WATCHING THE MIDNIGHT LIGHTS
Don Luis Montez laid down the pen. Outwardly he was as amiable as
ever; certainly he was all smiles.
"A thousand pardons, _caballeros_!" he murmured. "Of course, you
are quite right. It had not occurred to me in that light before.
True, the report was intended only for my own pleasure in later
years, but that does not alter the nice point of honor."
Tom Reade was deceived by Don Luis's manner. He did not suspect
that, at this very instant, the Mexican was consumed with demoniacal
rage.
"I shall not be patient another time," muttered Don Luis, between
his teeth and under his breath. Yet aloud he said:
"We have had too much of business to-day. We are tiring ourselves.
Until dinner time let us go outside and be gentlemen. Business
for to-morrow or next week. And my dear daughter. Brute! I
have been forgetting her."
Senorita Francesca, a darkly beautiful girl of eighteen, shy and
retiring from the convent schooling that had ended but lately,
soon came downstairs at her father's summons. Dr. Tisco bowed
low before the charming girl. Tom and Harry were presented, and
tried to make themselves agreeable to the young Mexican girl.
Senorita Francesca's shyness, however, made this somewhat difficult,
so the young engineers felt inwardly grateful when Dr. Tisco strolled
down the porch with her.
Dinner proved to be a somewhat formal affair. Yet, as soon as
the meal was finished Senorita Francesca was escorted from the
dining room by her father and returned to her room.
"What did you think of the young lady, Tom?" Harry asked his
chum when he could do so privately.
"A fine-looking girl," Reade answered briefly. "But I fear she
would be highly offended if she knew that, all through dinner,
my every thought was on the mine and the problems that we shall
find there."
"I want to talk with you about that mine, and about some impressions
that I have formed here," murmured Hazelton.
"Then another time, my dear fellow, for here comes Don Luis, and
I see Dr. Tisco returning from the garden."
That forestalled conversation for the time being. When the young
engineers, still relentlessly attended by Nicolas, sought their
own rooms Hazelton was so drowsy that he undressed hurriedly and
dropped into bed.
Later in the night Harry sat up suddenly in the dark. Some one
was moving in the parlor that separated the two bedrooms. An
instant after awakening Harry slipped off the bed, then stole
toward the next room.
In the darkness he made out a moving figure. Like a panther Harry
sprang, landing on the all but invisible figure.
"Now, I've got you!" Hazelton hissed, wrapping his arms around
the prowler.
"And small credit to you," drawled Tom's dry voice. "Hist!"
"What's up?" demanded Hazelton, dropping his voice to a whisper.
"You and I are."
"But what's the matter?"
"I couldn't sleep," Tom whispered.
"You--troubled with nerves!" gasped Hazelton.
"Not just the way you understand it," returned Tom. "But I was
thinking, thinking, and I sat by the window yonder. Come over
there, Harry, but step without noise."
Wondering what it all meant, Hazelton softly followed his chum
to the open window.
"Now, look," said Tom, pointing, "and tell me what you see."
"A moment ago I thought I saw a light twinkling over there among
the hills."
"Look sixty seconds longer, and you'll see more lights, Harry;
those lights are on the trail that leads from the nearest gold
mines to _El Sombrero_. It is the trail Don Luis pointed out
to us to-day."
"But what--"
"Harry, I'm going to get on my clothes and slip over in that direction.
Do you want to go with me?"
"Yes; but what--"
"I can tell you better when we're on the way. Come on; dress! We can
easily leave the house without being detected."
Though Harry had already been through hosts of adventures, he
felt creepy as he dressed with speed and stealth, bent on slipping
unobserved out of their employer's house. But he was used to
following his chum's lead.
When both were ready, which was very soon, Tom softly opened the
door of their parlor, thrusting one foot out into the broad corridor.
As he did so he kicked against a man lying prostrate on the floor.
It was Nicolas, the Mexican attendant, sleeping across their
threshold that he might be on hand when wanted.
The man stirred, muttered something almost inaudible, then gradually
began to breathe more deeply. Tom, after waiting, took a step
over the body of Nicolas. Harry closed the door behind them,
then followed. Soon after they stood out on the lawn.
"I'm glad Nicolas went to sleep again," muttered Tom, in a low
voice. "The fellow would have insisted on following us, and I
wouldn't want him with us to-night, to tell Don Luis everything."
"But what on earth--"
"Harry, old fellow, Don Luis is the essence of courtesy. He has
been very polite to us, too. Yet something has aroused a suspicion
in me that Don Luis Montez wishes to use us in some way that we
wouldn't care to be used. So I'm saying little, but my eyes are
going to be open all the time from now on."
"Oh, Don Luis must be on the square," Hazelton retorted. "What could
he want of us that is crooked?"
"I don't know, yet," Tom replied, as he led the way rapidly down
the road. "But I'm going to watch, and, if there's anything wrong,
I'm going to get a line on it."
"_El Sombrero_ is Don Luis's own mine. Surely he hasn't hired
us to fool him about his own property."
"I don't know what it is that's wrong," Tom admitted. "Nor am
I sure that anything is wrong. But I'm going to do my own watching
and gather some of my own information. See, there are the lights
on that trail beyond, and there are several lights. It looks
like a caravan moving down the trail."
"A caravan?" Harry repeated. "Of what?"
"I don't know, Harry. That's what I'm here to-night to find out."
Brisk, soft walking brought them nearer and nearer to the twinkling
lights along the trail that ran into their own road at a point
lower down.
"I wish I knew what on earth Tom is thinking about," Harry muttered
to himself. "However, I may as well save my breath just now. If I
hang to him I'm likely to know what it is."
"We'll reach a hiding place from which we can watch that caravan,
or whatever it is, turn from the hill trail into this road," Tom
whispered, after they had gone somewhat further.
At this point the main road that ran from. Don Luis's estate
to his mine was decidedly irregular. Many boulders jutted out,
making a frequent change in the course of the road necessary.
It was Tom's intention to gain the nearest ledge of rock of this
sort to the hill trail, and there hide to watch the caravan.
They had nearly reached this point when out of the darkness a figure
stole softly to meet them.
"Nicolas!" muttered Tom, in a low voice, all but rubbing his eyes.
"How on earth did you get here?"
"Am I not commanded to keep with you everywhere, and serve you
in all things?" demanded the servant. "Do not go around that
next point in the road, _caballeros_. If you do, you will run
straight into Pedro Gato, who has other men with him."