TOM DOES SOME SAMPLING
At sight of Don Luis"s party a Mexican foreman came running forward.
"How runs the ore this morning?" asked Don Luis.
"Not quite as well as usual, excellency," replied the man, with a shrug of his shoulders.
"How! Do you mean to tell me that the ore is running out for a streak!"
"Oh, no, excellency. Yet it is the poorest ore that we have struck for a fortnight. However, it will pay expenses and leave something for profit, too, excellency."
"Show us what you have been doing," Don Luis directed.
Leading the way with a lantern that threw a brilliant light, the foreman went on down the tunnel to the heading. As he neared the end of the tunnel the man called loudly and a number of workmen stepped aside.
As they reached the spot, Tom"s quick eye saw that the morning"s blasts had loosened some eight tons or so of ore. Drillers stood ready to drive through the rock for the next blast.
"Let us look at the ore, Senor Tomaso," suggested the mine owner.
Tom began to delve through the piles of shattered, reduced rock.
The foreman held the lantern close, that the young engineer might have all the light he wanted, and called to miners to bring their lights closer.
Then Harry, also, began to examine the rock. For some minutes the two young engineers picked up specimens and examined them.
"What do you make of it?" inquired Don Luis Montez at last.
"Is this what you call a run of poor luck?" Tom asked the foreman, dryly.
"Yes, senor; rather poor," answered the foreman.
"Then it must be rather exciting here when the ore is running well," smiled Tom. "At a guess I should say that this "poor"
stuff before us will run thirty dollars to the ton."
"It usually runs fifty, senor," broke in Don Luis. "Sometimes, for a run of a hundred tons, the ore will show up better than seventy-five dollars per ton."
"Whew!" whistled Reade. "Then no wonder you call this the land of golden promise."
"By comparison it would make the mines in the United States look poor, would it not?" laughed the mine owner.
"There are very few mines there that show frequent runs of fifty dollars to the ton," Harry observed.
"Are you going to clear out this ore, and send it to the dump"
Tom asked the foreman.
"Yes."
"Then I would be glad if you would do so at once," Tom remarked.
For answer the Mexican foreman stared at Tom in a rather puzzled way.
"I will do so as soon as I am ordered," he responded, respectfully.
"All right," returned Reade. "I"ll give you the order. Clear this stuff out and get it up in the ore cage. Clear this tunnel floor with all the speed you comfortably can."
"Perhaps the senor will explain?" suggested the foreman.
"These _caballeros_ are the new engineers in charge of the mine,"
said Dr. Tisco.
"Ah! So? Then if Pedro Gato will only give the order--" began the foreman.
"If Pedro Gato gives you any orders," Tom suggested, briskly, "you will ignore them. Pedro Gato is no longer connected with the mine."
"Not connected?" gasped the foreman, who plainly doubted his ears.
"No," broke in Don Luis. "You will take no more orders from Gato.
These _caballeros_ are the engineers, and they are in charge. You heard the order of Senor Reade. You will clean out this tunnel, sending the ore above to the dump."
"It shall be done," cried the foreman, bowing low before the mine owner.
"And now, Senor Tomaso, if it suits you, we will go to another tunnel," proposed Don Luis.
"Very good, sir," Tom a.s.sented. "What had been in my mind was to order the drillers at work here and see a blast made."
"We can be back long before the next blast can be prepared," replied Montez. "Carlos, lead the way to tunnel number four."
The secretary turned, retracing his steps, Don Luis bringing up the rear.
"Oho! I have dropped my cigar case," remarked Don Luis a minute later. "I will go back and get it."
The others waited near the shaft. Tom wondered, slightly, why Dr. Tisco had not volunteered to go back after his employer"s missing cigar case.
Presently Don Luis appeared.
"Now we will go to number four," he said.
The cage carried them to a lower level. Here another foreman came forward to meet them and to conduct them to the heading. Here were some five tons of rock. Tom and Harry found it to be about the same grade of ore as that seen above.
"Is this ore as good as you usually find in this vein?" Tom inquired of the second foreman.
"Not quite, senor, though to-day"s blasts have turned out to be very fair ore," responded the foreman.
"I should say it is good ore," Tom remarked dryly. "Now, will you set the shovelers at work moving this stuff back a little way? I want to see a new drilling made and watch the results of the blast."
"If Pedro Gato--" began the foreman, reluctantly.
"Pedro Gato has nothing to do with this," Tom answered quickly.
"Mr. Hazelton and I are privileged to give such orders as we deem best. Will you kindly tell the foreman so, Don Luis?"