“It is quite true,” replied the mine owner.  “Gato is no longer with us, and these gentlemen are in charge.”

“Then I will have the ore moved back at once,” agreed the foreman.

“But first we will go back out of the dirt and out of the danger from the blast,” spoke Don Luis, using a good deal the tone of an order.

“The rest of you may go back,” suggested Reade.  “But I wish to see the drilling done.”

“It is unnecessary, Senor Tomaso,” smiled Don Luis, blandly.  “Come back with us.”

“I must see the men work, Don Luis, if I am to understand the work here,” Tom rejoined, very quietly, though with a firmness that was wholly apparent.

“Oh, very good then,” smiled Montez, with a shrug of his shoulders.

Three of the inspecting party went back, but Tom remained close behind the drillers.  Twice he stopped them in their work, to collect small samples of the pulverized stuff that the drills turned back.  These specimens he placed in sample envelopes and stored in his pockets.  From the ore that was being shoveled back he chose other small specimens, labeling the envelopes in which he stored them.

By the time that the ore had been shoveled well back the drillers had completed their work.  Now the “dope men” came forward, putting the sticks of dynamite in place.  Tom watched them closely.

“Do you call this last work well done?” Tom inquired of the foreman of the tunnel.

“Yes, yes, senor, as well as I have been able to see,” responded the Mexican.

“Then come with me.  Just look at the tamping.  Hardly worthy of the name of tamping, is it?” Tom asked, poking at the material that had been forced in as tamping.

“Senor, my men must have been indolent, this time,” admitted the foreman.

“Very indolent, or else indifferent,” Tom smiled, grimly.  “Here, you men, come here and let me show you how to set dynamite and tamp it.  Perhaps I do not understand the job very well, but we shall see.”

Ten minutes later Tom Reade abandoned his work, rather well satisfied.

“Now, when we fire the blasts, we shall move some rock, I believe,” he smiled.

The wires were attached, and all hands went back, most of them going considerably to the rear of the man at the magneto battery.

A rocking explosion followed.  Tom was among the first to run forward.  At the heading were heaps of rock.

“Get in and pry it loose.  Shovel it back,” Tom ordered, in Spanish.

Shortly after, Don Luis, Dr. Tisco and Harry appeared on the scene.  They found Tom turning over the ore as it came back.  More than a dozen samples he dropped into envelopes, labeled them and put them away in his pockets.

“What ails this lot of ore?” inquired Harry, after looking at specimens.

“It is not running as well,” said Tom briefly.  “Go through the stuff and see what you think of it.”