"Why?" asked Don Luis, quickly.
"Because I am anxious to know all the secrets, all the indications, of fine old El Sombrero."
"It is a fine mine, isn't it, Senor Tomaso?" demanded Don Luis, enthusiastically.
"From all indications it ought to be," Reade answered. "Yet it's a new formation of rock to me—this sandwich formation as I might call it, with the alternate layers of rich ore and blank stuff."
"I have been drawing up a report on the mine," murmured Montez, opening a drawer in his desk. "This report describes the operations and the profits so far. Glance through it with me."
The report had been written in English, by either Dr. Tisco or his employer.
Tom and Harry listened carefully to the reading.
"But why do you put so much enthusiasm into the report, Don Luis, when the mine is not for sale and is not to be run as a stock company property?"
"Of course, El Sombrero is my sole property, and of course I shall keep it so," smiled the Mexican. "But I like, even in a report to myself, for my own use, to have the report set forth all the truths concerning the mine."
"That is reasonable," Tom agreed.