"What does he want us for, then? He spoke of engineering problems."

"Don Luis's engineering problem," uttered Tom Reade, with deep
scorn, "is simply to find two clean and honest engineers who'll
sign a lying report and enable him to swindle some man or group
of men out of a fortune."

"Then Don Luis is a swindler, and we'll throw up the job," returned
Harry Hazelton, vehemently. "We'll quit."

"We won't help him swindle any one," Tom rejoined. "We won't
quit just yet, but we'll stick just long enough to see whether
we can't expose the scoundrel as he deserves! Harry, we'll have
to be crafty, too. We must not let him see, too soon, that we
are aware of his trickery."




CHAPTER VIII

DANGLING THE GOLDEN BAIT


Creeping closer to the mine, Tom and Harry saw the ore dumped
from a train of forty mules. They also heard the fellow in charge
of the train say that he would be back with two more loads that
night.

"We don't need to wait to see the rest of the ore brought," Tom