"And run into Gato?" grimaced Harry. "Great!"
"If we meet him we ought to get away with him between us," Tom retorted. "One of us did him up this morning."
"Go ahead, Tom!"
Reade led the way in the darkness. They skirted the road, though keeping a sharp lookout.
"There are the lights of the mule-train ahead," whispered Tom. "Now, we're close enough to see things, for there is El Sombrero just ahead."
"What's the game, anyway?" whispered Harry.
"Surely you guess," protested Tom.
"Why, it seems that Don Luis is having ore from another mine brought down in the dead of the night."
"Yes, and a lot of it," Tom went on. "Did you notice how much rich ore there was in each tunnel to-day? And did you notice, too, that when blasts were made with us looking on, no ore worthy of the name was dug loose? Don Luis has been spending a lot of money for ore with which to salt his own mine!"
"Salting" a mine consists of putting the gold into a mine to be removed. Such salting gives a worthless mine the appearance of being a very rich one.