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.