The Young Engineers in Mexico | Page 4

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