Indeed, if you display sufficient resourcefulness in handling mines I do not believe it will be long ere I shall be able to pay you each fifty thousand dollars a year.

I have plenty of money, and I pay generously when I am pleased and well served." "The scoundrel is fishing for something," thought Tom Reade, swiftly.
"I must not let him beat me in craft." So he exclaimed, aloud: "Fifty thousand dollars a year, Don Luis?
You are jesting!" "I beg to assure you that I am not," replied Montez, smiling and bowing.
"But fifty thousand a year is princely pay!" cried Reade.
"Such pay goes, of course, only to the most satisfactory of employes," declared Don Luis.
"At such pay," Tom said, "Harry and I ought to be satisfied to remain in Mexico all our lives." "We shall see," nodded Montez.

"But the sunlight is growing too strong for my eyes.

Suppose, _caballeros_, that we move into the office ?" The others now rose and followed Don Luis.
"What on earth is Tom driving at ?" Harry wondered.

"He's stringing Don Luis, of course, but to what end ?" Montez stood at the door of his office, indicating that the young engineers pass in ahead of him.