THE JOB OF BEING AN HIDALGO
"This must be a part of the army that Don Luis also owns!" flashed
through Reade's mind.
From behind the group stepped forth a boyish-looking young fellow
at whose side dangled a sword. He was a very young lieutenant.
"Are these your men?" inquired Tom.
"Yes," nodded the lieutenant.
"Why have they stopped me?" Tom demanded, calmly.
"On suspicion, senor."
"Suspicion of what?" demanded Reade, his eyes opening wider.
"Is it suspicious for a foreigner to be walking about in Mexico?"
"I am not here to answer questions, senor," replied the young
officer. "You will be good enough not to resist."
"I haven't any intention of resisting," Tom retorted. "I know
better than to think that I can thrash the whole Mexican Army
that is behind you."
"You are as sensible as I had hoped you would be, senor," continued
the lieutenant, with a slight bow.
"But I wish you would tell us why you are holding us," Tom insisted.
"I am not obliged to tell you, senor, and I am not certain that
it would be wise of me to do so," the officer answered. "However,
I will say that I found your party with a Mexican citizen as a
prisoner."
"And you seem to have made a prisoner of the same fellow yourself,"
Reade retorted.
"As an officer of the Mexican Army, senor, that is my privilege,"
came the lieutenant's response. "As to your right, however, to
arrest and hold a Mexican citizen, there may be some question.
I shall have to satisfy myself on this point before I can release
you."
"Why, I'll be wholly frank with you," Tom Reade offered. "This
fellow, Gato, is a rascal whom I had occasion to thrash. In revenge
for the humiliation he has given me to understand that he would
kill me. Last night he held us up at the point of his rifle.
Our servant, Nicolas, threw a stone that bowled Gato over. Then,
for our own safety, we tied him up and brought him with us."
"Why was it necessary to your safety, senor, since you had the
fellow's rifle and his ammunition? You see, I have gained this
much from your friend."
"Why was it necessary?" Tom repeated, wonderingly. "Why, Lieutenant,
do you feel that we should have turned a deadly enemy loose?"
"But you had no right to arrest him, senor."
"Nor did we arrest him in the sense that you mean, Lieutenant.
All we did was to render Gato helpless and bring him along with
us until we should have passed out of the bit of country in which
he might have been dangerous to our safety."
"How could he be dangerous when you had his weapon?" the lieutenant
demanded, argumentatively.
"Why, he had other men out with him. How long would it have taken
Gato to find his men and bring them down upon us--three or four
guns against one?"
"But did you see his other men at any time in the night?"
"No," Tom admitted.
"Senor, you have made a grave mistake in arresting and holding the
man, Gato. You had no right to do so."
"Why, in our own country," Tom protested, "any one may arrest
a man who is committing a crime. In our own case we very likely
would have lost our lives to bandits if we had not tied Gato and
brought him with us."
"Had you tied him and left him behind it might have been different,"
explained the lieutenant. "But what you did, Senor Reade, was
to make an actual arrest, and this you, as an American, had no
right to do. Therefore, I shall hold you until this matter has
been further inquired into."
It was a bad plight, and there seemed to be no simple way out
of it. The young chief engineer began to see that, innocently,
and wholly for the purpose of self-protection, he very likely
had infringed upon the kinds of rights that foreigners in Mexico
do not possess.
"All right, Lieutenant," sighed Tom. "I suppose we shall have
to go along with you. Where are you taking us?"
"That will have to be decided," said the officer. "Nowhere for
the presents my men are tired and need rest. We will not humiliate
you, Senor Reade, by placing you in irons, but I will ask your
word of honor that you won't attempt to escape from us."
"I give you that word of honor," said Tom, simply.
"And I have only to remind you, senor, that, if you make the mistake
of breaking your word, bullets travel fast and several of my men
are sharpshooters."
"I am an American and a gentleman," Reade returned, with offended
dignity. "My word of honor is not given to be broken."
"Then you will seat yourself, senor, or stroll about and amuse
yourself within the narrow limits of this small camp."
Tom stepped over, rested his hand on Harry's shoulder, then dropped
to a seat beside his chum.
"Can you beat it?" Tom demanded, in ready American slang.
"It would be hard to, wouldn't it?" Harry asked, smiling sheepishly.
Pedro Gato turned to regard them with a surly grin. Though handcuffed,
Gato seemed to feel that he was now enjoying his own innings.
For an hour or more the soldiers continued to rest. All of them,
including the lieutenant, who sat stiffly aloof from his men,
rolling and smoking cigarettes.
"I see a bully argument against cigarette smoking," whispered
Tom in his chum's ear.
"What is it?" Harry wanted to know.
"All of these fellows are smoking cigarettes. I am proud of myself
to feel that I don't belong in their class."
"A year ago Alf Drew would have felt at home in this cigarette-puffing,
sallow-faced lot, wouldn't be?" grinned Harry.
"I am glad to say that Alf now knows how measly a cigarette smoker
looks," answered Tom.
Alf Drew, as readers of the preceding volume will remember, was
a boy addicted to cigarettes, but whom Tom had broken of the stupid
habit. Alf was now employed in the engineering offices of Reade
& Hazelton.
"There's something coming," announced Reade, presently. "It sounds
like a miniature railroad train."
"I wish it were a real one, and that we had our baggage aboard,"
muttered Harry, with a grimace.
One of the sentries had gone to intercept the approaching object.
Instead the soldier now permitted the approaching object to roll
into camp. It proved to be Don Luis's big touring car. In the
tonneau sat the mine owner and Dr. Carlos Tisco.
"What is this, Senor Reade?" cried Don Luis Montez, in pretended
astonishment. "In trouble? Lieutenant, these gentlemen are friends
of mine. May I ask you what this means?"
Tom was not deceived by this by-play. He snorted mildly while
the young army lieutenant explained why he had detained the engineers.
"But these gentlemen are friends and employes," Don Luis explained.
"What they tell you about Gato is quite true. Will you oblige
me by releasing these gentlemen, Lieutenant."
The young officer seemed to hesitate.
"It's all a part of the comedy," whispered Tom, and Harry nodded.
"I--I will let these Americanos go, for the present, Don Luis,"
suggested the lieutenant, "provided you will take them back to
your estate, and agree to be responsible for them if they are
wanted.
"Thank you very much, Lieutenant. I will readily undertake that,"
agreed Montez, smiling. "Then come, Senores Reade and Hazelton,
and I will interrupt my journey to take you back to safety under
a hospitable roof."
"I don't know that I wouldn't rather go with the soldiers," Harry
muttered to his chum.
"No!" murmured Reade. "I've heard too much about these Mexican
prisons to care anything about going to one. I reckon we'd better
go with Don Luis. After we've rid ourselves of military guard,
and have reached the Montez estate, we are at least released from
our word of honor not to attempt an escape. I guess, Harry, we
had better take up with Don Luis's rascally offer."
"Well, _caballeros_, does it need much discussion to enable you
to accept my kindness?" called Montez, banteringly.
"Not at all, Don Luis," Tom made answer. "We're going with you--with
the lieutenant's consent."
The young lieutenant bowed his agreement. Tom and Harry lifted
their hats lightly to the officer, then stepped into the tonneau
of the car.
"Home," said Don Luis.
The chauffeur made a quick turn, and the car speedily left the
camp behind.
"I have often heard, gentlemen, that foreigners have difficulty
in understanding our laws," observed Don Luis. He spoke affably,
but mockery lurked in his tones. "Without realizing it you two
have committed a serious offense against our laws. You have ventured
to arrest a Mexican citizen."
Nicolas, who sat in front with the chauffeur, sat as stiff and silent
as though he had been a figure of stone.
"What will be the outcome of this adventure, under the law?" Tom
inquired, dryly.
"It would need one of our judges to say that," replied Don Luis,
shrugging his shoulders. "However, I may be able to arrange the
matter with the authorities."
"And, if you can't arrange it--?"
"Why, then, I dare say, my friends, you will have to be arrested
again. Then you would be taken to one of our prisons until your
trial came off. You might even be held _incommunicado_, which
means that, as prisoners, you would not be allowed to communicate
with the outside world--not even with your American government."
"And how long would we be held _incommunicado_?" Tom asked.
Don Luis gave another shrug of his shoulders.
"You would be held _incommunicado_, Senor Reade, until the judges
were ready to try you."
"And that might be years off," Tom muttered.
Don Luis beamed delightedly, while a thin smile curled on Dr. Tisco's
lips.
"You are beginning, senor, to get some grasp of Mexican law,"
laughed Montez.
"In other words, Don Luis," said Tom, dryly, "it's a game wherein
you can't possibly lose, and we can remain out of prison only as
long as you are gracious enough to will it?"
"That might be rather a strong way of stating the case," murmured
the Mexican. "However, after your unlawful act of last night,
you undoubtedly are liable to a long confinement in one of our
prisons. But believe me, Senor Reade, you may command me as far
as my humble influence with our government goes!"
The situation was certainly one to make Tom think hard. He was
certain that Don Luis had engineered the whole situation, even
to urging Gato on to a part in this grin drama.
"Well, you've got us!" sighed Tom.
"You will find me your best friend, always," protested Montez.
"You have us," Tom continued, "but you haven't our signatures
to the report on your mine. That is going to be more difficult."
"Time heals all breaches between gentlemen who should be friends,"
declared Don Luis, quite graciously.
After that it was a silent party that rode in the touring car.
Though the road back to the estate was worthy of no such name
as road, the big car none the less "ate up the miles." It was
not long before the young engineers caught sight of the big white
house.
"Come, gentlemen," begged Don Luis, alighting, and turning to
the young engineers with a courtly grace that concealed a world
of mockery. "You will find your rooms ready, and my household
ready to minister to your comfort."
Tom Reade, as he stepped upon the porch, drew himself up as stiffly
as any American soldier could have done.
"We'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.