eans stupid. While she did not understand
business matters, she was sufficiently keen to note, from her
father's very insistent manner, and from Tom's equally firm refusal
to sign, that some point of honor was in dispute between the two.
She flushed deeply, glanced wonderingly from one to the other,
and then her gaze fell to the floor.

"_Chiquita_," said Don Luis, tenderly, "I have been thoughtless,
and have given you too long a lesson in business. Besides, Senor
Reade is not yet ready to serve us in this matter. You may go
to your room, my daughter."

Without a word Francesca rose and left the room.

As soon as the door had closed Don Luis broke forth bitterly:

"You have done well to insult me before my daughter. She understands
only enough to realize that you have doubted my honor, and she
certainly wonders why I permitted you to live longer. Senor Reade,
whether or not your American ideas of courtesy enable you to understand
it, you have grievously insulted me in my own house, and have
intensified that insult by delivering it before my daughter.
There is now but one way in which you can retrieve your conduct."

Don Luis Montez rose, dipped the pen freshly in ink, and thrust
it into Reade's hand.

"_Sign that report_!" ordered the Mexican.

Tom rose to his feet. So did Harry.

"Don Luis," spoke Reade calmly, though he was inwardly raging.
"I always like to do business like a gentleman. I feel very
certain that I must have made it very clear to you yesterday that
I could not possibly sign any such report at the present time.
I still prefer to keep our talk within the limits of courtesy
if that be also your wish."

"Sign that report!"

"_I won't do it!_"

Tom accompanied his response by tossing the pen across the room.

"Don Luis, I don't believe that you are a fool," continued the
young chief engineer, calming down again. "If you consider that
I am utterly a fool, either, then you are doing your own intelligence
an injustice. I refuse to sign this report until I have gained
the knowledge for myself that every word in it is true. Further,
I don't believe that I would sign it after I had made the fullest
investigation. I am aware that, last night, mule-trains brought
ore down over the hills from another mine, and that ore was sent
down by the ore hoists into _El Sombrero_."

"That's a lie!" cried the Mexican, hoarsely.

"I am describing what I saw with my own eyes," Tom insisted.

"You w