've had to come this far with you, Don Luis," admitted the
young engineer, dropping all his former pretense of dry good humor,
"but you can't make us live under your roof unless you go so far
as to have us seized, tied and carried in."

"I have no intention of being anything but a gracious friend and
host," murmured Montez.

"Then, while we probably must stay here," Tom resumed, "we'll
leave your place and go to live somewhere in the open near you.
We can accept neither your house nor your food."

"Very good," answered Montez, meekly, bowing again. "I will only
suggest, _caballeros_, that you do not attempt to go too far from
my house. If you do, the soldiers will surely find you. Then
they will not bring you back to me, and you will learn what
_incommunicado_ means in our Mexican law. _Adios_, _caballeros_!"

"Am I still the servant of the American gentlemen, Don Luis?"
asked Nicolas, humbly.

"You may go with them. They will need you, little Nicolas," answered
Don Luis, and watched the three out of sight with smiling eyes.

Montez could afford to be cheerful. He knew that he had triumphed.

CHAPTER XVI

TWO VICTIMS OF ROSY THOUGHTS

"There is one thing about it," remarked Reade, as he rose and
stood at the doorway of the tent. "We're not being overworked."

"Nor are we getting awfully rich, as the weeks go by, either,"
smiled Harry.

"No; but we're puppets in a game that interests me about as much
as any that I ever saw played," Tom smiled back.

"This game--interests you?" queried Harry, looking astonished.
"That is a new idea to me, Tom. I never knew you to be interested,
before, in any game that wasn't directly connected with some great
ambition."

"We have a great ambition at present."

"I'd like to know what it is," grumbled Harry. "It's three weeks
since that scoundrel, Don Luis, brought us back in triumph. We
refused to enter his house as guests, and started to camp in the
open in these two old tents that Nicolas secured for us. In all
these three weeks we haven't done a tap of work. We haven't studied,
or read because we have no books. We sleep, eat, and then sleep
some more. When we get tired of everything else we go out and
trudge over the hills, being careful not to get too far, lest
we run into the guns of Gato and his comrades, for undoubtedly
Gato was turned loose as soon as he was lost to our sight. We
don't do anything like work, and we're not even arranging an