ging us here."

"I shall not let you go," smiled the Mexican, "unless you feel that
you no longer wish to remain in the same country with Pedro Gato."

"That thought has not entered my mind, sir," Reade responded,
almost stiffly.

"Then we will say no more about the matter, and you will remain,"
nodded the Mexican. "And now we will go down into the mine and
give you your first chance to examine our problems there."

As they entered the shaft house it was discovered that the elevator
cage was at the foot of the shaft. While they waited for the
cage to come up, keen Dr. Tisco whispered to Tom:

"Senor Reade, night and day you must be unceasingly on your guard
against Gato. In these mountains a hundred men will follow his
beck and call."

"If they are all like him, then Gato should turn bandit," laughed
young Reade.

"It is not unlikely that he will do so," sighed Tisco, with a
slight shrug of his shoulders. "In Mexico, when a defeated man
seeks blood revenge it is no uncommon thing for him to turn bandit
until he has accomplished his hope of a terrible revenge. Then,
afterwards, if the bandit has annoyed the government enough, and
has repeatedly escaped capture, the bandit makes his peace with
the authorities and receives his pardon."

The cage arriving at this moment, the four men entered, and started
downward. Three hundred and sixty feet from the earth's surface
Don Luis led them from the car into a tunnel.

"I will now show you," promised Don Luis, "something of the problem
that confronts the engineers of this mine."

"Keep your eyes open, and your wits about you, Harry," whispered
Tom Reade. "I may be wholly wrong, yet, somehow, I can't quite
rid myself of a notion that Don Luis wants us for some piece of
rascally work, though of what kind I can't imagine."

"I shall watch these two Gringos like a cat," reflected Dr. Tisco.
"I half suspect that they will foolishly sacrifice their lives
sooner than serve us."

CHAPTER IV

TOM DOES SOME SAMPLING

At sight of Don Luis's party a Mexican foreman came running forward.

"How runs the ore this morning?" asked Don Luis.

"Not quite as well as usual, excellency," replied the man, with
a shrug of his shoulders.

"How! Do you mean to tell me that the ore is running out for
a streak!"

"Oh, no, excellency. Yet it is the poorest ore that we have struck
for a fortnight. However, it will pay expenses and leave something
for profit, too, ex