"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,