Finally the car drew up before the entrance to _El Sombrero_ Mine.

There was the shaft entrance and near it a goodly-sized dump for ore.

Not far from the entrance was a small but very neat looking office building, and a second, still smaller, which might have been a timekeeper's office.
"Hello, Pedro!" called Don Luis.
Out of the office building sprang a dark-featured Mexican, perhaps forty years of age.

He was truly a large man--more than six feet in height, broad of shoulder and deep of chest, a splendid type of manhood.
"My good Gato," purred Don Luis, "pay your respects to _Los Caballeros_ Reade and Hazelton." Gato approached, without offering his hand.

His big, wolfish eyes looked over the young American pair keenly.
"So Don Luis has brought you here to show whether you are any good ?" said the mine manager, in a voice as big as his frame.