ion enough."

"Yet what difference does it make, Gato. As soon as Don Luis
is through with the Americanos he will restore you to your old
position."

"It is because the Americanos treated me with such contempt,"
retorted Pedro. "No man sneers at me and lives."

"You unhung bandit!" muttered Tom under his breath. "Why don't
you tell your bandit friends that you are angry because of the
trouncing I gave you before a lot of men? But I suppose you hate
to lose caste, even before such ragged specimens as your friends."

Suddenly one of the men around the fire snatched at his rifle.
Next scattering the embers of the fire, the fellow threw himself
down flat, peering down the road.

"The troops are coming," he whispered. "I hear their horses."

"The horses that you hear are mules," laughed Gato, harshly.
"It is the nightly transport of ore down to _El Sombrero_. Just
now Don Luis is having fine ore brought over the hills from another
mine and dumped into _El Sombrero_."

"Why should he bring ore from another mine to _El Sombrero_?"
asked one of the men, curiously.

"How should I know?" demanded Gato, shrugging his shoulders and
spitting on the ground. "Why should I concern myself with the
business that belongs to an hidalgo like Don Luis?"

"It is queer that--"

"Silence!" hissed Gato. "Do not meddle with the secrets of Don
Luis Montez, or you will be sorry for it."

Gato's explanation about the mule-train had quieted the fears
of the bandits as to the approach of troops. In some mountainous
parts of Mexico the government's troops are nearly always on the
trail of bandits and the petty warfare is a brisk one.

"Go to sleep, my friends. There will be nothing to do until day
comes."

"Then, good Gato, take us somewhere off this road," pleaded one
of the men. "It is too public here to be to our liking."

"You may go to a quieter place," nodded Gato. "You know where--the
place I showed you this afternoon. As for me, after the mule-train
has left the mine, I must go there. I will join you before daybreak."

"We'll go now, then," muttered one of the men, rising.

They were coming up the road in the direction of the young engineers.
There was no time to retreat. Tom glanced swiftly around. Then
he made a sign to Harry. Both young engineers flattened themselves
out behind a pile of stones at the roadside. Their biding-place
was far from being a safe one. But four drowsy bandits plodded
by withou