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,