he engineers
had yet met. This man was short, slight of build and nervous
of action and gesture--a young man perhaps twenty-six years of
age. Carlos Tisco was secretary to Don Luis. Tisco was a graduate
of a university at the capital City of Mexico, a doctor of philosophy,
no mean chemist, a clever assayer of precious metals and an engineer.
In a word Dr. Tisco had been so well trained in many fields of
science that it was a wonder that Don Luis should feel the need
of employing the two young American engineers.

"You have seen my new engineers, Carlos?" queried Don Luis, almost
in a whisper, as the two men, bending forward, faced each other
over a flat-top desk.

"Through the window shutters--yes, Don Luis," nodded the secretary,
a strange look in his eyes.

"Then what do you think of the Gringo pair, my good Carlos?" pursued
Don Luis.

"Gringo" is a word of contempt applied by some Mexicans to Americans.

"I--I hardly like to tell you, Don Luis," replied the younger
man, with an air of pretended embarrassment.

"Ah! Then no doubt you feel they are not as clever as they have
been rated--my two Gringos," smiled the mine owner. "Rest easy,
Carlos. It may be better if they be not too clever."

"It--it is that which I fear, Don Luis," replied the secretary,
in a still lower voice. "I have been studying their faces--especially
their eyes as they spoke. Don Luis, I much fear that they are
very clever young men."

"Ah! Then again that is not bad," laughed the master gayly.
"If they be clever, then they will not need so much explanation."

Now the secretary became bolder.

"Don Luis, though you have spent many years in the United States,
I fear you do not at all understand some traits of the Gringo
character," warned Dr. Tisco. "For example, you want these young
men for a special service, and you are willing to pay them
generously--lavishly in fact. Has it escaped you, Don Luis, that
some of these obstinate, mule-headed Gringos are guilty of an
especial form of ingratitude which they term honor?"

"I know that some Gringos make much bombastic use of that term,
while other Gringos scoff at the word 'honor,'" replied the mine
owner, thoughtfully. "But even suppose that these Gringos have
absurdly fanciful ideas of honor? They will never guess for what
I really want them. Their work will be done, to my liking, and
they will go away from here with never a suspicion of the kind
of service they have per