"But why should Don Luis want to salt his own mine?" muttered
Harry.
"So that he can sell it, of course!"
"But he doesn't want to sell."
"He says he doesn't," Tom retorted, with scorn. "This afternoon, you remember, he got me to copy a report in English about his mine and then he wanted us to sign the report as engineers. Doesn't that look as though he wanted to sell? Harry, Don Luis has buyers in sight for his mine, and he'll sell it for a big profit provided he can impose on the buyers!"
"What does he want us for, then? He spoke of engineering problems."
"Don Luis's engineering problem," uttered Tom Reade, with deep scorn, "is simply to find two clean and honest engineers who'll sign a lying report and enable him to swindle some man or group of men out of a fortune."
"Then Don Luis is a swindler, and we'll throw up the job," returned
Harry Hazelton, vehemently. "We'll quit."
"We won't help him swindle any one," Tom rejoined. "We won't quit just yet, but we'll stick just long enough to see whether we can't expose the scoundrel as he deserves! Harry, we'll have to be crafty, too. We must not let him see, too soon, that we are aware of his trickery."