On the untrammeled frontier, where most men are willing to pass for
what they are without keeping up any "front," much of the private
business, as well as the general devilment, is transacted in the back
rooms of saloons. The Waldorf was nicely furnished in this regard.
After a drink at the bar, in which De Lancey and Hooker joined, Henry
Kruger led the way casually to the rear, and in a few moments they were
safely closeted.
"Now," began Kruger, as he took a seat by the table and faced them with
snapping eyes, "the first thing I want to make plain to you gentlemen
is, if I make any deal to-day it's to be with Mr. Hooker. If you boys
are pardners you can talk it over together, but I deal with one man,
and that's Hooker.
"All right?" he inquired, glancing at De Lancey, and that young man
nodded indulgently.
"Very well, then," resumed Kruger, "now to get down to business. This
mine that I'm talking about is located down here in Sonora within three
hours' ride of a big American camp. It isn't any old Spanish mine, or
lost _padre_ layout; it's a well-defined ledge running three or four
hundred dollars to the ton--and I know right where it is, too.
"What I want to do is to establish the title to it now, while this
revolution is going on, and make a bonanza out of it afterward. Of
course, if you boys don't want to go back into Mexico, that settles it;
but if you do go, and I let you in on the deal, you've got to see it
through or I'll lose the whole thing. So make up your minds, and if you
say you'll go, I want you to stick to it!"
"We'll go, all right," spoke up De Lancey, "if it's rich enough."
"How about you?" inquired Kruger, turning impatiently on Bud. "Will you
go?"
"Yes, I'll go," answered Bud sullenly. "But I ain't stuck on the job,"
he added. "Jest about get it opened up when a bunch of rebels will jump
in and take everything we've got."
"Well, you get a title to it and pay your taxes and you can come out
then," conceded Henry Kruger.
"No," grumbled Hooker, "if I go I'll stay with it." He glanced at his
pardner at this, but he, for one, did not seem to be worried.
"I'll try anything--once!" he observed with a sprightly air, and Bud
grinned sardonically at the well-worn phrase.
"Well," said Kruger, gazing inquiringly from one to the other, "is it a
go? Will you shake hands on it?"
"What's the proposition?" broke in De Lancey eagerly.
"The deal is between me and Hooker," corrected Kruger. "I'll give him
three hundred a month, or an equal share in the mine, expenses to be
shared between us."
"Make it equal shares," said Hooker, holding out his hand, "and I'll
give half of mine to Phil."
"All right, my boy!" cried the old man, suddenly clapping him on
the shoulder, "I'll go you--and you'll never regret it," he added
significantly. Then, throwing off the air of guarded secrecy which had
characterized his actions so far, he sat down and began to talk.
"Boys," he said, "I'm feeling lucky to-day or I'd never have closed
this deal. I'm letting you in on one of the biggest things that's
ever been found in Sonora. Just to show you how good it is, here's my
smelter receipts for eight hundred pounds of picked ore--one thousand
and twenty-two dollars! That's the first and last ore that's ever been
shipped from the old Eagle Tail. I dug it out myself, and sacked it and
shipped it; and then some of them crooked Mexican officials tried to
beat me out of my title and I blowed up the whole works with dynamite!
"Yes, sir, clean as a whistle! I had my powder stored away in the
drift, and the minute I found out I was euchred I laid a fuse to it and
brought the whole mountain down. That was ten years ago, and old Aragon
and the _agente mineral_ have had the land located ever since.
"I bet they've spent five thousand pesos trying to find that lead, but
being nothing but a bunch of ignorant Mexicans, of course they never
found nothing. Then Francisco Madero comes in and fires the _agente
mineral_ off his job and old Aragon lets the land revert for taxes.
I've got a Mexican that keeps me posted, and ever since he sent me
word that the title had lapsed I've been crazy to relocate that claim.
"Well, now, that don't look so bad, does it?" he asked, beaming
paternally at Bud. "There ain't a man in town that wouldn't have jumped
at the chance, if I was where I could talk about it, but that's just
what I couldn't do. I had to find some stranger that wouldn't sense
what mine I was talking about and then git him to go in on it blind.
"Now here's the way I'm fixed, boys," he explained, brushing out his
unkempt beard and smiling craftily. "When I dynamited the Eagle Tail it
was mine by rights, but Cipriano Aragon--he's the big Mexican down at
old Fortuna--and Morales, the mineral agent, had buncoed me out of the
title.
"So, according to law, I blowed up their mine, and if I ever showed up
down there I reckon they'd throw me into jail. And if at any time they
find out that you're working for me, why, we're ditched--that's all!
They'll put you out of business. So, after we've made our agreement and
I've told you what to do, I don't want to hear a word out of you--I
don't want you to come near me, nor even write me a letter--just go
ahead the best you can until you win out or go broke.
"It ain't a hard proposition," he continued, "if you keep your mouth
shut, but if they tumble, it'll be a fight to a finish. I'm not saying
this for you, Hooker, because I know you're safe; I'm saying it for
your pardner here. You talk too much, Mr. De Lancey," he chided, eying
him with sudden severity. "I'm afraid of ye!"
"All right," broke in Hooker good-naturedly, "I reckon we understand.
Now go ahead and tell us where this mine is and who there is down there
to look out for."
"The man to look out for," answered Kruger with venom, "is Cipriano
Aragon. He's the man that bilked me out of the mine once, and he'll do
it again if he can. When I went down there--it was ten years and more
ago--I wasn't onto those Spanish ways of his, and he was so dog-goned
polite and friendly I thought I could trust him anywhere.
"He owns a big ranch and mescal still, runs cattle, works a few
placers, sends out pack-trains, and has every Mexican and Indian in the
country in debt to him through his store, so if he happens to want any
rough work done there's always somebody to do it.
"Well, just to show you how he did me, I got to nosing round those old
Spanish workings east of Fortuna and finally I run across the ledge
that I'm telling you about, not far from an abandoned shaft. But the
Mexican mining laws are different from ours, and an American has lots
of trouble anyway, so I made a trade with old Aragon that he should
locate the claim for me under a power of attorney. Didn't know him then
like I do now. The papers had to be sent to Moctesuma and Hermosillo,
and to the City of Mexico and back, and while I was waiting around I
dug in on this lead and opened up the prettiest vein of quartz you ever
saw in your life. Here's a sample of it, and it's sure rich."
He handed De Lancey the familiar piece of quartz and proceeded with his
story.
"That ore looked so good to me that I couldn't wait--I shipped it
before I got my title. And right there I made my mistake. When Aragon
saw the gold in that rock he just quietly recorded the concession in
his own name and told me to go to blazes. That's the greaser of it! So
I blew the whole mine up and hit for the border. That's the Dutch of
it, I reckon," he added grimly. "Anyway, my old man was Dutch."
He paused, smiling over the memory of his misplaced credulity, and
Hooker and De Lancey joined in a hearty laugh. From the town bum that
he had first seemed this shabbly little man had changed in their eyes
until now he was a border Croesus, the mere recital of whose adventures
conjured up in their minds visions of gold and hidden treasure.
The rugged face of Bud Hooker, which had been set in grim lines
from the first, relaxed as the tale proceeded and his honest eyes
glowed with admiration as he heard the well-planned scheme. As for De
Lancey, he could hardly restrain his enthusiasm, and, drawn on by the
contagion, Henry Kruger made maps and answered questions until every
detail was settled.
After the location had been marked, and the lost tunnel charted from
the corner monuments, he bade them remember it well--and destroyed
every vestige of paper. Then, as a final admonition, he said:
"Now go in there quietly, boys--don't hurry. Prospect around a little
and the Mexicans will all come to you and try to sell you lost mines.
Cruz Mendez is the man you're looking for--he's honest, and he'll take
you to the Eagle Tail. After that you can use your own judgment. So
good-bye"--he took them by the hands--"and don't talk!"
He held up a warning finger as they parted, and Bud nodded briefly in
reply. Silence was a habit with him, desert-bred, and he nodded his
head for two.