"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."

THE END