“What, you!” he shrieked. “You!”
“Yes, Colonel Mendix, I and my friend, as you see. You did not have us quite so much in your power as you thought.”
“How—how did you escape?” faltered the Spaniard.
“That is our business.”
The man’s brow darkened.
“What do you want here, any way?” he demanded. “You have no right to hang around my mine.”
“Your mine? You mean my father’s mine.”
“Bah! Not so. Your father’s mine is abandoned.”
“My father’s mine is here, and in full operation. The Cortez and the Aurora mines are one and the same.”