y
work for the future. Yet you say that you're boosting your ambitions."

"I am," Tom nodded solemnly. "Harry, isn't it just as great an
ambition to be an honest engineer as it is to be a highly capable
one?"

"Of course."

"Don't capitalists usually invest large sums on a favorable report
from engineers?"

"Often."

"And, if the engineers were dishonest the capitalists would lose
their money, wouldn't they?"

"Certainly."

"Then here's our ambition, and we're working it out--finely,
too," Tom went on, with much warmth. "Don Luis has a scheme to
rob some people of a large sum of money by selling them a worthless
mine in a country where there are several good ones. If he could
get us to help him, to our own dishonor, Don Luis Montez would
succeed in swindling this company of men. Harry, we're just lying
around here, day after day, doing no hard work, but we're blocking
Don Luis's game and saving money for honest men. Don Luis doesn't
care to have us assassinated, for he still hopes to break down
our resistance. He can't bring the capitalists here to meet us
until we do give in, and so the game lags for Don Luis. He can't
bring in other engineers, for they'd meet us and we would post
them. The American engineer must be a serious problem for Don
Luis. He thought he could buy almost any of us. Our conduct
has made him afraid that American engineers can't be bought.
Evidently he must have his report signed by American engineers
of repute, which means that he is trying to sell his worthless
mine to Americans. Harry, we're teaching Don Luis to respect
the honesty of American engineers; we're saving some of our countrymen
from being swindled, probably out of thousands of dollars; we're
proving that the American engineer is honest, and we're discouraging
rascals everywhere from employing us in crooked work. Now, honestly,
isn't all that ambition enough to hold us for a few weeks?"

"I suppose so," Harry agreed. "But what is the end of all this
to be. Won't Don Luis merely have us assassinated in the end,
if we go on proving stubborn?"

"He may," Tom answered, pressing his lips grimly. "But, if he
does, he'll pay heavily for his villainy."

"How?"

"Every man has to pay for his sins."

"That's what we were taught in Sunday school," Harry nodded, "and
I've always believed it. Yet here, in these remote mountains
of the state of Bonista, if anywhere, Don Luis would appear to
be safe. If a few of