The Young Engineers in Mexico | Page 5

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