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"Have you writing materials?" pressed the servant. "Yes but what's the use?" "Write your letter, mi caballero, and I will hand it to Gato," urged the Mexican. "You?" gasped Tom. "Certainly." "But how?" "I will hand the letter to him in person." "You go to Gato?" "Yes. Why not?" "Gato would kill you!" "Kill a poor peon?" smiled Nicolas. "Oh, no; I am not worth while. I am not a fighting man."
The talk had proceeded in Spanish, and they had been able to follow it. As for the mine manager, his bronzed face was distorted with rage. The veins near his forehead were swelling. With a sudden roar, Pedro Gato sprang forward, aiming a blow with his open right hand at Reade's face. Bump! That blow failed to land. It was Gato, instead, who landed.
"Hand back my pistol instantly," hissed Don Luis. "Not until the fight is decided, Don Luis," Harry rejoined. Slipping the weapon into one of his own pockets he retreated a few yards. Suddenly Gato sprang, the knife uplifted. Tom Reade leaped in the same fraction of a second. Tom's shoulder landed under Gato's right shoulder, and the knife did not descend. Like a flash Tom bent as he wheeled.
Again he was roughly jerked to a standing position. The fourth time that Gato was placed on his feet he stood, though he was shaking with fury. "That's a little better," Tom nodded. "Now, Nicolas, I imagine you know more than I do about where your countrymen carry their extra arms. Search this fellow for weapons, and don't overlook anything."
Tom raised his head, studying their immediate surroundings. He soon fancied he saw a safe way of slipping off to the southward and finding the road again below where Gato stood. Signing to Hazelton, Reade rose softly and started off. Two or three minutes later the young engineers were a hundred yards away from Gato, though in a rock-littered field where a single incautious step might betray them.
"We won't carry you, either," Tom continued, coolly. "Gato, a few moments ago, you had the whip-hand. Now, we're carrying the whip. We don't want any nonsense. If you carry matters too far you'll discover that Hazelton and I have had more or less experience as wild animal trainers. But, first of all, your head. It must be attended to."
But now you have taken to deeds of arms, and you shall take your chances whenever you stir in these mountains. For that matter you will surely be cut down before the dawn comes." "That reminds me," muttered Tom. "We want to be farther from Don Luis before dawn arrives. Gato, oblige us by rising and joining in the hike." Though Gato snarled, he allowed himself to be hoisted to his feet.
That point has not before come up to me for consideration." "Then I hope you will make it clear to Senor Gato, Don Luis, that we are engineers, wholly in charge of our own work; that we have been engaged as experts and that we manage our own work in the way that appears to us best to serve our employer's interests."
"To take them down will be the signal for death," replied Gato coolly. "Take your hands down, or turn this way, if you deem it best. Possibly you will prefer to die, for to-night's entertainment may strike you as being worse than death. The matter is within your own choice, wholly, caballeros. Perhaps on the whole it would be far better for you to lower your hands and die."
Three miles further on Tom, Harry and their prisoner halted, for on the rough road they were now becoming winded. "I am near, senores," whispered a familiar voice, though Nicolas did not show himself over the rocks that concealed him. "Yes," sneered Gato, harshly, "you are indeed near near death, you silly little fool. Always before you have been safe because you were not a fighting man.
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