Part 14 (2/2)
”We don't need to wait to see the rest of the ore brought,” Tom whispered to his chum. ”We know enough now.”
”Look over there,” urged Hazelton. ”There goes the rest of the trick. Men are shoveling the borrowed ore into the ore hoists.”
”Of course,” nodded Tom, disgustedly. ”The ore is going below, to be piled in the tunnels. It will be 'salted' there all right for us to inspect in the morning. Oh, this trickery makes me sick!”
”What are you going to do now?” Hazelton asked.
”We may as well go back to the house and get some sleep.”
”I'm strong for getting out of here in the morning,” Harry muttered.
”Fine!” Tom agreed. ”So am I. But what I want to do is to find out who is marked out for the victim of this gigantic swindle.
I want to put the victim wise. I'd be wild if I failed to find Don Luis's intended dupe and tell him just what he's in for.”
”Do you imagine that Montez will ever allow us to get face to face with the man who's to be fleeced?”
”He won't do it intentionally, Harry. But we may have a way of locating the victim in time to save him from being robbed.”
”Anyway, I should think the victim would have every chance in the world to sue and get his money back,” Harry mused.
”How is one to get back the money that he has put into a gold mine?” Tom demanded. ”Everyone knows that the most honest mine is a gamble. It may stop turning out paying ore at any hour.
Besides, what show would a stranger have in the courts in this part of Mexico? You have heard Don Luis boast that he practically owns the governor of Bonista. No, sir! The only way to stop a swindle will be to stop it before it takes place.”
Tom rose from his hiding place, back in the dark away from the lights at the mine shaft. He nudged his chum, then started to creep away. Presently they rose and moved forward on foot. Ere long they had left the mine well behind.
”I hate to go back into that polished robber's house at all,”
Harry muttered. ”Tom, what do you say? We can cover at least the first dozen miles between now and daylight. Let's make a streak for the railway and get back to the States.”
”But what about saving the victim of the intended swindle?” objected Reade.
”We could come out with a newspaper exposure that would stop any American from buying the mine, or putting any money into it,”
proposed Hazelton.
”We might, only no newspaper would print such stuff. It would be libelous, and subject the newspaper editor to the risk of having to go to jail.”
”All I know,” sighed Harry, ”is that I want, as speedily as possible, to put as much distance as possible between us and Don Luis's home.”
”We'll go out through the front door, though, when we go,” Tom proposed. ”We won't sneak.”
They did not encounter Gato on the way back to the big, white house. Though they did not know it, the boys were being trailed by the alert, barefooted Nicolas. Nor did that servant feel easy until he had seen them softly enter the house. Then Nicolas, as before, stretched himself on the floor before the door of the rooms occupied by the young engineers.
Tom's alarm clock woke him that morning. In another moment Reade was vigorously shaking Hazelton.
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