The Young Engineers in Mexico | Page 9

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