amp."

"I'll quit," said the storekeeper, who turned to Dick. "You're a smart
kid, but we'd have bluffed you all right if the fool had allowed he used
the same cement."

Then he followed Oliva, and Stuyvesant got up.

"That was Oliva's mistake," he remarked. "I saw where you were leading
him and you put the questions well. Now, however, you'll have to take on
his duties until we get another man."

They left the testing-house, and as Bethune and Dick walked up the valley
the former said: "It's my opinion that you were imprudent in one respect.
You showed the fellows that it was you who found them out. It might have
been better if you had, so to speak, divided the responsibility."

"They've gone, and that's the most important thing," Dick rejoined.

"From the works. It doesn't follow that they'll quit Santa Brigida.
Payne, the storekeeper, is of course an American tough, but I don't think
he'll make trouble. He'd have robbed us cheerfully, but I expect he'll
take his being found out as a risk of the game; besides, Stuyvesant will
have to ship him home if he asks for his passage. But I didn't like the
look Oliva gave you. These dago half-breeds are a revengeful lot."

"I'm not in the town often and I'll be careful if I go there after dark.
To tell the truth, I didn't want to interfere, but I couldn't let the
rogues go on with their stealing."

"I suppose not," Bethune agreed. "The trouble about doing your duty is
that it often costs you something."

CHAPTER IX

JAKE FULLER

A month after Fuller sailed his son arrived at Santa Brigida, and Dick,
who met him on the mole, got something of a surprise when a handsome
youth landed and came straight towards him. Jake Fuller was obviously
very young, but had an ease of manner and a calm self-confidence that
would have done credit to an elderly man of the world. His clothes showed
nice taste, and there was nothing about him to indicate the reckless
scapegrace Dick had expected.

"You're Brandon, of course," he said as he shook hands. "Glad to meet
you. Knew you a quarter of a mile off."

"How's that?" Dick asked. "You haven't seen me before."

"For one thing, you're stamped Britisher; then you had a kind of
determined look, as if you'd come down to yank me right off to the
irrigation ditches before I'd time to run loose in the city. Matter of
duty to you, and you were going to put it through."

Dick said nothing, and Jake laughed. "Well, that's all right;