasped Tom, recoiling.  "You didn't--you didn't knife
+the scoundrel?"
+
+He had all of an American's disgust of knife-fighting.
+
+"Oh, no--not I," returned the little Mexican.  "I do not use
+the knife.  I am a servant, not a coward.  But I had to throw
+a stone.  I am thankful, senor, that my aim was good."
+
+Tom now discovered that blood was coming from a wound in Gato's
+head.  Moreover, the rascal was beginning to moan.  He would soon
+recover consciousness.
+
+"Do you know how to use this, senor?" Nicolas asked, as he passed
+over a small coil of stout hempen cord.
+
+"I think we can fix the fellow," Tom nodded.  "Roll him over,
+Harry, and hold him.  Don't let the scoundrel reach for any other
+weapons."
+
+Gato's rifle lay on the ground.  Tom pushed it aside with one
+foot as Harry turned the fellow.
+
+"Get his hands behind him," muttered Tom.  "I'll do the tying."
+
+In a very short space of time Gato's hands had been securely bound
+behind him.  More cord was tied around his ankles, in such a way
+that Gato would be able to take short steps but not run.
+
+Suddenly Gato groaned and opened his eyes.
+
+"You'll be more comfortable on your back, old fellow," murmured
+Tom.  "Wait.  I'll turn you."
+
+Gato stared blankly, at first.  Evidently he did not realize the
+situation all at once.  At last a curse leaped to his lips.
+
+"Go easy on that bad-talk stuff," Tom urged him.  "Gentlemen don't
+use such language, and men who travel with us must be gentlemen."
+
+"You miserable Gringo!" wailed Gato, gnashing his teeth.  "You
+will always be full of treacherous tricks.  Even when I had you
+in front of me, and my eyes on you, you managed to knock me down."
+
+"Oh, no!" laughed Tom.  "The credit for this stunt belongs to
+good little Nicolas!"
+
+The servant uttered a protesting cry, but too late.  Tom had spoken
+indiscreetly.
+
+"Nicolas!  You?  You little mountain rat of a _peon_!" growled
+Gato.  "Excellent!  I am glad I know, for I shall destroy you."
+
+Nicolas cowered and shivered before the baleful glare in the larger
+Mexican's eyes.  But Tom took a savage grip of one of Gato's shoulders,
+digging in with his pressure until he made the scoundrel wince.
+
+"You'd better go slow with that talk, Gato," Tom warned him.
+"If you don't we'll turn you over to Nicolas to do with as he
+pleases."
+
+"All right," sneered Gato, not a whit dismayed.  "He would dare
+to do nothing to me.  He would be too afraid of the vengeance that
+he well knows stalks in these hills."
+
+"It is all too true," shuddered Nicolas.
+
+"Come, brace up, Nicolas, and be a man," Tom urged, slapping the
+servant cordially on the shoulder.  "Don't be afraid of any man.
+Let Gato threaten you if he wants to.  Nothing has happened to
+you yet, and he who is afraid is the only man that suffers.  Come,
+Gato, you will have to get up on your feet.  We can't let you
+delay us."
+
+"I shall not stir a step," declared the fellow, grimly.
+
+"Oh, yes, you will."
+
+"Not if you kill me for refusing.  If you wish to take me anywhere,
+Gringos, you will have to carry me every step of the way."
+
+"We won't carry you, either," Tom continued, coolly.  "Gato, a
+few moments ago, you had the whip-hand.  Now, we're carrying the
+whip.  We don't want any nonsense.  If you carry matters too far
+you'll discover that Hazelton and I have had more or less experience
+as wild animal trainers.  But, first of all, your head.  It must
+be attended to."
+
+Tom wiped away the blood, which was now clotting, with his own
+handkerchief.
+
+"Help me to stand him on his feet, Harry," Reade then commanded.
+
+Between them they dragged the heavy fellow to his feet, but Gato
+promptly cast himself down again.
+
+"We'll haul you up again," Tom went on, patiently.  "Don't try
+that mulish trick any more, Gato, or I promise you that you'll
+regret it."
+
+No sooner had he been placed on his feet than.  Gato once more
+threw himself down.  As soon as he went down, however, Tom jerked
+him to his feet.
+
+A roar like that of an angry bull escaped the lips of the suffering
+Mexican.
+
+"He is trying to summon his men!" cried Nicolas, snatching up
+the rifle.
+
+No sooner was Gato upright than he threw himself down once more.
+
+Again he was roughly jerked to a standing position.
+
+The fourth time that Gato was placed on his feet he stood, though
+he was shaking with fury.
+
+"That's a little better," Tom nodded.  "Now, Nicolas, I imagine
+you know more than I do about where your countrymen carry their
+extra arms.  Search this fellow for weapons, and don't overlook
+anything."
+
+No pistol was revealed by the search, but a long, keen-edged knife
+was brought to light.
+
+"No gentleman has any occasion to carry a thing like that," mocked
+Reade.  Thrusting the blade into a cleft of rock close by, Tom
+snapped the blade, rendering the weapon useless.
+
+"Now, we're ready to go on," announced Tom.  "Harry, will you
+keep behind our guest of the evening and spur him on if he shows
+signs of lagging?"
+
+"Take this gun, Senor Reade," Nicolas hinted, trying to pass the
+weapon to the young chief engineer.
+
+"I don't want it," returned Tom, shaking his head and making a
+gesture of repulsion.  "I don't like guns.  They always make me
+nervous.  I'm afraid of accidents, you see."
+
+"You take the gun, then, Senor Hazelton," begged Nicolas, turning
+to the other engineer.
+
+"Don't you believe it," retorted Harry, gruffly.  "I'd lose caste
+forever with Tom if I carried firearms.  Tom says that nobody
+but a coward will carry firearms.  You keep the gun yourself."
+
+"_Muy bien, senor_," (very good, sir) agreed Nicolas, meekly.
+"It is better that I should carry the weapon then, for I am truly
+worthless.  I am but a _peon_."
+
+"Oh, confound you!" choked Harry.  "I didn't mean that.  You're
+one of the best fellows on earth, Nicolas, for you're a man that
+can be trusted.  Better unstrap that belt of cartridges from Gato,
+too."
+
+The big Mexican ground his teeth and cursed in helpless rage while
+the little servant stripped him of the belt and adjusted it about
+his own waist.
+
+"Now, let's get along," Reade urged.  "We've been losing a lot
+of valuable time.  Besides, we don't know when we'll run into
+some of this mountain pirate's choice friends."
+
+Tom strode on ahead.  Nicolas ran to his side, walking with him.
+Then came Gato, urged on by Harry Hazelton.
+
+"See here, you Nicolas," remarked Tom, protestingly, "why on earth
+didn't you stay put?  We left you behind to-night so that you
+wouldn't run into trouble with Don Luis."
+
+"Don Luis himself told me to wait on your excellencies night and
+day, as long as you remained in Bonista," Nicolas affirmed, solemnly.
+"Don Luis hasn't yet changed those orders, and so I must remain
+with you.  But I had flattered myself that just now I was of enough
+service to you so that you wouldn't be displeased."
+
+"Displeased?  Not a bit of it," muttered Tom.  "But we didn't
+want you to get yourself into trouble on our account.  Now, you've
+gone and written your name in Gato's bad books for certain."
+
+"I have, senor," the _peon_ admitted.  "Gato will take delight
+in cutting my throat for me one of these days."
+
+"Great Scott!" Reade gasped, shivering.  "That's cheerful."
+
+"So that, perhaps, senor," suggested the _peon_, slyly, "you will
+be willing to take me with you to your own country.  Perhaps there,
+also, you will be able to give me work as your servant."
+
+"Rest assured of one thing, Nicolas.  If we can get you safely
+over on to the American side of the border we'll look after you
+properly."
+
+"I am very grateful, senor," protested Nicolas, humbly.
+
+"But we're a long way from the American border as yet," Tom went on.
+
+"You will get there safely, senor," predicted the _peon_.  "You
+are a great man, and you know how to do things."
+
+"Well, for simple faith you're the limit, Nicolas, my boy.  For
+one thing, though, it strikes me that our getting over the border,
+which is some hundreds of miles away, might be hindered if we
+have the tough luck to run into any of Gato's armed pals along
+this route."
+
+"You do well to remind me, senor!" cried Nicolas, in a low tone,
+but one, nevertheless, which was full of self-reproach.  "So much
+have I enjoyed my talk with you that I have been forgetting to
+look after your safety.  Pardon me, senor.  I will vanish, but
+I shall watch over you with the wide-open eyes of the panther."
+
+In another instant Nicolas had vanished from the trail.  Tom,
+however, did not worry.  He knew that Nicolas was not far away,
+and that the little _peon_ was doubtless as valuable a scout as
+their expedition could have.
+
+"I wish I had asked him to unload that gun, though," Reade muttered
+to himself.  "He's likely as not to hurt some one else beside
+the enemy with a stray bullet or two."
+
+Three miles further on Tom, Harry and their prisoner halted, for
+on the rough road they were now becoming winded.
+
+"I am near, senores," whispered a familiar voice, though Nicolas
+did not show himself over the rocks that concealed him.
+
+"Yes," sneered Gato, harshly, "you are indeed near--near death,
+you silly little fool.  Always before you have been safe because
+you were not a fighting man.  But now you have taken to deeds
+of arms, and you shall take your chances whenever you stir in
+these mountains.  For that matter you will surely be cut down
+before the dawn comes."
+
+"That reminds me," muttered Tom.  "We want to be farther from
+Don Luis before dawn arrives.  Gato, oblige us by rising and joining
+in the hike."
+
+Though Gato snarled, he allowed himself to be hoisted to his feet.
+Then, with alert Harry behind him the villain allowed himself
+to be ordered along the trail.
+
+When dawn came Nicolas informed the young engineers that they
+were now within about four miles of the nearest telegraph station.
+The food that they had brought along was opened; even Gato had
+his share.  Then Nicolas vanished once more, and the march was
+resumed.
+
+The sun was well up, and beating down hot and fiery when Nicolas,
+standing on a jutting ledge of rock, pointed down into the valley
+at a little clump of wooden buildings, roofed with corrugated iron.
+
+"That third house is the telegraph station," said the _peon_.
+"You will know it by the wires running in."
+
+"Shan't we all go down?" asked Harry.
+
+"I'm afraid it wouldn't be wise," Tom answered.  "We can't turn
+our prisoner loose.  On the other hand, if we took him with us,
+roped as he is, it might stir up a lot of questioning and make
+some trouble.  But Nicolas will know better.  What do you say,
+my boy?"
+
+"I say that Senor Reade is right."
+
+Tom therefore started down into the valley alone.  A few half-clad
+natives lounged in the street.  They stared curiously at this
+stalwart-looking, bronzed young Gringo who walked toward them
+with alert step.
+
+Two or three of the children, after the custom of their kind,
+called out for money.  Tom, smiling pleasantly, drew forth a few
+loose American coins that he had with him and scattered them in
+the road.  Then he hastened on to the telegraph station, a
+squalid-looking little one-room shanty.  But the place looked good to
+Tom, for its wires reached out over the civilized world, and more
+especially ran to the dear old United States that he was so anxious
+to reach with a few words.
+
+Tom passed inside, to find a bare-footed, white-clad Mexican soldier
+at a telegraph desk.  The soldier wore the chevrons of a sergeant.
+
+"Sergeant, may I send a telegram from here?" Tom inquired in Spanish.
+
+"Certainly, senor," replied the sergeant, pushing forward a blank.
+As this telegraph station was a military station, it was under
+the exclusive control of the soldiery.
+
+Tom picked up the blank and the proffered pencil.  He dated the
+paper, then wrote the name and address of the manager of his and
+Harry's engineering office in the United States.  Below this Reade
+wrote:
+
+"Hazelton and I are now endeavoring to reach railway and return
+immediately.  If not heard from soon, look us up promptly through
+Washington."
+
+"Our man will know, from this, if he doesn't hear from us soon,"
+Tom reflected, "that there has been foul play, and that he must
+turn the matter over to the United States Government at Washington
+for some swift work by Uncle Sam on our behalf.  Once this message
+gets through to the other end, Harry and I won't have to worry
+much about being able to get out of Mexico in safety."
+
+The sergeant read the English words through carefully.
+
+"Will the senor pardon me for saying," ventured the telegrapher,
+"that this message reads much as though yourself and a friend
+are trying to escape?"
+
+The man spoke in English, though with a Spanish accent.
+
+"What do you mean, Sergeant?" Tom queried, quickly.
+
+"Why should you need to escape, if you are honest men, engaged
+in honest business?" demanded the sergeant, eyeing Reade keenly.
+
+"Why, it isn't a felony to try to get out of Mexico, is it?" Tom
+counter-queried.
+
+"That depends," said the sergeant.  "It depends, for instance,
+on why you are leaving."
+
+"We're leaving because we want to," Tom informed him.
+
+"You are Senor Reade, are you not?" pressed the sergeant, after
+eyeing the telegram once more.  "And your friend, who does not
+appear here in person, is Senor Hazelton?  Unless I am wrong,
+then you are the two engineers whom Don Luis Montez engaged.
+How do I know that you have any right to leave Mexico?  How do
+I know that you are not breaking a contract?"
+
+"Breaking a contract?" Tom retorted, somewhat indignantly.  "Sergeant,
+we are not contract laborers.  We are civil engineers--professional
+men."
+
+"Nevertheless," replied the sergeant, handing back the telegram
+into the hands of bewildered.  Tom Reade, "I cannot undertake
+to send this message until it is endorsed with the written approval
+of Don Luis Montez, your employer."
+
+"Does Don Luis own this side of Mexico, or this wing of the Mexican
+Army?" Tom inquired, with biting sarcasm.
+
+"I cannot send the telegram, senor, except as I have stated."
+
+Whereupon the sergeant began firmly, though gently, to push Tom
+out of the room.  Comparing the size and muscular development
+of the two, it looked almost humorous to see this effort.  But
+Tom, who now realized how hopeless his errand was, allowed himself
+to be pushed out.  Then the door was slammed to and locked behind
+him.
+
+"Nothing doing!" muttered Reade, in chagrin and dismay.  "In fact,
+much less than nothing!  Harry and I will simply have to tramp
+fifty miles further and find the railway.  Great Scott!  I doubt
+if the conductor will even let us aboard his train without a pass
+signed by Don Luis.  Hang the entire state of Bonista!"
+
+Deep in thought, and well-nigh overwhelmed by the complete realization
+of his defeat, Tom stalked moodily back up among the rocks.
+
+As he turned a sharp, jutting ledge, Tom suddenly recoiled, as
+a brisk military voice called:
+
+"Para!  Quien vive!" (Halt!  Who goes there?)
+
+Reade found a Mexican military bayonet pressing against his chest,
+behind the bayonet a rifle, and to the immediate rear of the rifle
+a ragged, barefooted young soldier, though none the less a genuine
+Mexican soldier!
+
+Further back other soldiers squatted on the ground.  In their
+centre sat the scowling Gato, handcuffed and therefore plainly
+a prisoner.
+
+Harry and Nicolas were also there--not handcuffed, yet quite
+as plainly prisoners.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE JOB OF BEING AN HIDALGO
+
+
+"This must be a part of the army that Don Luis also owns!" flashed
+through Reade's mind.
+
+From behind the group stepped forth a boyish-looking young fellow
+at whose side dangled a sword.  He was a very young lieutenant.
+
+"Are these your men?" inquired Tom.
+
+"Yes," nodded the lieutenant.
+
+"Why have they stopped me?" Tom demanded, calmly.
+
+"On suspicion, senor."
+
+"Suspicion of what?" demanded Reade, his eyes opening wider.
+"Is it suspicious for a foreigner to be walking about in Mexico?"
+
+"I am not here to answer questions, senor," replied the young
+officer.  "You will be good enough not to resist."
+
+"I haven't any intention of resisting," Tom retorted.  "I know
+better than to think that I can thrash the whole Mexican Army
+that is behind you."
+
+"You are as sensible as I had hoped you would be, senor," continued
+the lieutenant, with a slight bow.
+
+"But I wish you would tell us why you are holding us," Tom insisted.
+
+"I am not obliged to tell you, senor, and I am not certain that
+it would be wise of me to do so," the officer answered.  "However,
+I will say that I found your party with a Mexican citizen as a
+prisoner."
+
+"And you seem to have made a prisoner of the same fellow yourself,"
+Reade retorted.
+
+"As an officer of the Mexican Army, senor, that is my privilege,"
+came the lieutenant's response.  "As to your right, however, to
+arrest and hold a Mexican citizen, there may be some question.
+I shall have to satisfy myself on this point before I can release
+you."
+
+"Why, I'll be wholly frank with you," Tom Reade offered.  "This
+fellow, Gato, is a rascal whom I had occasion to thrash.  In revenge
+for the humiliation he has given me to understand that he would
+kill me.  Last night he held us up at the point of his rifle.
+Our servant, Nicolas, threw a stone that bowled Gato over.  Then,
+for our own safety, we tied him up and brought him with us."
+
+"Why was it necessary to your safety, senor, since you had the
+fellow's rifle and his ammunition?  You see, I have gained this
+much from your friend."
+
+"Why was it necessary?" Tom repeated, wonderingly.  "Why, Lieutenant,
+do you feel that we should have turned a deadly enemy loose?"
+
+"But you had no right to arrest him, senor."
+
+"Nor did we arrest him in the sense that you mean, Lieutenant.
+All we did was to render Gato helpless and bring him along with
+us until we should have passed out of the bit of country in which
+he might have been dangerous to our safety."
+
+"How could he be dangerous when you had his weapon?" the lieutenant
+demanded, argumentatively.
+
+"Why, he had other men out with him.  How long would it have taken
+Gato to find his men and bring them down upon us--three or four
+guns against one?"
+
+"But did you see his other men at any time in the night?"
+
+"No," Tom admitted.
+
+"Senor, you have made a grave mistake in arresting and holding the
+man, Gato.  You had no right to do so."
+
+"Why, in our own country," Tom protested, "any one may arrest
+a man who is committing a crime.  In our own case we very likely
+would have lost our lives to bandits if we had not tied Gato and
+brought him with us."
+
+"Had you tied him and left him behind it might have been different,"
+explained the lieutenant.  "But what you did, Senor Reade, was
+to make an actual arrest, and this you, as an American, had no
+right to do.  Therefore, I shall hold you until this matter has
+been further inquired into."
+
+It was a bad plight, and there seemed to be no simple way out
+of it.  The young chief engineer began to see that, innocently,
+and wholly for the purpose of self-protection, he very likely
+had infringed upon the kinds of rights that foreigners in Mexico
+do not possess.
+
+"All right, Lieutenant," sighed Tom.  "I suppose we shall have
+to go along with you.  Where are you taking us?"
+
+"That will have to be decided," said the officer.  "Nowhere for
+the presents my men are tired and need rest.  We will not humiliate
+you, Senor Reade, by placing you in irons, but I will ask your
+word of honor that you won't attempt to escape from us."
+
+"I give you that word of honor," said Tom, simply.
+
+"And I have only to remind you, senor, that, if you make the mistake
+of breaking your word, bullets travel fast and several of my men
+are sharpshooters."
+
+"I am an American and a gentleman," Reade returned, with offended
+dignity.  "My word of honor is not given to be broken."
+
+"Then you will seat yourself, senor, or stroll about and amuse
+yourself within the narrow limits of this small camp."
+
+Tom stepped over, rested his hand on Harry's shoulder, then dropped
+to a seat beside his chum.
+
+"Can you beat it?" Tom demanded, in ready American slang.
+
+"It would be hard to, wouldn't it?" Harry asked, smiling sheepishly.
+
+Pedro Gato turned to regard them with a surly grin.  Though handcuffed,
+Gato seemed to feel that he was now enjoying his own innings.
+
+For an hour or more the soldiers continued to rest.  All of them,
+including the lieutenant, who sat stiffly aloof from his men,
+rolling and smoking cigarettes.
+
+"I see a bully argument against cigarette smoking," whispered
+Tom in his chum's ear.
+
+"What is it?" Harry wanted to know.
+
+"All of these fellows are smoking cigarettes.  I am proud of myself
+to feel that I don't belong in their class."
+
+"A year ago Alf Drew would have felt at home in this cigarette-puffing,
+sallow-faced lot, wouldn't be?" grinned Harry.
+
+"I am glad to say that Alf now knows how measly a cigarette smoker
+looks," answered Tom.
+
+Alf Drew, as readers of the preceding volume will remember, was
+a boy addicted to cigarettes, but whom Tom had broken of the stupid
+habit.  Alf was now employed in the engineering offices of Reade
+& Hazelton.
+
+"There's something coming," announced Reade, presently.  "It sounds
+like a miniature railroad train."
+
+"I wish it were a real one, and that we had our baggage aboard,"
+muttered Harry, with a grimace.
+
+One of the sentries had gone to intercept the approaching object.
+Instead the soldier now permitted the approaching object to roll
+into camp.  It proved to be Don Luis's big touring car.  In the
+tonneau sat the mine owner and Dr. Carlos Tisco.
+
+"What is this, Senor Reade?" cried Don Luis Montez, in pretended
+astonishment.  "In trouble?  Lieutenant, these gentlemen are friends
+of mine.  May I ask you what this means?"
+
+Tom was not deceived by this by-play.  He snorted mildly while
+the young army lieutenant explained why he had detained the engineers.
+
+"But these gentlemen are friends and employes," Don Luis explained.
+"What they tell you about Gato is quite true.  Will you oblige
+me by releasing these gentlemen, Lieutenant."
+
+The young officer seemed to hesitate.
+
+"It's all a part of the comedy," whispered Tom, and Harry nodded.
+
+"I--I will let these Americanos go, for the present, Don Luis,"
+suggested the lieutenant, "provided you will take them back to
+your estate, and agree to be responsible for them if they are
+wanted.
+
+"Thank you very much, Lieutenant.  I will readily undertake that,"
+agreed Montez, smiling.  "Then come, Senores Reade and Hazelton,
+and I will interrupt my journey to take you back to safety under
+a hospitable roof."
+
+"I don't know that I wouldn't rather go with the soldiers," Harry
+muttered to his chum.
+
+"No!" murmured Reade.  "I've heard too much about these Mexican
+prisons to care anything about going to one.  I reckon we'd better
+go with Don Luis.  After we've rid ourselves of military guard,
+and have reached the Montez estate, we are at least released from
+our word of honor not to attempt an escape.  I guess, Harry, we
+had better take up with Don Luis's rascally offer."
+
+"Well, _caballeros_, does it need much discussion to enable you
+to accept my kindness?" called Montez, banteringly.
+
+"Not at all, Don Luis," Tom made answer.  "We're going with you--with
+the lieutenant's consent."
+
+The young lieutenant bowed his agreement.  Tom and Harry lifted
+their hats lightly to the officer, then stepped into the tonneau
+of the car.
+
+"Home," said Don Luis.
+
+The chauffeur made a quick turn, and the car speedily left the
+camp behind.
+
+"I have often heard, gentlemen, that foreigners have difficulty
+in understanding our laws," observed Don Luis.  He spoke affably,
+but mockery lurked in his tones.  "Without realizing it you two
+have committed a serious offense against our laws.  You have ventured
+to arrest a Mexican citizen."
+
+Nicolas, who sat in front with the chauffeur, sat as stiff and silent
+as though he had been a figure of stone.
+
+"What will be the outcome of this adventure, under the law?" Tom
+inquired, dryly.
+
+"It would need one of our judges to say that," replied Don Luis,
+shrugging his shoulders.  "However, I may be able to arrange the
+matter with the authorities."
+
+"And, if you can't arrange it--?"
+
+"Why, then, I dare say, my friends, you will have to be arrested
+again.  Then you would be taken to one of our prisons until your
+trial came off.  You might even be held _incommunicado_, which
+means that, as prisoners, you would not be allowed to communicate
+with the outside world--not even with your American government."
+
+"And how long would we be held _incommunicado_?" Tom asked.
+
+Don Luis gave another shrug of his shoulders.
+
+"You would be held _incommunicado_, Senor Reade, until the judges
+were ready to try you."
+
+"And that might be years off," Tom muttered.
+
+Don Luis beamed delightedly, while a thin smile curled on Dr. Tisco's
+lips.
+
+"You are beginning, senor, to get some grasp of Mexican law,"
+laughed Montez.
+
+"In other words, Don Luis," said Tom, dryly, "it's a game wherein
+you can't possibly lose, and we can remain out of prison only as
+long as you are gracious enough to will it?"
+
+"That might be rather a strong way of stating the case," murmured
+the Mexican.  "However, after your unlawful act of last night,
+you undoubtedly are liable to a long confinement in one of our
+prisons.  But believe me, Senor Reade, you may command me as far
+as my humble influence with our government goes!"
+
+The situation was certainly one to make Tom think hard.  He was
+certain that Don Luis had engineered the whole situation, even
+to urging Gato on to a part in this grin drama.
+
+"Well, you've got us!" sighed Tom.
+
+"You will find me your best friend, always," protested Montez.
+
+"You have us," Tom continued, "but you haven't our signatures
+to the report on your mine.  That is going to be more difficult."
+
+"Time heals all breaches between gentlemen who should be friends,"
+declared Don Luis, quite graciously.
+
+After that it was a silent party that rode in the touring car.
+Though the road back to the estate was worthy of no such name
+as road, the big car none the less "ate up the miles."  It was
+not long before the young engineers caught sight of the big white
+house.
+
+"Come, gentlemen," begged Don Luis, alighting, and turning to
+the young engineers with a courtly grace that concealed a world
+of mockery.  "You will find your rooms ready, and my household
+ready to minister to your comfort."
+
+Tom Reade, as he stepped upon the porch, drew himself up as stiffly
+as any American soldier could have done.
+
+"We've had to come this far with you, Don Luis," admitted the
+young engineer, dropping all his former pretense of dry good humor,
+"but you can't make us live under your roof unless you go so far
+as to have us seized, tied and carried in."
+
+"I have no intention of being anything but a gracious friend and
+host," murmured Montez.
+
+"Then, while we probably must stay here," Tom resumed, "we'll
+leave your place and go to live somewhere in the open near you.
+We can accept neither your house nor your food."
+
+"Very good," answered Montez, meekly, bowing again.  "I will only
+suggest, _caballeros_, that you do not attempt to go too far from
+my house.  If you do, the soldiers will surely find you.  Then
+they will not bring you back to me, and you will learn what
+_incommunicado_ means in our Mexican law.  _Adios_, _caballeros_!"
+
+"Am I still the servant of the American gentlemen, Don Luis?"
+asked Nicolas, humbly.
+
+"You may go with them.  They will need you, little Nicolas," answered
+Don Luis, and watched the three out of sight with smiling eyes.
+
+Montez could afford to be cheerful.  He knew that he had triumphed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TWO VICTIMS OF ROSY THOUGHTS
+
+
+"There is one thing about it," remarked Reade, as he rose and
+stood at the doorway of the tent.  "We're not being overworked."
+
+"Nor are we getting awfully rich, as the weeks go by, either,"
+smiled Harry.
+
+"No; but we're puppets in a game that interests me about as much
+as any that I ever saw played," Tom smiled back.
+
+"This game--interests you?" queried Harry, looking astonished.
+"That is a new idea to me, Tom.  I never knew you to be interested,
+before, in any game that wasn't directly connected with some great
+ambition."
+
+"We have a great ambition at present."
+
+"I'd like to know what it is," grumbled Harry.  "It's three weeks
+since that scoundrel, Don Luis, brought us back in triumph.  We
+refused to enter his house as guests, and started to camp in the
+open in these two old tents that Nicolas secured for us.  In all
+these three weeks we haven't done a tap of work.  We haven't studied,
+or read because we have no books.  We sleep, eat, and then sleep
+some more.  When we get tired of everything else we go out and
+trudge over the hills, being careful not to get too far, lest
+we run into the guns of Gato and his comrades, for undoubtedly
+Gato was turned loose as soon as he was lost to our sight.  We
+don't do anything like work, and we're not even arranging any
+work for the future.  Yet you say that you're boosting your ambitions."
+
+"I am," Tom nodded solemnly.  "Harry, isn't it just as great an
+ambition to be an honest engineer as it is to be a highly capable
+one?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Don't capitalists usually invest large sums on a favorable report
+from engineers?"
+
+"Often."
+
+"And, if the engineers were dishonest the capitalists would lose
+their money, wouldn't they?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Then here's our ambition, and we're working it out--finely,
+too," Tom went on, with much warmth.  "Don Luis has a scheme to
+rob some people of a large sum of money by selling them a worthless
+mine in a country where there are several good ones.  If he could
+get us to help him, to our own dishonor, Don Luis Montez would
+succeed in swindling this company of men.  Harry, we're just lying
+around here, day after day, doing no hard work, but we're blocking
+Don Luis's game and saving money for honest men.  Don Luis doesn't
+care to have us assassinated, for he still hopes to break down
+our resistance.  He can't bring the capitalists here to meet us
+until we do give in, and so the game lags for Don Luis.  He can't
+bring in other engineers, for they'd meet us and we would post
+them.  The American engineer must be a serious problem for Don
+Luis.  He thought he could buy almost any of us.  Our conduct
+has made him afraid that American engineers can't be bought.
+Evidently he must have his report signed by American engineers
+of repute, which means that he is trying to sell his worthless
+mine to Americans.  Harry, we're teaching Don Luis to respect
+the honesty of American engineers; we're saving some of our countrymen
+from being swindled, probably out of thousands of dollars; we're
+proving that the American engineer is honest, and we're discouraging
+rascals everywhere from employing us in crooked work.  Now, honestly,
+isn't all that ambition enough to hold us for a few weeks?"
+
+"I suppose so," Harry agreed.  "But what is the end of all this
+to be.  Won't Don Luis merely have us assassinated in the end,
+if we go on proving stubborn?"
+
+"He may," Tom answered, pressing his lips grimly.  "But, if he
+does, he'll pay heavily for his villainy."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Every man has to pay for his sins."
+
+"That's what we were taught in Sunday school," Harry nodded, "and
+I've always believed it.  Yet here, in these remote mountains
+of the state of Bonista, if anywhere, Don Luis would appear to
+be safe.  If a few of his men crept up here, late some night,
+with pistols or knives, and finished us before we had time to
+wake up, do you imagine that any one hereabouts would dare to
+make any report of the matter?  Would our fate ever reach the
+outside world?"
+
+"It would be sure to, in time, I believe," Tom answered, thoughtfully.
+
+"How?"
+
+"That I can't tell.  But I believe in the invariable triumph of
+right, no matter how great the odds against it may seem."
+
+"Let right triumph, after we're buried," continued Harry, "and
+what good would it do us?"
+
+"None, in any ordinary material sense.  Yet good would come to
+the world through our fate, even if only in proclaiming, once
+more, the sure defeat of all wicked plans in the end."
+
+Harry said no more, just then.  Tom Reade, who ordinarily was
+intensely practical, was also the kind of young man who could
+perish for an ideal, if need be.  Tom went outside, stretching
+himself on the grass under a tree.  He sighed for a book, but
+there was none, so he lay staring off over the valley below.
+
+Twenty minutes later Harry, after trying vainly to take a nap
+on a cot in the tent, followed his chum outside.
+
+"Odd, isn't it, Tom?" questioned Hazelton.  "We're living what
+looks like a wholly free life.  Nothing to prevent us from tramping
+anywhere we please on these hills, and yet we know to a certainty
+that we wouldn't be able to get twenty miles from here before
+soldiers would have us nabbed, and marching away to a prison from
+which, very likely, no one in the outside world would ever hear
+of us again."
+
+"It is queer," agreed Tom, nodding.  "Oh, just for one glimpse
+of Yankee soil!"
+
+"Twice," went on Harry, "we've even persuaded Nicolas to bribe
+some native to take a letter from us, to be mailed at some distant
+point.  After two or three days Don Luis, in each instance, has
+come here, and, with a smile, has shown us our own intercepted
+letter.  Yet Nicolas has been honest in the matter, beyond a doubt.
+It is equally past question that the native whom Nicolas has
+trusted and paid has made an honest attempt to get away and post
+our letter; but always the cunning of a Montez overtakes the trusted
+messenger."
+
+"And one can only guess what has happened to the messengers,"
+Tom said, soberly.  "Undoubtedly both of the two poor fellows
+are now passing the days _incommunicado_.  It makes a fellow a
+bit heartsick, doesn't it, chum, to think of the probable fates
+of two men who have tried to serve us.  And what, in the end,
+is to be the fate of poor little Nicolas?  Don Luis Montez is
+not the sort of man to forgive him his fidelity to us."
+
+"And where's Nicolas, all this time?" suddenly demanded Harry,
+glancing at his watch.  "Why, the fellow hasn't been here for
+three hours!  Where can he be?"
+
+"_Quien sabe_?" responded Reade, using the common Spanish question,
+given with a shrug, which means, "Who knows!  Who can guess?"
+
+"Can Nicolas have fallen into any harm?" asked Hazelton, a new
+note of alarm in his voice.  "The poor, faithful little fellow!
+It gives me a shiver to think of his suffering an injury just
+because he serves us so truly."
+
+"I shall be interested in seeing him get back," Tom nodded thoughtfully.
+
+"And I'm beginning to have a creepy feeling that he won't come
+back!" cried Harry.  "He may at this moment be past human aid,
+Tom, and that may be but the prelude to our own craftily-planned
+destruction."
+
+Tom Reade sat up, leaning on one elbow, as he regarded his chum with
+an odd smile.
+
+"Harry," Tom uttered, dryly, "we certainly have no excuse for being
+blue when we have such rosy thoughts to cheer us up!"
+
+"Hang Mexico!" grunted Hazelton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE STRANGER IN THE TENT
+
+
+By and by Tom Reade began to grow decidedly restless.  He would
+sit up, look and listen, and then lie down again.  Then he would
+fidget about nervously, all of which was most unusual with him,
+for Reade's was one of those strong natures that will endure work
+day and night as long as is necessary, and then go in for complete
+rest when there is nothing else to do.
+
+Harry did not observe this, for he had gone back into the tent.
+Two sheets of a Mexican newspaper had come wrapped around one
+of Nicolas's last food purchases.  Hazelton was reading the paper
+slowly by way of improving his knowledge of Spanish.
+
+At last Tom called, in a low voice:
+
+"Don't worry about me, chum, if you miss me.  I'm going to take a
+little stroll."
+
+"All right, Tom."
+
+Reade did not hurry away.  He had to remember that in all probability
+he was being watched.  So he strolled about as though he had no
+particular purpose in mind.  Yet, after some minutes, he gained
+a point from which he could gaze down the hill-slope toward the
+little village of huts in which the mine laborers lived.
+
+There were a few small children playing about the one street that
+ran through the village.  A few of the women were out of doors,
+also, but none of the men were in sight, for these were toiling
+away at the mine.  Though _El Sombrero_ had so far shown no ore
+that amounted to anything, Don Luis, while waiting to sell his
+mine for a fortune, kept his _peons_ working hard in the hope
+that they might strike some real ore.
+
+After Tom had been gazing for three or four minutes his eves suddenly
+lighted, for he saw Nicolas come out of one of the huts.
+
+"I wonder what has kept the little fellow so long," Tom murmured.
+But he turned away with an appearance of listlessness, for, if
+he were observed, he did not care to have a watcher note his interest
+in the servant's coming.
+
+So Nicolas passed on toward the tents without having observed Reade.
+
+"I won't get back too soon," Tom decided.  "If we are watched
+at all it wouldn't do to have me appear too much interested in
+the _peon's_ doings."
+
+Now that his mind was somewhat easier, Tom strolled on once more.
+His roundabout path took him along among the rocks that littered
+the ground over the principal tunnels of _El Sombrero_.  Hundreds
+of feet beneath him now toiled some of the _peons_ who lived in
+the village of huts yonder.
+
+Presently Reade increased his speed considerably, deciding that
+now it would be safe to return directly to camp.  Suddenly he
+stopped short, head up, his gaze directed at the tops of three
+or four rocks.  Some human being had just dodged out of sight
+at that point.
+
+Tom felt a swift though brief chill.  Something had made him suspect
+that the prowler might be Gato, or one of the latter's companions.
+
+Instead of running away Tom made for the place of hiding in short
+leaps.
+
+"Hold on there a minute, my friend," Tom called in Spanish.  "I
+think it may be worth my while to look you over."
+
+Just as Reade was ready to bound over the rocks a figure rose
+as though to meet him.  A light leap landed Reade on top of the
+stranger, who was borne to earth.
+
+"Mercy senor!" begged the other.  "Do not be rough with me.  I
+am not strong enough to stand it."
+
+The man spoke Spanish and was well past middle age, of a very
+spare figure, and his face was very thin, although there was a
+deep flush on his cheeks.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," said Tom in Spanish.  He touched the
+stranger's cheeks, which were hot with fever.
+
+Then Tom slid off his poor captive and squatted beside him.  Reaching
+for the man's left wrist and resting two fingers on his pulse,
+Tom added, gently:
+
+"Tell me all about it, senor."
+
+"There is not much to tell," panted the stranger, weakly, for
+Tom's landing on him had jarred him severely.  "I am sick, as
+you can see."
+
+"Oh, that isn't much," said Tom, blithely.  "With decent care
+you will soon he well.  It is plain that you are a gentleman--no
+_peon_.  Yonder, some distance, is a house where I think you are
+very likely to be well taken care of. Don Luis Montez--"
+
+Despite the hectic flush in the cheeks, the stranger's face paled
+visibly.  Tom, always observant, noted this.
+
+"Oh, I see," Reade went on, calmly.  "You do not like Don Luis
+Montez, or you do not care about going to his house."
+
+The stranger gazed up wistfully at the young engineer's kindly face.
+
+"Senor," he asked, "you would not betray me?"
+
+"You mean to Don Luis?"
+
+A weak nod was the answer.
+
+"Rest easy on that score, my friend," Tom begged, dryly.  "Don Luis
+and I are not on the best of terms.  I do not like him very
+well myself."
+
+"Will you help to hide me here, and then go away and be silent?"
+
+"Go away and leave you here?" suggested Reade.
+
+"Yes, senor.  It will be a great favor."
+
+"It would be murder," Tom retorted.  "Man, you're ill and you
+need care--nursing.  I don't know much about doctoring, but if
+you have any reason why you don't want Don Luis to know you're
+here, then I'll do the best I can for you here.  I have a chum
+who'll help me.  You have been traveling for some time?" Tom continued,
+his glance taking in the stranger's well-worn shoes and trousers.
+
+"That is true, yes," nodded the stranger.
+
+"You've been over a rough road, also," Tom continued, "and now
+you're ill.  Your pulse is a hundred and twenty, and you're breathing
+thirty-two times to the minute.  You must have a good bed, be
+covered comfortably and have plenty of water to drink while we're
+getting some medicines for you."
+
+"You are indeed kind, but I fear," protested the stranger, "that
+you will attract attention my way, and then I shall be captured."
+
+Tom studied the face of the sick man keenly.
+
+"I wish you would tell me something about yourself," the young
+engineer hinted.  "It might help me to decide what it is best
+to do for you."
+
+"Senor," begged the stranger, with a start of dread "it would
+be a great kindness to me if you would go away and leave me here.
+Do not come back--and forget that you have seen me."
+
+"It can't be done," replied Tom, with gentle positiveness.  "It
+wouldn't be in American nature to go away and leave a fellow creature
+to die of helplessness when a little care and nursing ought to
+put that man on his feet again. But I won't argue with you, for
+I see the excitement is bringing a deeper flush into your face.
+Senor, as you are a gentleman trust another gentleman to serve
+you loyally and not betray you.  I am going to leave you for a
+little while.  Will you give me your word to remain here until
+I return?"
+
+"Yes," nodded the other, weakly.
+
+"I'll wrap this around you," Reade continued, taking off his own
+blouse and wrapping it around the thin body of the older man.
+"This will help you a little if you are taken with chills.  I
+shall be back as soon as I can possibly come without attracting
+attention.  Do not be startled if you hear other footsteps than
+my own.  I shall bring with me a friend.  I would trust in his
+hands anything or all that I have in the world.  Will you trust
+me to serve you, senor?"
+
+"I shall trust you," promised the other, simply.  "In truth, my
+young friend, I have many reasons why I could wish to recover of
+this illness and be well again."
+
+Tom slipped away, then rose to his full height, and resumed his
+late appearance of lounging along without an object.  As he neared
+the camp he espied Nicolas, whom he had forgotten.
+
+"Our little fellow came back, you see," called Harry, as Tom neared
+the tents.  "What have you been doing?"
+
+"Loafing," yawned Reade, as he strolled up.  When he reached the
+cook tent, however, he stepped inside and the Mexican servant
+followed him.
+
+"Senor," Nicolas reported, in a whisper, "I think I succeeded in
+my errand."
+
+"But you do not yet know?" queried Tom.
+
+"How can I know so soon, senor?" questioned Nicolas.
+
+"True," nodded Tom.
+
+Then he stepped outside the tent, remarking: "Our food supply is so
+low, Nicolas, that I fear you will have to take the basket and go
+after more."
+
+"It shall be done, senor," promised the servant, and going into
+the tent appeared a moment later with a basket.
+
+Tom handed him some money.
+
+"I am listening to your orders, senor."
+
+"Oh, you know as well what food to get as I do," Tom rejoined.
+"But," he added, under his voice, "you _must_ get me some--"
+
+Here Tom added the Spanish names of three or four drugs that he
+wanted.
+
+"I think I shall be able to get the drugs, senor.  Some of the
+_peons_ must keep them in their houses."
+
+"You must get them, as I said.  Now, make good time.  I will await
+your return."
+
+Then Tom drew Harry aside, describing the finding of the fever-stricken
+stranger.
+
+"Who on earth can he be?" wondered Harry, curiously.  "And what
+can he be doing in this out of the way part of the world?"
+
+"That's his own secret," retorted Tom, dryly; and the man is bent
+on keeping it.  There are only two things that we need to know--one
+that he is ill, and the other that he is very plainly a gentleman,
+who would be incapable of repaying our kindness with any treachery.
+What do you say, Harry?  Shall we bring him here and look after
+him?"
+
+"That's for you to say, Tom."
+
+"It's half for you to say, Harry.  Half the risk is also yours,
+if anything goes wrong."
+
+"Tom, I feel the same way that you do about it," Harry declared,
+his eyes shining brightly.  "A fellow creature in distress is
+one whom we can't pass by.  We can't leave him to die.  Such a
+thing would haunt me as long as I live.  When do you want to go
+after him?"
+
+"Just as soon as it's dark," Reade replied.  "That will be within
+the hour, for here in the tropics night comes soon after the sun
+sets."
+
+When the time came Tom and Harry left their tent, strolling slowly.
+It was very dark and the young engineers listened intently as
+they went along.  They found their stranger and lifted him from
+the ground.  He was so slight and frail that he proved no burden
+whatever.  Apparently without having been seen by any one Reade
+and Hazelton bore their man back to camp.
+
+"Into the cook tent," whispered Reade.  "Don Luis, if he should
+visit us, is less likely to look there than anywhere else."
+
+Into the cook tent they bore the stranger, arranging a bed on
+the floor, and covering the sick man with such blankets as his
+condition appeared to call for.
+
+"I am back, _caballeros_," announced Nicolas, treading softly
+into the tent.  "To the praise of Heaven, be it said, I secured
+the medicines you told me to get."
+
+Then Nicolas stopped short, gazing wonderingly at the fever-flushed
+face of the stranger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+CRAFT--OR SURRENDER?
+
+
+"He's a puzzle," remarked Harry, four days later.
+
+"Meaning our sick man?"
+
+"Of course.  But he isn't going to be a sick man much longer,
+thanks to you, Tom.  You were born to be a physician."
+
+"Don't you believe it," smiled Reade.  "The only previous experience
+I've had was when I simply had to pull you through out on Indian
+Smoke Range last winter.  Harry, I was afraid you were a goner,
+and I couldn't let you go.  But then, just when you were at your
+worst I had the best of outside help in pulling you through."
+
+"You mean you got help after you had pulled me out of all danger,"
+Hazelton retorted.  "And now you've pulled our stranger through.
+Or the next thing to it.  His fever is gone, and he's mending."
+
+"Nothing much ailed him, I reckon, but intense anxiety and too
+little food.  Our man is resting, now, and getting strong."
+
+"But he's a mystery to me," Harry continued.
+
+"How so?"
+
+"I can't make anything out of him."
+
+"That's right."
+
+"Do you figure out anything concerning him?" Hazelton inquired.
+
+"I don't want to.  It isn't any of my business.  Our unknown guest
+is very plainly a gentleman, and that's enough to know about him.
+If he hasn't told us anything more then it's because he thinks
+his affairs are of more importance to himself than to us."
+
+"Oh, of course, I didn't mean that I wanted to pry into his affairs,"
+Harry protested.
+
+"No; and we won't do it, either, Harry.  If our guest should happen
+to be missing some morning, without even a note of thanks left
+behind, we'll understand what it cost him to slip away without
+saying farewell."
+
+The day before Don Luis had made one of his occasional visits,
+but he had not gone into the cook tent.  Even had he done so the
+mine owner would probably have seen nothing to make him curious.
+At the further end of the cook tent lay the stranger, and his
+bed had been curtained off by a dark-colored print curtain that
+looked as though it might have been placed there to partition
+off part of the tent.  Don Luis had called merely to chat with
+the young engineers, and to use his keen eyes in determining whether
+his enforced guests were any nearer to the point of yielding to
+his demands upon them.
+
+Concerning the sick man, Nicolas had remained wholly silent.
+He did not offer to go near the sick man, but brought whatever
+Tom or Harry had called for.  To have the sick man on their hands
+had been a rather welcome break for the young engineers, since
+it had given them something with which to occupy themselves.
+
+Just before dark on the fifth day, Tom strolled into the cook
+tent, going to the rear and parting the curtain.
+
+"How do you feel, now?" Reade asked in a whisper.
+
+"Much stronger, senor," came the grateful answer.  "Last night,
+when your servant slept, I rose and walked about the tent a little
+to find the use of my legs again.  To-day, when alone, I did the
+same thing.  By morning I shall be fit to walk once more.  Senor,
+do not think me ungrateful if you come into this tent, some morning,
+soon, and find my end of it deserted.  I shall go, but I shall
+never forget you."
+
+"You will please yourself, sir," Tom answered, simply.  "Yet I
+beg you not to attempt to leave until you are able to take care
+of yourself.  We shall not think you ungrateful if it be a long
+time before we hear from you again.  Another thing, sir.  When
+you go do not fail to take with you, in your pockets, food enough
+to last you for some days."
+
+"I--I cannot pay for it," hesitated the stranger.  "Nor, for
+the present, can I offer to pay you back the money you have expended
+on my medicines."
+
+"Now, who said anything about that?" Tom asked, nearly as gruffly
+as it was possible for him to speak to a sick man.  "Pay for nothing
+here, sir, and do not worry about it, either.  You do not know
+how much pleasure your coming has given us.  We needed something
+to do needed it with an aching want that would not be stilled.
+Looking after you, sir, has been a very welcome treat to us."
+
+"You have been kinder to me, senores, than any one has been to me in
+many years," murmured the stranger, tears starting to his eyes.
+
+"There, there!  Forget it," urged Tom.
+
+"Good evening, Don Luis!" sounded Harry's voice outside.  "Ah,
+Dr. Tisco."
+
+"That's our warning to stop talking," whispered Tom in the stranger's
+ear, then rose and slipped outside the curtain.
+
+"Where is Senor Reade?" inquired Don Luis.
+
+"Any one calling me?" inquired Tom, looking out of the cook tent.
+"Ah, good evening, gentlemen."
+
+Tom stepped outside, offering his hand.  As this was the first
+time of late that he had made any such overture to the mine owner,
+Montez was quick to grasp the hope that it conveyed.
+
+"You are not comfortable here, Senor Reade," said Don Luis, looking
+about.  "I regret it the more when I remember how much room I
+have under my poor roof.  Why don't you move up there, at once.
+There are several apartments any one of which you may have."
+
+"On the contrary we are very comfortable here," Tom rejoined,
+seating himself on the ground.  "We have lived the open-air life
+so much that we are really happier in a tent than we could be
+in any house."
+
+"I cannot understand why you can feel so about it," murmured the
+Mexican stepping to the entrance of the larger tent and glancing
+inside.  "I will admit, Senor Reade, that you keep a very tidy
+house under canvas, and your wants may be extremely simple.  But
+a house offers comforts that cannot possibly be found in a tent
+like this.  And the other is still smaller and more cheerless,"
+he added, crossing into the other tent.
+
+Don Luis was now within arm's length of the thin curtain, and was
+apparently about to push it aside.
+
+"Won't you come outside," suggested Tom, "and tell me the object
+of your call this evening?  It is too warm in here."
+
+"Gladly," smiled the Mexican, letting go of the curtain, which
+he had just touched, and wheeling about.
+
+"Hang the rascal!" muttered Tom, inwardly.  "Has he gotten wind
+of the fact that we have a stranger here?  Does Don Luis know
+all about the man?  Is he playing on my nerves at this moment?"
+
+But Montez, with an appearance of being wholly interested in Tom
+Reade, went outside with him.  Harry placed campstools for the
+callers, while the young engineers threw themselves upon the ground.
+Don Luis Montez, as usual, was to do the talking, while Dr. Tisco's
+purpose in being present was to use his keen, snapping eyes in
+covertly studying the faces of the two Americans.
+
+"I have called to say," declared Don Luis, coming promptly to
+the point, "that within three days a party of American visitors
+will be here.  They come with a view to buying the mine, and I
+shall sell it to them at a very handsome profit.  Before we can
+deal with these Americans it will be absolutely necessary for
+me to have that report, signed by you both.  Moreover, you must
+both give me your word of honor that you will meet the Americans,
+and stand back of that report.  That you will do all in your power
+to make possible the sale of the mine."
+
+"We've discussed all of that before," said Harry, dryly.
+
+"And we shall yet require a little more time before we can give a
+too definite answer," Tom broke in hastily, to head off his chum.
+
+"But the time is short, _caballeros_," Don Luis urged, a new light,
+however, gleaming in his eyes, for this was the first time that
+the young engineers had shown any likelihood of granting his wishes.
+
+"A great deal can be decided upon in three days, Don Luis," Tom
+went on, slowly.  "You will have to give us a little more time,
+and we will weigh everything carefully."
+
+"But you believe that you will be ready to meet my views?" Don
+Luis demanded, eagerly.
+
+"I cannot see how our endorsement of your mine can be of any very
+great value to you," Tom resumed.  "It is hardly likely that any
+of these capitalists who are coming have ever heard of us.  In
+any case, they are quite likely to feel that we are much too young
+to be able to form professional opinions of any value."
+
+"You give me your help in the matter," coaxed Montez, "and I will
+attend to the rest.  More, _caballeros_; stand by me so well that
+I dispose of the mine, and I will promise you twenty thousand
+dollars, gold, apiece."
+
+"That is a lot of money," Reade nodded, thoughtfully.  "But there
+are other considerations, too."
+
+"Yes; your liberty and your safety," Montez broke in, quickly,
+with a meaning smile.  "_Caballeros_, do not for one moment think
+that I can be hoodwinked, and that you will be safe as soon as
+you meet your fellow Americans.  One single flaw in your conduct,
+after they arrive, and I assure you that you will be promptly
+arrested.  That would be the end of you.  It is always easy for
+government officers to report that prisoners attempted to escape,
+and were shot dead because of the attempt.  That is exactly what
+will happen if you do aught to hinder the sale of this mining
+property."
+
+"Nothing like a clear understanding," smiled Tom, rising, and
+once more holding out his hand.  "Don Luis, it will be enough
+if we give you our answer by the morning of day after to-morrow?
+And I will add that I think we shall see our way clear to help
+along the sale of this mining property at a high figure.  Let
+me see; at what value do you hold it?"
+
+"At two million and a half dollars, Senor Reade."
+
+"I think we can assure your visitors that they are doing well
+enough," Tom nodded.
+
+"One word more, _caballeros_," said Montez, as he let go of the
+young chief engineer's hand.  "If you fail us, do not either of
+you imagine, for a moment, that you have any further lease of life."
+
+"I don't believe we shall fail you," Tom assured the Mexican.
+"I believe that the visiting Americans will buy.  If they don't
+it won't be our fault."
+
+"And now that we are at such an excellent understanding once more,
+Senor Reade," proposed the mine owner, "can't we prevail upon
+you to come up to the house and spend a pleasant evening."
+
+"Thank you," Tom returned, graciously.  "But not to-night.  I
+am restless.  I must do considerable thinking, and I don't want
+to talk much.  Action is what I crave.  If you see us running
+all over your property, don't imagine that we are trying to run
+away from here."
+
+"My property is at your disposal," smiled Don Luis.  "I shall
+feel assured that you will not go many miles from here."
+
+The remark covered the fact that Montez had all avenues of escape
+so well guarded that the young engineers simply could not escape
+by flight.
+
+Good nights were exchanged, and the visitors, smiling politely,
+departed.
+
+"Now, why on earth did you talk to Don Luis in that fashion?"
+Harry demanded, as soon as they were alone.  "You know, well
+enough, that not even the certainty of immediate death would make
+you accede to his rascally wishes."
+
+"I'm afraid I don't know anything of the sort," Tom drawled.
+"On the contrary, we may help Montez sell out to the American
+visitors."
+
+Harry gasped.
+
+"Tom Reade, are you going crazy?"
+
+"Not that I've noticed."
+
+"Then what are you talking about?"
+
+"Harry, I'm tired, and I think you are."
+
+"I'm sick and tired with disgust that Don Luis should think he
+could use us to bait his money-traps with," Hazelton retorted.
+
+"Let's turn in and get a good night's rest."
+
+"Oh, bother!" retorted the junior engineer.  "I couldn't sleep.
+Tom, I shan't sleep a wink to-night, for dreading that you'll turn
+rascal-helper.  Tell me that you've been joking with me, Tom!"
+
+"But I can't truthfully tell you that," Reade insisted.  "I am
+not joking, and haven't been joking to-night."
+
+"Then I wish you'd open up and tell me a few things."
+
+"Wait," begged Tom.  "Wait until I'm sure that the few things
+will bear telling."
+
+With that much Harry Hazelton found that he would have to be content.
+He allowed himself to be persuaded to turn in.
+
+Tom Reade was asleep in a few minutes.  It was after two in the
+morning ere Harry, after racking his brains in vain, fell asleep.
+
+The next morning it was found that the stranger in the back of the
+cook tent had made good his prophecy by vanishing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE HIDALGO PLANS GRATITUDE
+
+
+Soon after an early breakfast Tom and Harry were afield.
+
+From behind a window in the upper part of his big house, Don Luis,
+equipped with a powerful field glass, watched them keenly whenever
+they were in sight.
+
+"What on earth are the Gringos doing?" he wondered, repeatedly.
+"Are they just walking about, aimlessly?  At times it looks like
+it.  At other times it doesn't."
+
+Then Montez sent for Tisco and discussed with him the seeming
+mystery of the actions of the young engineers.
+
+"Don't ask me, Don Luis," begged the secretary.  "I am not clever
+at guessing riddles.  More, I have not pretended to understand
+this Gringo pair."
+
+"Are they, in the end, going to trick me, Carlos?"
+
+"Who can say?" demanded Dr. Tisco, with a shrug of his shoulders.
+"Of course, they both know that it will be but a short cut to
+suicide if they attempt to fool you."
+
+"Their deaths will cause me no anxiety, Carlos, either before
+or after the sale," murmured Montez.  "In fact, my good Carlos--"
+
+"Say it," leered Dr. Tisco, as his employer paused.
+
+"I may as well say it, for you have guessed it, Carlos.  Yes,
+I will say it.  Even if this Gringo pair appear honestly to aid
+me in making the sale--and even if I do make the sale and receive
+the money--this Gringo pair must die.  We know how to arrange
+that, eh, my staunch Carlos?"
+
+Dr. Tisco shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Of course, we can put them out of the way, at any time, with
+secrecy and dispatch, Don Luis.  But what will be the use--provided
+they help you to get the American money into your hands?  To be
+sure, the new buyers will soon find that they have a worthless
+mine on their hands, but that may happen with the finest mine.
+The new buyers will never be able to prove that you brought all
+of your pretty-looking ore from another mine.  You can depend
+upon the secrecy of the people from whom you have been buying
+the baiting ore for _El Sombrero_."
+
+"Ah, but there is another side to that, Carlos.  If Senores Reade
+and Hazelton serve us, and then go safely back to the United States,
+they can swear that they found and knew _El Sombrero_ to be worthless.
+Then their evidence, flanked by the sudden running-out of _El
+Sombrero_, will make a case that the new American buyers could
+take into court."
+
+"Let them take it into court," proposed the secretary, contemptuously.
+"The governor of Bonista rules the judges of the courts of the
+state of Bonista with an iron hand.  Rest assured that, if the
+Americans were to take their claims into the courts of this state,
+the judges would decide for you, and that would be the end of
+the matter.  And do you believe, Don Luis, that, after Senores
+Reade and Hazelton once get alive out of Bonista, any consideration
+would tempt them to come back here to testify?  They have sampled
+your power,"
+
+"Yet why do you object, Carlos, to having the Gringo pair put
+out of the way?"
+
+"I do not care anything about their lives," Tisco declared, coolly.
+"It is only on general business principles that it seems to me
+unwise to have human lives taken when it is not necessary.  He
+who resorts too often to the taking of life is sure to meet his
+own doom."
+
+"Not in Bonista," jeered Montez, "and not where Don Luis is concerned
+in business matters."
+
+"As you will, then," sighed the secretary.  "You will please your
+own self, anyway, Don Luis."
+
+"Truly, Carlos.  And so I have decided that these Gringo engineers
+shall perish, anyway, as soon as they have served my purpose."
+
+This talk had taken place in a cupola.  Down the stair, with stealthy
+steps, crept a young, horrified, trembling girl.
+
+Francesca, knowing that her father had gone to the cupola, had
+followed him to talk with him.  She had halted on hearing voices.
+Now, with despair in her eyes, the terrified girl stole away
+like one haunted and hunted by evil spirits.
+
+"My father--an intending murderer!  He, of a proud hidalgo family,
+a vile assassin, in thought at least?" moaned the girl, wringing
+her hands as soon as she had stolen to the privacy of her own rooms.
+
+"My father's hands--to be covered with human blood!" sobbed Francesca,
+sinking down before a crucifix to pray.
+
+For hours the girl remained in terror-stricken solitude.  Then
+she rose, somewhat comforted at last, and with the aid of cold
+water removed the traces of her tears from her dark, beautiful face.
+
+Her plan was to seek her father, throw herself at his feet, and
+beg him not to disgrace the blood of the hidalgos nor to destroy
+his own soul with a hideous crime.
+
+"I must seek him in private.  There must be no others near when
+I make my appeal!" thought the girl.
+
+Just then a servant entered.
+
+"Your father is in the garden, Senorita Francesca," reported the
+woman, "and wonders why you do not join him.  It is his wish that
+you join him now."
+
+"Say to my father that his wish is my law," quavered the terrified
+girl.
+
+Five minutes later Francesca went timidly up to her father in
+the gardens before the house.
+
+Don Luis turned to her.  He was thinking, at the moment, of his
+dark plans regarding the young engineers.  In his eyes, despite
+his effort to smile on his daughter, was a deadly glitter that
+dried up hope in the heart of the daughter.
+
+"You have been secluding yourself more than usual to-day, _chiquita_,"
+chided Montez.
+
+That word _chiquita_, meaning "pet," caused the girl to recoil
+inwardly.  Could it be that this hard, cruel man had the right
+to address her in endearing terms?
+
+"I am not well to-day, my father," she answered, in a low voice.
+
+"Then take my arm, _chiquita_, and walk with me," urged Montez.
+
+"My father," she cried, shrinking back, "if you will indulge me,
+I will walk alone.  Perhaps, in that way, I shall gain more strength
+from the exercise."
+
+"As you will," smiled Don Luis, coldly.  "For myself, I have much
+to think of.  I have American guests coming soon.  I expect that
+they will buy _El Sombrero_ for money enough to make you one of
+the richest heiresses in all Mexico, _chiquita_."
+
+"For me?  And I do not know how to care for money!" answered the
+girl, unsteadily.  Then she turned away, swiftly, unable to stand
+longer looking into Don Luis's eyes.
+
+Through the day Tom and Harry had tramped about almost feverishly,
+stopping at intervals as though for rest.  Now, in the late afternoon,
+they were on their way back to camp by a route that took them
+not far from Don Luis's grounds.
+
+As they came within sight of the place, Tom espied Montez and
+Dr. Tisco walking slowly at one end of the garden, seemingly engaged
+in earnest conversation.  At the farther end of the garden from
+them, Francesca walked by herself, seeming outwardly composed.
+
+"It seems strange, doesn't it," asked Harry, "that such a fine
+girl can possibly be Don Luis's daughter?"
+
+"She inherits her mother's purity and goodness, doubtless," Tom
+replied.
+
+"Ouch!" grunted Hazelton, stumbling over a stone with which his
+foot had collided.  At Harry's exclamation Tom glanced up, then
+his eyes met a strange sight.
+
+Lying in a cleft in the rocks, with his head behind a bush, and
+well concealed, lay the stranger whom the young engineers had
+nursed through an illness.
+
+That stranger was intently gazing at the garden of Don Luis.
+So absorbed was he that he had either not heard or did not heed
+the passing of the two Americans.
+
+For a brief instant Tom Reade halted, regarding the face of the
+absorbed stranger.
+
+"I didn't have an idea about you, Mr. Stranger," muttered Tom
+to himself, as he plodded forward once more.  "But now--now,
+I'll wager that I've guessed who and what you are.  Mr. Stranger,
+I believe that this one glance at your face has told me your
+story and your purpose in being in these mountains of Bonista!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+TWO REAL SIGNATURES
+
+
+Though they were in Mexico the young engineers found it chilly
+that evening, after sundown.
+
+"Nicolas, can you spare wood enough to start a little campfire?"
+Tom asked, as he put on his blouse after supper.
+
+"Yes," replied the little Mexican.  "For what is the use of being
+strong if I could not tramp after more wood to-morrow?"
+
+"We'll pay you well for all your trouble for us, _mi muchacho_"
+(my boy) Tom promised.
+
+"I am rewarded enough in being allowed to serve you, _caballeros_,"
+Nicolas answered.
+
+"And the queer part of it is that he means what he says," muttered
+Tom, gazing after the departing little _peon_.
+
+Very shortly a cheerful fire was crackling away.  Tom and Harry
+brought their campstools and sat down before it.
+
+"I'll be thankful when we get back to the States," mused Tom.
+
+"I hope it'll be soon, too," answered Harry, with a wistful glance
+toward the north, where, several hundred miles away, lay their
+country.
+
+Nor did either one expect to be many days more away from home.
+The young engineers had arrived at a somewhat surprising conclusion.
+They had agreed to sign a suitable report and to stand back of
+Don Luis in all the claims he might make concerning _El Sombrero_
+Mine.
+
+Much different would their feelings have been had they known all
+that frightened little Francesca had overheard that they were
+to be secretly slain, as soon as their usefulness in the swindle
+was past.
+
+Rather late into the night the young engineers sat up, talking
+in such low tones that even Nicolas, squatted on the ground beside
+a smaller fire, could not hear what they were saying.  He would
+not have understood, anyway, as the young engineers were talking
+in English.
+
+It was very late when the young engineers turned in that night.
+It was eight in the morning when Nicolas aroused them.
+
+"Is the stranger back in your tent, Nicolas?"  Tom inquired, as
+soon as his eyes were open.
+
+"No, senor."
+
+"Well, I'm not astonished.  I didn't really expect him to return."
+
+Tom and Harry were quickly astir, and ready for breakfast.  Nicolas
+served them carefully, as always.
+
+"We're not through much too early, anyway," Tom murmured.  "Here
+come Don Luis and his artful shadow."
+
+The touring car stopped, at a little distance from camp.  After
+the two passengers had alighted the chauffeur drove on two hundred
+yards further ere he drew up to wait for them.
+
+"Good morning," hailed Don Luis, cordially.  "I see you are waiting
+for us."
+
+"We have been ready for you since we first rose," Tom answered.
+
+"Is your answer ready?" Don Luis demanded, eyeing them searchingly.
+
+"Don Luis," Tom replied, instantly, "the report that you wanted
+us to sign for you would hardly answer the purpose with shrewd
+American investors.  That report goes back too far; it covers
+too many points that you might be supposed to know were true,
+but which engineers who had been here but a few weeks could hardly
+be expected to know at first hand.  Do you see the point that
+I am raising?"
+
+Don Luis deliberated for a few moments.
+
+"I think I do see the point, Senor Reade.  You mean that the report
+will not do."
+
+"So," Tom continued, "Hazelton and I don't feel that we ought
+to sign that report.  However, we will get up and sign for you
+a report that will answer in every way, and this new report will
+be satisfactory.  If you will let your driver take Nicolas up
+to the house, Nicolas can bring the typewriting machine from your
+office, and some stationery with it.  We can set the machine up
+on the camp table, and within the next two hours we can agree
+upon a satisfactory report, which I will write out on the machine."
+
+"And you will sign the new report--when?"
+
+"Just as soon as we have it written out in form that will suit you."
+
+"You will want the big ledger for facts?" asked Montez.
+
+"No," smiled Tom; "because the ledger doesn't contain facts anyway.
+We can invent just as good statements without any reference to
+the ledger."
+
+Don Luis laughed softly.  Then he turned to his secretary.
+
+"My good Carlos, see that Nicolas knows what he is going after.
+Then let him go in the car."
+
+Nicolas sped away in the automobile.  Presently he was back, with
+the typewriting machine and an abundance of stationery.
+
+Tom quickly fitted a sheet of heavy bond paper to the carriage
+of the typewriter.
+
+"Now, let us agree," asked Tom, "on what the report is to contain."
+
+Slowly at first, then more rapidly, the matter was planned.  Tom
+winced a bit, as he made up some tables of alleged output of the
+mine supposed to have come under his own observation and Harry's.
+But he wrote it all down with lead pencil and afterwards copied
+it on the machine.
+
+At the end of three hours the report was finished.  Tom read it
+all over slowly to Don Luis.  As Tom laid down each page Dr. Tisco
+picked it up to scan it.
+
+At last the infamously lying document had been read through and
+approved.
+
+"Let us have the end of it over with quickly," begged Tom, producing
+and shaking his fountain pen.  He affixed his signature.  Hazelton
+did the same.
+
+"So far, good," declared Don Luis, passing the complete, signed
+document to Dr. Tisco.  "Now, senores, let us have the whole matter
+understood.  The report is excellent; it could not be better for
+the purpose.  The American visitors will be delighted with it.
+But you are not to play me any tricks of any kind!"
+
+"Don Luis," promised Tom, earnestly, "we shall stand by that report
+first, last and through to the finish.  We shall not--by word,
+gesture, wink, or by any trick or device--give your coming American
+visitors the least warning that the report is not fully as honest
+as it appears to be."
+
+We shall back you firmly and as strongly as we know how, and help
+you in any way in our power to put the deal through.  Can we promise
+you more?"
+
+"No," said the mine owner.  "And, on my part, I promise you that,
+if I sell the mine, as I now surely shall do, you shall have twenty
+thousand dollars, gold, apiece, and your lives also.  Here is
+my hand on the pledge of an hidalgo."
+
+Don Luis shook hands with both American engineers.  Even as he
+did so a wolfish gleam crept into his eyes.  Montez, in his mind's
+eye, already saw the two Gringos stretched on the ground in death
+in a remoter part of the mountains.  That was to be his real reward
+to the young dupes of his villainy.
+
+"When do you expect your purchasers?" Tom Reade inquired.
+
+"Two days after to-morrow, Senor Reade.  But, in the meantime,
+now that we are friends and really partners--will you not come
+over and share the comforts of my poor home while we wait?"
+
+"You will pardon us for not accepting, Don Lids," Tom urged.
+"We have met your wishes, and shall continue to meet them, but
+we feel that we would rather remain where we are--at least, until
+your visitors arrive."
+
+"So be it, then," muttered Don Luis.  Yet he appeared slightly
+offended by their decision.  Since the young engineers had now
+proved themselves to be as great rascals as he himself, Don Luis
+Montez could not understand why they should refuse to associate
+with him.
+
+"You wish me to leave you alone, now?" asked the mine owner, smiling
+rather coldly.
+
+"Only when you wish to leave us, Don Luis," Tom protested, so
+artlessly that the Mexican felt less offended.
+
+"Sit down and chat with us until you tire of our company," urged
+Harry Hazelton.
+
+So Montez and Tisco dropped into the campstools again.  They tried
+to chat on various topics, but conversation proved a failure.
+
+"We will go, now," said Don Luis, rising twenty minutes later.
+"But, senores, we shall hope to see you daily until our investors
+arrive and then all the time."
+
+"You will find us always at your command, Don Luis," Tom remarked,
+cordially.
+
+"Ah, my good Carlos," murmured Don Luis, as the Mexican pair sped
+homeward in the car, "for once you made a bad guess.  You insisted
+that the Gringos would hold out and would not serve me.  You have
+seen my patience and my firmness win over their foolish, stubborn
+objections."
+
+"But they still hope to trick you, my patron," suggested Dr. Tisco.
+"Doubtless, now, their intention is to serve you until they can
+escape; then they plan to get back to the United States and furnish
+the testimony on which the American investors can sue you in the
+courts for the return of the purchase money on a charge of fraud."
+
+"There, again, the Gringos can meet only defeat," chuckled Don
+Luis, his lips to his secretary's ears.  "As soon as the sale
+is made I shall see to it that our pair of young American engineers
+are promptly done to death!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE FINAL TOUCH OF TRAGEDY
+
+
+On the day announced, at about eleven in the morning, two automobiles
+reached Don Luis's home.  Besides the mine owner the cars contained
+nine other travelers, all Americans.
+
+These were the investors who were expected to buy _El Sombrero_
+at a price of two and a half million dollars.
+
+Over at the camp Tom and Harry saw the party arrive.  They could
+see the travelers being served with refreshments on the veranda.
+
+"There's the crowd, Harry.  And here's a car, coming this way,
+undoubtedly for us.  Now, we've got to go over there for our first
+practice as bunco men."
+
+Harry Hazelton made an unpleasant grimace.  "I feel like a scoundrel
+of the worst sort, but it can't be helped," he muttered.
+
+The car was soon at hand.  Tom and Harry were dressed and ready.
+Though their clothing suggested the field engineer, they were
+none the less dressed with a good deal of care.  They entered
+the tonneau of the automobile and started on their way to help
+put the mine swindle through.
+
+"Here are my engineers, gentlemen," smiled Don Luis, "and at least
+three of your number, I believe, are well acquainted with Messrs.
+Reade and Hazelton."
+
+Tom ascended the steps, feeling rather weak in the knees.  Then
+the young engineers received one of the severest jolts of their
+lives.
+
+Three of the gentlemen in that group, both young men knew well.
+They were President Haynes, General Manager Ellsworth and Director
+Hippen of the A.G.& N.M. Railroad.  These gentlemen Tom and Harry
+had served in railroad work in Arizona, as told in "_The Young
+Engineers in Arizona_."
+
+Now, in a flash, it was plain to both young Americans why Don
+Luis had wanted them, especially, to report favorably concerning
+_El Sombrero_ Mine.  President Haynes and his associates in the
+A.G.& N.M.  R.R. had every reason in the world to trust the young
+engineers, who had served them so faithfully on another occasion.
+These gentlemen would believe in anything that Reade and Hazelton
+backed with their judgment.
+
+"You?" cried Tom, with a start, as President Haynes held out his
+hand.  Then, by a mighty effort, Reade recovered himself and laughed
+easily.
+
+"This is a pleasant surprise, Mr. Haynes!  And you, Mr. Ellsworth,
+and you, Mr. Hippen."
+
+"And we're equally surprised to find you here, Reade, and you,
+Hazelton," rejoined President Haynes.  "But we feel more at home,
+already.  You know, Reade, we're quite accustomed to looking upon
+anything as an assured success when you're connected with it."
+
+"And, in its way, this mine is the biggest success we've backed
+yet," Tom declared readily.
+
+Don Luis Montez, though he was keenly watchful, was delighted so far.
+
+"What do you really think of this mine, Reade?" broke in Mr. Ellsworth.
+"Is it all that a careful investor would want?"
+
+"If you're getting what I think you are," Tom answered, "you're
+getting a lot more, even, than you might be led to expect.  _El
+Sombrero_, if it includes the limits that I suppose the tract
+does, will be worth a great deal more than you are paying for it."
+
+"The limits?" asked Mr. Ellsworth, keenly.  "Don't you really
+know, Reade, what the limits of the property are?"
+
+"Why, that is a matter to which I haven't given much attention,
+so far," answered Tom, with disarming candor.  "But, if we can
+have a map of this part of the country, I'll quickly mark off the
+limits on which I think you should insist."
+
+Don Luis caught at this readily.
+
+"My good Carlos," Don Luis directed, turning to his secretary,
+"place in Senor Reade's hands a map of this part of the country."
+
+"A map of your possessions only, Don Luis?" asked Dr. Tisco.
+
+"A map of my possessions, of course," agreed Don Luis.
+
+The map was brought, a large one, and spread on the table.
+
+"Now, perhaps," suggested Tom, "the tract I am about to mark off
+on this map is a larger one than Don Luis had intended to include
+in the sale, but let us see what Don Luis will have to say."
+
+With Harry's help Reade marked off on the map a tract containing
+about forty-four hundred acres.  This was fully twice as large
+as the tract Don Luis had planned to deed with _El Sombrero_.
+However, as Don Luis reckoned all this wild mountain land to
+be worth not more than twenty-five cents an acre, he did not care
+about Tom's liberality in the matter of real estate.
+
+"We will have these limits ruled in with red ink," Montez proposed,
+"and the deed shall cover the limits so indicated.  Yes; I will
+sell that whole tract of rich mineral land to you, gentlemen,
+for two million and a half of dollars."
+
+"Then," declared Tom Reade, "you will find that you will not regret
+your purchase, gentlemen."
+
+"You are confident of that, Reade?" asked President Haynes, anxiously.
+
+"I am more than confident," Tom declared, promptly.  "I am as
+certain of what I state as ever an engineer can be of anything."
+
+"If we were alone," thought Don Luis Montez, exultantly, "I would
+take off my hat to this young Gringo, Reade.  He is a far more
+accomplished liar than I can ever hope to be.  And these Americanos
+are becoming convinced all ready."
+
+"Do you agree with your associate, Hazelton?" inquired Mr. Ellsworth.
+
+"Absolutely," Harry proposed.  "I have been watching Tom Reade to see
+if he was making the statement emphatic enough to suit my ideas.
+Gentlemen, the property we have staked off on this map is a good
+investment one that will soon make the American financial markets ring."
+
+"I'm satisfied, on Reade and Hazelton's report," declared Mr. Haynes.
+"I know these young men, and I'd trust my life or my fortune to their
+honesty or their judgment alike."
+
+"I'm satisfied, too," nodded Ellsworth.
+
+"I can say the same," nodded Mr. Hippen.
+
+"Then we hardly need to look or inquire further," laughed another
+of the intending investors, pleasantly.
+
+From this will be seen how much frequently depends upon the reputation
+of an engineering firm for honor and judgment.  In New York City,
+downtown, is an almost dingy suite of offices.  It is the business
+headquarters of a firm of mining engineers known and trusted the
+world over.  Probably the entire equipment of these offices, including
+the laboratories and assay rooms, could be purchased for seven
+or eight thousand dollars.  The real asset of this firm is its
+reputation for splendid judgment and unfailing honor.  Let this
+firm of engineers indorse a new mine sufficiently, and Wall Street
+will promptly raise twenty million dollars to finance the scheme.
+This firm of engineers, despite its rather dingy quarters, often
+earns a yearly income running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
+
+These men of the A.G.& N.M. R.R. knew Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton
+as well and favorably as the mining world at large knows the New
+York firm which has been referred to above.
+
+"It all looks good to me," declared President Haynes, speaking again.
+
+"And to me," nodded several others of the visitors.
+
+"In the mine, this afternoon," Tom proposed, "we can show you much
+more that you will like."
+
+Now, as by magic, Don Luis's servants appeared with tables which
+they set and spread on the porch and luncheon was served.
+
+"Now, we will go see _El Sombrero_ itself," Don Luis proposed.
+"I shall not have much to say to-day.  I understand that you are
+willing to have Senor Tomaso Reade do the explaining."
+
+"More than willing--anxious," replied General Manager Ellsworth.
+
+That night Tom and Harry returned to their tent.  As they went
+at a late hour their absence from the house was barely noted.
+
+All through the afternoon the visitors had been busy inspecting
+ore supposed to have been blasted in the tunnels of _El Sombrero_
+Mine.  As the reader will understand, every bit of this ore had
+been brought from a profitable mine further up in the mountains.
+
+"How does it seem to be a rascal, Tom?" inquired Harry, as he blew
+out the candle in their tent.
+
+"Great!" muttered Tom Reade.
+
+The day following was given somewhat to sight-seeing in and around
+the mine, but still more to a discussion of the intended purchase.
+As Don Luis would not hear to reducing his price, the visitors
+were finally satisfied to pay the money demanded.
+
+"When will you be ready to turn the money over, gentlemen?" inquired
+Montez.
+
+"As soon as we can reach a town where there is both a bank and
+a telegraph office," replied Mr. Haynes.  "The whole amount of
+money is on deposit in New York City, subject to sight draft.
+If you are well enough known at the bank, Don Luis, to introduce
+us, the draft may be drawn at that bank, and accepted from New
+York on telegraphic inquiry."
+
+"The speed of you American business men is marvelous!" cried Don
+Luis Montez, delightedly.
+
+The next morning Don Luis, Mr. Haynes and a New York capitalist
+in the party departed in an automobile, going back to the railway
+town.  Two days later they returned.  The entire deal had been
+put through.  The mine had become the property of this group of
+American capitalists.  Don Luis's home was included in the sale.
+The money had been paid over on telegraphic advice from New York.
+Don Luis, in turn, had transferred his huge credit to Mexico
+City by wire, and this fortune now awaited his orders at the capital
+of the republic.
+
+Soon after Don Luis had returned he called the young engineers aside.
+
+"_Caballeros_," he murmured, "I am delighted with the loyal service
+you have rendered me.  Before to-day is over I shall hand you
+drafts on my bank at the capital for twenty thousand dollars each,
+gold.  Then the transaction will be closed.  Again I thank you.
+Be good enough to remain about, for I shall soon want you."
+
+Over the hills a white-clad figure rode on horseback.  As he came
+nearer, still at a gallop, the man was seen to be a soldier.
+
+"I wonder if there is any treachery in this?" muttered Harry,
+in Tom's ear.  "Does Don Luis intend to have us arrested, after
+all, and sent to prison to be held _incommunicado_, and so make
+sure of keeping us out of the way?"
+
+"I don't believe so," Tom replied.  "It wouldn't be a wise move
+on his part.  He'd be afraid that we'd denounce him even as we
+were being led away."
+
+"Then why the soldier?"
+
+"Let's wait and see."
+
+No one else appeared to have paid any heed to the horseman.  A few
+minutes later the soldier rode up the driveway.
+
+"Senor--Haynes?" called the soldier, holding up an envelope.
+
+Tom passed the word.  Messrs, Haynes and Ellsworth were absent,
+it seemed, on a walk.
+
+"If it's a telegram," said Mr. Hippen, "I'm a director in the same
+road.  It may be on railroad business.  I'll take the telegram."
+
+It was turned over to him.  Mr. Hippen broke the seal of the envelope,
+took out the enclosure and read it.  Then he read it aloud, as
+follows:
+
+"Train thirteen wrecked this forenoon."  It was signed by President
+Haynes's secretary.
+
+"Humph!" said Mr. Hippen.  "I don't see the need of wasting the
+railroad's money to send that despatch here."
+
+He folded it and placed it in his pocket, against Mr. Haynes's
+return.
+
+"I shall want to talk with you two for a few minutes," Don Luis
+presently whispered to Tom.  "I shall have my car here soon.
+When you see it, both of you come forward and be ready to take
+a short ride with me."
+
+In the background stood Dr. Tisco, looking on with cynical eyes.
+
+"Of course, the poor American fools haven't any idea that they
+will set out on the ride, but will never return," murmured Don
+Luis's secretary, to himself.  "Pedro Gato, turned loose on the
+same day he was arrested, has waited a long time for his revenge.
+He and the dozen bandits he has gathered around him will shoot
+the American engineers full of holes out on the road, and Don
+Luis, when he returns, deluged in his own tears, will tell the
+awful story of the encounter with the bandits.  What a clever
+scoundrel Don Luis is!"
+
+Fifteen minutes later the automobile stood before the steps to
+the big porch.
+
+"You two, my friends," called Don Luis, resting a hand on Tom's
+shoulder and beckoning to Harry.  "You will take one last ride
+with me, will you not?  And, while we are gone, I shall discuss
+a few more of my plans with you."
+
+Wholly unsuspicious of this final tragic touch to the drama, Tom
+Reade and Harry Hazelton went down the steps, following Don Luis
+Montez into the car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+MR. HAYNES ASKS A FEW QUESTIONS
+
+
+Slowly the car started clown the drive.  "Oh, Don Luis!" called
+Mr. Hippen, running to the corner of the porch.
+
+"Stop!" said Montez to his chauffeur.  "Mr. Haynes is signaling you,"
+continued Mr. Hippen.  "I think he wants to say something to you."
+
+Don Luis turned, and beheld the president and the general manager
+of the A.G.& N.M.  Railroad hastening toward the gate.
+
+"Drive down to the gate and await the gentlemen there," was Don
+Luis's next order.
+
+Mr. Hippen, too, started down the roadway, seeing which Dr. Tisco
+reached his side and went with him.
+
+There was a general meeting of the different parties at the gate.
+
+"I signaled you, Don Luis, to inquire if Ellsworth and myself
+might go on your drive with you?" explained Mr. Haynes.
+
+"Gentlemen, I am truly sorry," began Don Luis Montez, in his most
+honeyed tones, "but the truth is that I desire to have a private
+conference with Senores Reade and Hazelton."
+
+"Then we won't ask to accompany you, this time." said Mr. Haynes,
+laughing.
+
+"We would be glad to take you, but our business conversation would
+then be delayed," Don Luis explained.  "However, if you wish--"
+
+"I don't want to spoil your talk," laughed Mr. Haynes.  "But I
+have this to say to Reade and Hazelton.  We gentlemen have been
+discussing the new management of the mine, and we are united in
+feeling that we want these young men to remain here and manage
+our new property for us.  In fact, with such a valuable mining
+property on our hands we wouldn't feel in the least easy with
+any one else in charge."
+
+"Here is a telegram that came for you, Mr. Haynes," said Mr. Hippen,
+quietly, handing over the sheet.  "Of course, Reade and Hazelton
+are not going to sign with any one else."
+
+"Pardon me," said Mr. Haynes, and let his glance fall on the telegram.
+
+Any one noting the railway president's face at that moment would
+have noted a quick, though suppressed, change there.
+
+"Don Luis," went on Mr. Haynes, quickly, "I fear that I really
+shall have to interrupt your drive for a little while.  I have
+just received news that I shall want to discuss with you."
+
+"Why, your news refers to nothing more than a wreck on your Arizona
+railway system, doesn't it?" inquired Don Luis, who was eager
+to get away and attend, as speedily as possible, to the impending
+assassination of the young engineers.
+
+"You will oblige me by coming back to the house, won't you, Don
+Luis?" insisted Mr. Haynes, who seemed, somehow, a changed man
+within the last minute.
+
+"Certainly," agreed the Mexican courteously, and the chauffeur
+turned the car.
+
+As they walked along, Mr. Haynes managed to whisper a few words
+in Mr. Ellsworth's ear.
+
+"I have sent Ellsworth to call all our associates together," explained
+Mr. Haynes, as he joined Don Luis and the young engineers on the
+porch.  Something in the changed atmosphere of the place made
+Don Luis Montez feel decidedly uneasy.
+
+The Americans responded quickly to Mr. Ellsworth's rounding up.
+Each of them, as he came forward, looked unusually grave.  Mr.
+Haynes waited until he saw all of his associates around him.
+Then he began:
+
+"Don Luis, in my recent absence a telegram came for me.  Mr. Hippen,
+though a director of our railway, is not familiar with the telegraph
+code that we use in our inner office.  This telegram, sir"--unfolding
+it--"is from my private secretary, a most careful and trustworthy
+man of affairs.  I feel certain, Don Luis, that he would not have sent
+this telegram unless he had had the strongest reasons.  Now, in our
+office code a wire relating to a wreck of Train Thirteen--there's
+no such train on our schedule--means always just one thing.  The
+significance of this telegram is, 'Don't on any account put through
+the impending deal.'"
+
+If Don Luis Montez felt any inward start he controlled his facial
+expression wonderfully.
+
+"Senor Haynes," he replied, "I don't understand the meaning of
+your code message.  You have no deal here to put through.  You
+have made and closed the only deal here about which I have the
+honor to know anything."
+
+"But my secretary doesn't yet know the state of affairs here,"
+continued Mr. Haynes, gravely, "and he doesn't know that we have
+yet bought the _El Sombrero_ Mine.  Therefore, his despatch can't
+refer to anything else.  My private secretary is certainly warning
+me not to buy _El Sombrero_ Mine until we have further information."
+
+"But you have bought it," cried Don Luis, in a voice pitched rather
+higher than usual.  "You have bought it and have the deed to all
+this property.  The money has been paid, and is now mine, subject
+to my order."
+
+"Don Luis," continued the American railway president, "I ask you,
+before all my associates, to consider the matter still open until
+I can receive further particulars from my private secretary.
+If there is any good and sound reason why we should not have bought
+this mine--"
+
+"But you have bought it, paid for it, and the money is mine!"
+cried Don Luis Montez.  "There is no more to be said about it."
+
+"Sir," went on Mr. Haynes, gravely, "there is but one question
+of fact that can affect the sale.  Suppose--I hate to say it,
+but suppose that the mine is not a rich one, not worth any such
+price as we paid for it, and that you sold it to us, knowing--"
+
+"The mine is a rich one--one of the richest in Mexico," insisted
+Montez, "and you have secured a very great bargain."
+
+"I trust and hope that all that is true," continued Mr. Haynes.
+"Yet, if such should not be the case, and if we have bought a
+property under conditions that would make it certain swindle had
+been perpetrated--"
+
+"Senor!" warned Don Lids, taking a step forward, a deadly light
+in his eyes.  "Be Careful!"
+
+"I am only stating a supposition," resumed Mr. Haynes, coolly.
+"Don Luis, I believe I have stated enough of that supposition
+to make it all clear.  If that supposition is true, then you would
+have to buy the mine back from us again."
+
+"Would I?" sneered the Mexican.
+
+"Yes, Don Luis, or we could bring the matter about in another
+way.  I know the name of the bank in Mexico City to which you
+have transferred the funds received from us.  Our attorneys, acting
+through Mexican lawyers, can tie that money up and keep it in
+the bank until the question has been decided as to whether--"
+
+"Be careful, senor!" again warned Don Luis.
+
+"Sir," demanded Mr. Haynes, bluntly, "is the mine a valuable one,
+or is it a swindle?"
+
+"You should not ask me," Montez retorted, bitterly.  "You have
+your own engineers on the ground--engineers whom you trust.
+Ask them!  They will tell you."
+
+"Thank you," assented Mr. Haynes, bowing.  Then, turning to Tom,
+the American railway president went on:
+
+"Reade, tell me the truth about this matter in a word.  Have we
+been defrauded in any way?"
+
+"You have not, Mr. Haynes," Tom answered steadily.  "You have
+now in your possession a property that is worth far more than
+has been paid for it."
+
+"You agree with that statement, do you, Hazelton?" asked Mr. Haynes.
+
+"I do, sir," Harry nodded.
+
+Dr. Tisco, standing in the background, had all he could do to keep
+himself from dancing a few jig-steps.
+
+"Decidedly, these young Americans are champion liars!" he thought
+to himself.  "They can readily outlie Don Luis or myself.  Now,
+if Don Luis still insists on having these gifted young engineers
+killed I am afraid I shall look upon him as being a man without
+honor."
+
+"You have heard your own engineers, senores," broke in Don Luis.
+"You trust them.  Now, are you not satisfied that I have dealt
+fairly with you?"
+
+"Somehow, I ought to be satisfied," agreed Mr. Haynes.  "And yet
+my private secretary is such a very careful and dependable man
+that I shall have to await further advices.  Of course, I place
+the fullest confidence in the honesty of our American engineers,
+Reade and Hazelton.  Tom, do you believe that you could possibly
+have been deceived as to the valued of this mining property?"
+
+"I do not believe it possible, sir," Tom replied, as steadfastly
+as before.  "In the face of anything that might be said, Hazelton
+and I will continue to claim that you have bought a property here
+worth more than you have paid for it."
+
+"Then I apologize, Don Luis, for what might have seemed to be
+slighting language," Mr. Haynes continued, bowing to the Mexican.
+"You will understand, of course, what good reason I had to be
+anxious."
+
+"Say no more, senor.  You had most excellent reasons," smiled
+Don Luis, at ease once more.  "I cannot blame you in the least for
+your passing doubts, but I am glad they have been set at rest by
+these capable and honest young engineers.  And now, Senores Reade
+and Hazelton, shall we resume our interrupted ride in the car?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE ENGINEER TURNS
+
+
+"You are about to have more visitors, I see," announced Mr. Hippen,
+from a corner of the porch.
+
+Barely five hundred yards from the house, on one of the roughest
+roads coming down the mountains, were some forty or fifty horsemen.
+Nor did it require more than a second glance to show that the
+newcomers were cavalry troops of the Mexican army.
+
+At the head of the cavalcade rode three or four men who had an
+official appearance.
+
+"It is one of the periodical visits of the governor of the state
+of Bonista," explained Don Luis.  "Ah, if the governor is with
+that party, Senor Haynes, you will soon have more reason to know
+that it would be impossible for me to defraud you.  The governor
+himself will assure you that I am of an old Spanish family and
+of the highest personal honor."
+
+"I shall be most glad to meet the governor," remarked Mr. Haynes,
+dryly.
+
+Don Luis Montez stepped to where he could obtain a better view
+of the horsemen, who were moving their horses at a walk.  He held
+his hands over his eyes to keep the light from interfering with
+his view.
+
+"I am afraid, after all, that his excellency, the governor of
+the state, is not one of the horsemen," said Montez, regretfully.
+"Not unless he is riding at the rear of the party.  But we shall
+soon know."
+
+Just inside the limits of the estate all of the cavalrymen except
+a half dozen halted.  Three officers, six troopers and a gentleman
+in citizen's dress rode on up to the porch.
+
+"Is Don Luis Montez of your number?" called the man in citizen's
+clothes.
+
+"I am Don Luis," responded Montez, going forward and raising his
+hat.
+
+"I am Manuel Honda," continued the stranger, raising his hat in
+return.  "Will you be good enough to have one of your servants
+take my horse?"
+
+This was done at a gesture from Montez.  Senor Honda dismounted,
+then came up the steps.
+
+"You are very welcome, senor," said Don Luis, holding out his hand,
+which the other accepted.  Then the stranger swept his glance over
+the others grouped on the porch.
+
+"These are your American visitors?" inquired Honda.
+
+"Yes," nodded Don Luis.
+
+"We will withdraw if you two gentlemen have business to discuss,"
+suggested Mr. Haynes.
+
+"I beg that all of you gentlemen will remain," urged Senor Honda.
+
+"I wish to show you every courtesy, senor," said Montez, quickly,
+"but it seems to me that you are taking the liberty of giving orders
+in my home."
+
+"Have you sold your mine?" asked Honda.
+
+"Yes," Montez acknowledged.
+
+"And this estate was part of the mine property?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then I would suggest, Don Luis," Honda answered, with a smile,
+"that this place is no longer your home."
+
+"Senor, are you making fun of me?" demanded Don Luis, with heightening
+color.
+
+"By no means, Don Luis.  But you have observed that I have an escort
+of our country's troops."
+
+"Assuredly."
+
+"From that what would you infer?"
+
+"You may very likely hold some government commission," guessed Don Luis.
+
+"Assuredly I do," Honda replied.
+
+"In the state of Bonista especially?"
+
+"Even so."
+
+"Then if you hold a commission in the state of Bonista," replied
+Don Luis Monte; "you must represent my very good friend, his excellency,
+the governor of this state."
+
+"Just at present the governor of Bonista is in difficulties," hinted
+Senor Manuel Honda.
+
+"How?" demanded Don Luis.
+
+"Yes; in difficulties," continued the visitor.  "At least, his
+excellency, the governor, is not able to leave his house."
+
+"Ah!  He is ill, then?"
+
+"Ill in spirit, yes," smiled Senor Honda.
+
+"Will you be good enough to explain?" Montez asked, anxiously.
+
+"Don Luis, it was I, Manuel Honda, who confined his excellency
+to his official dwelling and placed a guard about the buildings."
+
+"Oh?  Is there a revolution, then, in the state of Bonista?"
+
+"None that I know of," Honda rejoined.  "Don Luis, I am from the
+national capital.  I represent the government of the Republic
+of Mexico, and I have considerable power in this state.  I am
+solely in command, at present, of all the national troops within
+this state.  These army officers will assure you that I hold a
+national commission to investigate affairs even in this remote
+state of Bonista.  I could show you my credentials from the national
+government, if it were worth while."
+
+"Then will you be good enough, Senor Honda, to tell me what you
+wish here."
+
+"Don Luis, I am here because I believe this to be one of the central
+points in the investigation that I am about to hold.  I will come
+to the point at once.  You have sold your mining property here.
+One of my first acts will be to make sure that you do not draw the
+proceeds of the sale from any Mexican bank until after the national
+government is satisfied."
+
+"That is a high-handed proceeding, Senor Honda!" cried Montez, a
+deadly glitter in his eyes.
+
+"It is such a proceeding as a national government may take at
+need," replied Senor Honda, calmly.  "Of course, Don Luis, if
+your conduct in selling the mine is found to be blameless, then
+you will soon be able to use your money in any way that you please.
+But, first of all, the government must be satisfied."
+
+"Have you any further questions that you wish to ask me at present?"
+Montez demanded, suddenly.
+
+Though he had kept himself rather calm up to the present, the
+rascal felt that he must soon vent the spite and hate welling
+up within him, or explode from the pent-up force of his own emotions.
+The late mine owner, though he could not penetrate the mysteries
+of the present situation, was now sure that Tom Reade and Harry
+Hazelton must be in some way behind it.  No matter what happened
+to him afterwards, Don Luis was now furiously bent on getting
+the young engineers off on the lonely mountain trail where Gato
+and his comrades were lying in wait for the two young Americans.
+
+"I shall have no more questions for you, for the present," Senor
+Honda replied.  "Just now I wish to have some conversation with
+these Americans."
+
+"Then come, senores," cried Don Luis, with forced gayety, as he
+thrust a hand under the arms of Tom and Harry.  "Come, we will
+have our ride and our talk.  We will be back here in half an hour
+and then we shall hear this affair through.  Come!"
+
+Tom Reade threw off the fellow's arm, exclaiming, warningly:
+
+"If you touch me again, you snake in the grass, I'll reduce you
+to powder with a fist that's fairly aching to hit you!"
+
+The vehemence of Tom's declaration made every one within hearing
+gasp with astonishment.
+
+"What does this mean, Reade?" gasped President Haynes, looking
+thunderstruck.
+
+"It means, sir," reported Tom, wheeling about, "that this fellow,
+Montez, threatened us with death if we did not sign a glaringly
+false report concerning _El Sombrero_ Mine.  We were also to be
+killed if we did not stand by our report to the fullest degree
+after you and your friends arrived."
+
+"Then _El Sombrero_ Mine is worthless?" cried Mr. Haynes, his
+face turning a ghastly white.
+
+"As far as I know, sir, or as far as Hazelton knows," Tom Reade
+made prompt answer.  "_El Sombrero_ isn't worth the cost even
+of filling up the shaft."
+
+"And you, Reade--and you, Hazelton--the men we trusted
+implicitly--you stood by and saw us robbed!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+"I don't blame you for being angry," Tom answered, quickly.  "However,
+you may safely go a bit slow on the idea that we stood by to see
+you robbed, merely to save our lives.  We had tried to escape
+from here.  We even sent out two letters by secret messengers,
+these letters to be mailed at points distant from here.  The letters
+would have told our friends in the United States what was up.
+But, in some way of his own, Don Luis managed to catch the messengers
+and get hold of the letters."
+
+"Then," added Harry Hazelton, "we thought we were doomed if we
+didn't yield to Don Luis's commands.  Even at that, we were prepared
+to accept death sooner than sell ourselves out.  Death would have
+been the cheapest way out of the scrape.  But at last we found
+a way of helping Don Luis in the way he wanted, and of getting
+square with the rascal at the same time.  Tell them what I mean,
+Tom."
+
+"Why, it was like this," said Tom, seating himself on the railing
+of the porch, and facing the assemblage.  "Harry and I began to
+roam all over this property, as though to kill time.  Out in Nevada,
+as it happens, we two and a friend of ours own a mine that seemed
+almost worthless.  Almost by accident we discovered that we were
+working the mine just a little off from the real vein.  Now, we
+didn't find that _El Sombrero_ was being worked off the vein.
+What we did find was in that big strip of forest over to the
+east of _El Sombrero_--"
+
+Tom turned, for an instant, to point to the forest that he meant.
+
+"You will remember, Mr. Haynes, that we had Don Luis include that
+forest tract in the title of the _El Sombrero_ purchase.  That
+forest is really a jungle.  One has the greatest time forcing
+his way through it.  When you open it up on a big scale you'll
+have to send hundreds of men in there with machetes to chop paths
+through and clear off the tangled brush.  We spent days in that
+jungle, at first because we had nothing better to do.  Mr. Haynes,
+and gentlemen, if we know anything about mining, then that forest
+land is worth an immense fortune in the minerals it will yield.
+You paid two and a half millions of dollars for the entire property.
+That great forest stretch, in our opinion as engineers, is worth
+as much and perhaps more than that."
+
+"That's right!" leered Don Luis.  "Jest with them, Senor Reade,
+to your heart's content."
+
+"I'm telling these countrymen of mine the truth, fellow," retorted
+Tom Reade, casting a look of withering scorn at Don Luis Montez.
+"Had you been square and decent with us, we would have told you
+of the mineral wealth in yonder forest.  As it is, we've punished
+your conduct by beating you at your own game."
+
+"If I believed you, Senor Reade--" began Don Luis, bending his
+head low as he thrust it forward and gazed piercingly at Tom's face.
+
+"I don't care anything about your believing me," retorted Tom.
+"But Harry and I will prove to these real men every word that we've
+been saying."
+
+"You have robbed me!" hissed Don Luis, now believing.
+
+His hand flew to a rear pocket.  He drew a pistol.  But two soldiers
+had crept up behind Montez at a sign from Senor Honda.  Now, one
+of the barefooted soldados struck the weapon down.  It clattered
+on the porch, and the other soldier picked it up.
+
+There was a struggle between Don Luis and the soldiers.  Two other
+soldiers came to their aid, and--Click!  snap!  Montez was
+securely handcuffed.
+
+"Take them off!" screamed Montez, paling like one about to die.
+"Senor Honda, this is an outrage, and you shall--"
+
+"Peace, fellow!  Hold your tongue!" ordered Honda.  "Do you not
+understand?  You are a prisoner, nor are you ever likely to be
+much better off than that.  A complaint of the treatment of these
+Americans, Reade and Hazelton, was forwarded to our government
+by the American minister in Mexico City.  The complaint mentioned
+that the governor of Bonista was a confederate of yours in more
+than one underhanded bit of business.  On account of the urgings
+of the American minister to this country, I was despatched here
+to investigate, and with authority to arrest the governor of Bonista,
+if necessary, and any other rogues."
+
+"That's a lie!" snarled Don Luis.  "How could the American minister
+learn what was going on in this country?  These mountains of Bonista
+have never told my secrets."
+
+"They did, for this one time," Tom broke in, gleefully.  "And
+I can tell you how it happened.  Harry, do you remember the day
+that Nicolas was gone so long that you were uneasy about him?
+Well, I knew where Nicolas was, for I had sent him off.  He thought
+he had found a messenger who would have more success in getting
+our letters mailed than had fallen to the lot of the messengers
+with our first two letters.  Nicolas's messenger, from to-day's
+developments, must have got through.  While I was sending one
+letter I thought it as well to send two.  One letter was to our
+home offices, directing that the matter contained in my letter
+be taken on the jump to the government at Washington.  The other
+letter, Mr. Haynes, was directed to you, sir, for I did not then
+know that you were one of the Americans expected here.  I thought,
+Mr. Haynes, that your active hustling with the Washington government
+might help in rushing matters.  For some unknown reason, my letter
+to our offices must have gotten through before the letter did
+that was sent to Arizona.  Your private secretary, Mr. Haynes,
+must have opened my letter addressed to you.  He realized that
+he could not with safety to us send you more than the telegraphic
+code warning to keep out of the deal.  I never told Hazelton,
+until just now, in the presence of you all, that I had ordered
+Nicolas to send off more letters by a messenger whom Nicolas felt
+that he could trust.  But you remember the day well enough, Harry?"
+
+"I do," nodded Hazelton.  "I was fussing about the long absence of
+Nicolas just before you turned up with that stranger whom we nursed."
+
+"And speaking of strangers," muttered Reade, glancing off down
+the driveway, "there's the identical stranger, at this moment
+talking with the soldiers halted by the gate."
+
+Almost as though he had heard himself called the stranger glanced
+up at the group on the porch, then came forward.  He walked briskly,
+despite his lean, wasted frame.
+
+"How?  So this fellow is in irons?" queried the stranger, halting
+as he saw the handcuffs on Don Luis's wrists.  "Justice is sometimes
+very tardy, though in this instance she has not failed.  Handcuffs
+become this felon; they are his natural jewelry!"
+
+"Then you know Don Luis?" questioned Tom, after an instant's silence.
+
+"I should know Don Luis well," boasted the stranger, drawing himself
+up proudly.  "Also I know this fellow!"
+
+"My father!" cried a startled feminine voice from the doorway.
+Then Francesca, her eyes filled with fright, hastened across
+the porch.  She would have thrown her arms around the neck of
+the manacled man had not the stranger caught her by one arm and
+held her back.
+
+"How dare you, senor?" panted the girl, turning upon the stranger.
+"And who are you?"
+
+"Do not touch this felon with your clean hands," warned the stranger,
+with a sternness that was tempered with gentleness.
+
+"Who are you, senor?" the girl insisted.
+
+"Can't you guess?" broke out Tom Reade, wonderingly.  "Senorita
+Francesca, I helped take care of this man while he was ill in
+our cook tent.  In his fever I heard some words fall from his
+lips that started me to wondering.  But the other day I beheld
+this gentleman gazing upon you from a distance.  In his eyes,
+as he looked at you, Senorita, I saw a light that I had never
+seen in the eyes of this manacled brute.  Then my guess was turned
+to knowledge!"
+
+"Then, Senor Reade," begged the girl, "who is this man who would
+hold me back from my--"
+
+"Tell her, sir," Tom urged the stranger.
+
+"Child," said the latter, with wonderful gentleness and tenderness,
+"I am the real Don Luis Montez--your father!"
+
+"Then who is _he_?" cried Francesca, pointing to the handcuffed
+Mexican, who had sunk upon a chair looking more dead than alive.
+
+"His true name," said the stranger, "is Paulo Rabasco.  He was
+born of good family, but was always dissolute and criminal.  Once
+he was my friend, I am ashamed to say; at least, I believed myself
+his.  We traveled, once, in a part of Mexico in which we were
+both strangers.  While there Rabasco became engaged in a budding
+revolution, that was quickly nipped by the central government.
+In my efforts to shield my supposed friend from the consequences
+of supposed rebellion, I myself became suspected.  In the night
+Rabasco stole my papers, putting his own in my pocket.  When the
+police came they searched us both.  I was believed to be Rabasco,
+and this scoundrel insisted that I was.  The papers in our respective
+pockets seemed to prove it.  The papers in mine connected me with
+the intended rebellion.  A swift military trial, and within a
+few hours I was on my way to serve a life sentence of imprisonment
+in Yucatan.
+
+"Rabasco, the self-asserted Don Luis, was turned loose.  We looked
+not unlike in those days.  Rabasco, as I have since learned, grew
+a beard.  Then he went back to my home.  My wife had died within
+a few days.  Most of the old servants had gone.  Rabasco, the
+unutterable scoundrel, set himself up as Don Luis Montez.  He
+imposed on the nurse, and took her away with my infant child whom
+I had never seen after she was three months old.  Rabasco went
+to the United States as soon as he had established a flimsy title
+to my modest property.  In after years he returned, an older and
+more successful impostor.  Yet he feared to live on my estate,
+dreading that some day his treachery might be discovered.  So,
+still calling himself Don Luis Montez, this scoundrel sold my
+estate and took my child away to other parts of Mexico.  My estate
+was a modest one.  On that foundation this fellow has been building
+a larger fortune--but fate has overtaken him at last.  There
+are still friends of mine alive who will help me to unmask this
+scoundrel and prove him Paulo Rabasco.  He never would have been
+known, had I not, after many years, escaped from Yucatan.  I did
+not dare proclaim myself at once, for fear of being arrested as
+Paulo Rabasco and sent back to Yucatan.  But now I no longer fear.
+I am Don Luis Montez.  I shall prove it without difficulty at last."
+
+"Then, if this be so, we haven't bought this mining property of
+the rightful owner," interposed Mr. Haynes.  "I imagine that the
+real Don Luis will establish full claim to a property that was
+founded on his stolen fortune.  We shall recover our money from
+the sham Don Luis, but I fear we shall not be able to obtain this
+rich mineral property."
+
+"Tell me the particulars," begged the real Don Luis.
+
+Tom Reade stated the case fully, though in the fewest words that
+would accomplish the telling.
+
+"You shall have the property by transferring the purchase price
+to me after I have recovered this estate at law," promised the
+real Don Luis simply.
+
+"But, my dear sir," objected Mr. Haynes, honestly, "do you realize
+that we paid two and a half millions for the property, and that
+our trusted engineers assure us that it may be worth more."
+
+"That makes no difference, Senor," replied the new Don Luis.
+"The money you were first willing to pay is far more money than
+I shall ever need.  I crave only life and my child.  If you journeyed
+down into Mexico, expecting to buy a property at a certain figure,
+and if you did do it, acting in perfectly good faith, then that
+is enough.  I will ratify the bargain."
+
+"But that would hardly be good business," smiled Mr. Haynes.
+
+"Business is a word that will interest me but little after I have
+established my rights in the world," remarked Don Luis, mildly.
+
+The true Don Luis Montez did establish his rights.  He secured
+the estate built by Rabasco on the looted Montez fortune.  The
+money paid Rabasco for the mining property was easily recovered
+through the courts and turned over to the rightful Don Luis.
+Then the Americans secured the property at the original figure.
+Don Luis soon won the affection of his daughter, and the two were
+wonderfully happy together.
+
+Rabasco, the impostor, was sentenced to twenty years of penal
+servitude.  On his way to begin serving his sentence he broke
+away from the military guard, and was shot to death.
+
+Dr. Carlos Tisco died, of fever, within six months of the time
+of the real Don Luis's arrival.  The governor of Bonista was discovered
+guilty of so much corruption in office that he died, while serving
+a sentence in prison.
+
+Pedro Gato became an avowed outlaw.  Senor Honda, while acting
+for the government in Bonista, sent the troops in pursuit of the
+outlaw.  He was caught and shot by the soldiers.
+
+As for Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton, they were happy indeed when
+they found themselves wholly reestablished in the respect of Mr.
+Haynes and his friends.  The young engineers had played a most
+daring game throughout, and would have gone to their deaths at the
+hands of the sham Don Luis sooner than to have betrayed their own honor.
+
+Tom and Harry spent days showing the American investors through
+that forest stretch.  It proved an amazingly wonderful mineral
+claim, and has since paid enormous dividends.
+
+"Mr. Haynes," Tom asked, anxiously, one day, "would you have done
+the same as we did, had you been in our place?"
+
+"I don't know, my boy," replied the railway president, with a
+frank smile.  "I'd hope that I would have done the same, but I
+don't know that I would have had the same magnificent courage
+that you two displayed throughout.  It isn't every man who has
+the courage to back his conscience with his life."
+
+Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton remained some three months longer
+in the mountains of Bonista.  Finally, when they could be spared
+from the task of superintending the start of this rich mineral
+claim they returned to the United States.
+
+"And what is to become of me, _caballeros_?" Nicolas mournfully
+inquired, the day before their departure.
+
+"Do you think you could stand life with us, in the United States?"
+asked Tom.
+
+"Could I?" exclaimed the poor fellow, clasping his hands.  "Senor,
+do not jest with me!  Can it be that you mean it?"
+
+"I certainly do," nodded Tom.
+
+Ambition's lure led the young engineers back to the home country.
+We shall speedily find them engaged again in the great fields
+of their calling, and we shall find them, too, in a setting of
+truly extraordinary adventure.  All that happened to them will
+be stirringly told in the next volume of this series, which is
+published under the title, "_The Young Engineers On The Gulf; Or,
+The Dread Mystery of the Million-dollar Breakwater_."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN MEXICO***
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