The Young Engineers in Mexico Part 16

"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 pa.s.s in ahead of him. The instant they had done so Montez turned to his secretary, whispering:

"Send my daughter here."

Dr. Tisco vanished, though he soon reappeared and entered the office.

Don Luis, after indicating seats to the young Americans, crossed to a ponderous safe, toyed with the combination lock, threw open the door and then brought out a ledger that he deposited on one of the flat-top desks. Five minutes later his daughter Francesca entered the room.

"Now, what part is the girl to play here?" wondered Tom, instantly.

"If I know anything of human nature she's a sweet and honest girl. She is no rascal, like her father. Yet he has sent for her to play some part!"

CHAPTER IX

DON LUIS SHOWS HIS CLAWS

Senorita Francesca greeted her guests with extreme courtesy.

"She's a fine young woman," thought Harry, with a guilty feeling.

"Blazes, but it's going to come hard to show her father up as a scoundrel."

"_Chiquita_," (pet) called her father, "it has not been the custom of this country to train our women in the ways of business. But you are my only child. Every _peso_ (dollar) that I earn and save is for you one of these days. I have much money, but I crave more, and it is all for you, _chiquita_. It is my wish to see you, one of these days, a very queen of wealth, as you are already a queen of goodness and tenderness. Since you must handle the great fortune that I am building for you I have concluded to override the customs of our people for generations. In other words, I am going to begin to train you, _chiquita_, in business."

"Business?" murmured the girl. "Ah! That word frightens me--I am so ignorant."

"Your first lesson shall not tire or dismay you," promised Don Luis, gently. "Now, place your chair close beside mine, and look over this ledger with me. I shall not attempt to make you comprehend too much at first."

With pencil and paper beside the ledger, Don Luis read off many items. Occasionally he did some figuring on the sheet of paper, as though to make the matters more clear to his daughter. She made a very pretty picture, trying to follow her father's explanations, but the perplexed wrinkling of her brow showed how hard it was for her to do so.

The figures that Don Luis took from his ledger all tended to show the immensity of the wealth already produced from _El Sombrero_.

Tom and Harry listened courteously, for they had been invited to join the group.

"You are tired, _chiquita_," said her father, at last. "I have taken you too far on our first excursion into the realm of finance.

This morning we will have no more figures. But here is something that cannot fail to interest you in parts at least."

Shoving aside the ledger, Don Luis drew from a drawer a bulky doc.u.ment.

"This is the report which Senor Reade prepared for me yesterday,"

Montez explained, looking at the young engineers for an instant.

"The report is written in English, as I desired it written so.

But I will read the most interesting parts in Spanish to you, _chiquita_. You will observe that this report is a masterpiece of business composition."

"I am sure that it must be," murmured Francesca, and Tom bowed his thanks.

"This report, too, is a part of your fortune," continued Don Luis.

"That is, it will help to make your fortune, for it concerns _El Sombrero_, one of the finest parts of your fortune. We have been planning, these _caballeros_ and I, that they shall remain in my employ indefinitely, and they are to be paid better and better if they serve you through me and serve us well. I shall reward them as an hidalgo ever rewards."

"I do not need to be told that my father is generous when he is pleased," murmured Francesca.

"Listen, then, to what Senior Reade has written. It cannot help but give you much pleasure."

"The shameless rascal!" Tom exclaimed, inwardly, as the trick became clear to him. "Don Luis is trading upon our sympathies for the girl in order to induce us to sign his lying report."

Don Luis began to read the report, translating into Spanish as he went along. When he came to tables of tedious figures Montez skipped over them hurriedly. He dwelt eagerly, however, on the paragraphs of the report that a.s.serted such vast wealth to exist in _El Sombrero_. Francesca listened with rising color. Once in a while she shot a pretty, sidelong glance at Tom to show her pleasure over the report, the whole authors.h.i.+p of which she plainly believed to belong to him.

"Why, it reads like a romance!" the girl cried, clapping her hands when the reading had finished.

"A romance? Yes!" ground Tom, under his breath. "It is romance--pure fiction and absurdly false in every line!"

"It must be a wonderful talent to possess, senor," said Francesca, turning to Tom Reade. "A wonderful talent to be able to describe a matter of business in such eloquent language."

"It is a rare gift," Tom admitted modestly, though he had a design in what he was saying. "A rare gift, indeed, and one which I must not claim. This is your father's report, not mine. He had written it in English, and all I did was to copy it on the typewriter, and to make the English stronger at points. So I am not the author--merely the clerk."

Don Luis frowned for a fleeting instant. Then his brow cleared, and one of his charming smiles lighted his face.

"The report is a superb piece of work, and you must not believe as much as Senor Tomaso's modesty would lead him to believe, chiquita.

But this is an engineer's report, and, as such, it is not complete until it is signed. Hand it to Senor Reade, _chiquita_, and ask him to sign it. Then Senor Hazelton will do the same."

Francesca accepted the doc.u.ment from her father, turned, and, with a fascinating smile, handed it to the young chief engineer.

It was a cleverly contrived bit of business, in which the girl played a wholly innocent part. Francesca dipped a pen in ink and offered it to Tom, who accepted it. Surely, he could not embarra.s.s the girl, nor could he seem to refuse to add to her fortune by any means within his power. Don Luis had brought about the climax with great cleverness, for he felt certain of Tom Reade's gallantry.

And gallant Tom Reade ever was. Yet he was keen and self-possessed as well. While he held the pen in his hand be turned to the Mexican with one of his pleasantest smiles.

"Don Luis," said the young engineer, "I feel certain that you did not wholly understand what I said yesterday. What I meant to make clear was that an engineer's signature to a report is his written word of honor that every word in the report is true, to his own knowledge. As I merely transcribed this report from your own, and have not yet had sufficient opportunity to prove to myself the value of the mine, I could not in honor sign this report as yet. As a man of honor you will certainly understand my position."

"But you are too particular on a point of honor," insisted Don Luis Montez, with a shrug of his shoulders. "You do not need to draw the line so sharply with a man of honor. I a.s.sure you that every word in the report is true. Therefore, will you not be so good as to sign the report?"

"I regret that I have not yet succeeded in making an engineer's point of honor clear," Tom replied, placing the pen back on the stand. "It will be some weeks, Don Luis, before Hazelton and I can possibly hope to find ourselves sufficiently well informed about the mine to sign the report."

Francesca was by no means stupid. While she did not understand business matters, she was sufficiently keen to note, from her father's very insistent manner, and from Tom's equally firm refusal to sign, that some point of honor was in dispute between the two.

She flushed deeply, glanced wonderingly from one to the other, and then her gaze fell to the floor.

"_Chiquita_," said Don Luis, tenderly, "I have been thoughtless, and have given you too long a lesson in business. Besides, Senor Reade is not yet ready to serve us in this matter. You may go to your room, my daughter."

Without a word Francesca rose and left the room.

As soon as the door had closed Don Luis broke forth bitterly:

"You have done well to insult me before my daughter. She understands only enough to realize that you have doubted my honor, and she certainly wonders why I permitted you to live longer. Senor Reade, whether or not your American ideas of courtesy enable you to understand it, you have grievously insulted me in my own house, and have intensified that insult by delivering it before my daughter.

There is now but one way in which you can retrieve your conduct."