"No?" Tom inquired. "Harry, our late host wishes us to leave by the windows."

"All right," nodded Hazelton, smiling. "I used to be something of an athlete."

"You shall not leave me in any such childish spirit," Don Luis insisted, stubbornly.

"If you are going to try to reopen the proposition that you made us,"

said Reade, "you may as well stop."

"You will come to your senses presently."

"We are in full possession of them at present."

"We shall yet come to a sensible arrangement of the matter," Montez continued, coaxingly. Indeed, the Mexican had suddenly come to see that he was absolutely dependent upon the young Americans if he hoped to sell his mine in the near future.

"You are wrong, Don Luis," Reade continued. "We can come to no understanding. Matters have now gone so far that we are no longer bound by the rules of courtesy. Nor do the laws of hospitality weigh with us, for you have chosen to bully and threaten us under your own roof. I will therefore be frank enough to tell you that we regard you as a mere rogue. Am I right, Harry?"

"Wholly right," nodded Hazelton. "Don Luis, I cannot see that you are one whit more honest, or in any sense more of a gentleman, than any of the outlawed bandits who roam these mountains. Therefore, as Americans and gentlemen, we find it wholly impossible for us to remain either your employs or your guests. There can be no hope whatever that we shall consent to serve you, even in the most innocent way."

Don Luis heard them with rising anger, which, however, he kept down with a fine show of self-control.

"_Caballeros_, you are young. You have not seen much of the world.

You are mere boys. You have not even, as yet, developed good manners. Therefore I overlook in you what, in men, might arouse my anger. Take my advice. Go to your rooms. Think matters over.

When you have cooled we will talk again. No--not a word, now."

Don Luis stepped aside. Tom bowed, very stiffly, in pa.s.sing the Mexican. Harry merely gazed into the Mexican's eyes with a steadiness and a contempt that made the mine owner wince.

Straight down the hallway, to their rooms, Tom marched, Harry following. Barefooted Nicolas sprang forward, bowing, then swinging open the door. He bowed again as the young engineers stepped inside. Then Nicolas pulled the door shut.

"Are you going to stay, Tom, and have any further talk with this thief?" sputtered Harry, who had held in about as long as was safe for him.

"What do you think?" Tom asked, grimly, as he knelt upon his trunk and tugged at the strap.

"I reckon I think about the same as you do," rejoined Hazelton, closing his own trunk and strapping it.

"One--two _hoist_!" ordered Reade, settling his own trunk upon his shoulder.

Harry followed suit. In Indian file they moved across the room.

"Nicolas," called Tom, "be good enough--the door!"

The barefooted servant swung the barrier open.

"Thank you," said Tom, marching out. Then he dumped the trunk, noiselessly, to the floor. Going into an inner pocket he produced a five dollar bill.

"Nicolas," said the young chief engineer, "you have certainly done all in your power to make us comfortable. I am sorry that we are not longer to have the comfort of your services. Will you do me the favor of accepting this as a remembrance? It is American money, but you can easily get it changed. And now, let us shake hands."

Nicolas appeared dazed, both by the money and by Tom's desire to shake hands with him. The hand that Tom clasped trembled.

"Same here," murmured Harry, also producing a five-dollar bill.

"Nicolas, you're a Mexican, but I wish they produced more of your kind on the American side of the Rio Grande."

"The _caballeros_ have been too generous with me," protested the poor fellow, in a husky voice. "I have not deserved this. And, though I have been a stupid servant, you have not once beaten me with your canes."

"If you can find the canes you may keep them, then, as a souvenir of what you didn't get," laughed Reade. "And now, Nicolas, we must hasten, or we shall lose our trains."

The Mexican would have said more, but he was too dazed. In his left hand he held ten dollars in American money, about the same thing as twenty in Mexican coin. It was more money than he had ever held of his own before--it was almost a fortune. Surely, these _Americanos_ must suddenly have taken leave of their senses!

Then, too, Senor Reade had just spoken of missing the train.

Did they not realize that the nearest railway train was seventy miles away? a.s.suredly, they must be mad!

In the meantime Tom and Harry, having once more shouldered their trunks, kept on down the broad hallway and out on to the porch.

There was no one there to oppose them, though Don Luis was secretly regarding them through the crack of a nearly closed door. There was an evil, leering smile on the face of the Mexican mine owner.

Down the steps, along the drive--it was not a short one, and then out into the road, Tom continued. His back was beginning to feel the unaccustomed load on his shoulder.

"Drop it, pretty soon, Tom," muttered Hazelton, behind him.

"I believe I will Reade nodded. Reaching the farther side of the road he dropped one end of the trunk to the ground. Harry did likewise.

"Whew!" sputtered Tom. "I'd rather be an engineer, any day, than a delivery wagon!"

"Well, we're here," announced Harry. Then inquired, "What are we going to do now?"

CHAPTER XI

A PIECE OF LEAD IN THE AIR

"Get your wind back," advised Tom. "Also ease your shoulder a bit."

"And then?"

"We'll carry the trunks up the slope and dump them in some depression in the rock."

"What's the use of the trunks, anyway?" Harry wanted to know.

"No one else will shelter us in this country. We can't get a wagon to take our trunks away in. Surely, you don't intend to shoulder these trunks to the railway station--seventy miles away?"

"No," Reade admitted. "We'll have to abandon our trunks. All I wanted to be sure about was to get them out of Don Luis's house.

And now I am just as anxious to get them out of sight of his porch. As long as the trunks stand here they'll tell Don Luis of our discomfort. I don't want that thieving rascal to have the satisfaction even of laughing at our trunks."

"All right, if that's the way you feel about it," Hazelton grunted.

"I'm ready to shoulder mine."

"Come along, then," Tom nodded. "Up the slope we go."

Their climb was a hard one. But at last they halted, dropping their heavy baggage on a flat surface of rock that was not visible from the big white house. Then up a little higher the now unenc.u.mbered engineers trod. When they halted they could see far and wide over this strange country.