“Then, if this be so, we haven’t bought this mining property of the rightful owner,” interposed Mr. Haynes.  “I imagine that the real Don Luis will establish full claim to a property that was founded on his stolen fortune.  We shall recover our money from the sham Don Luis, but I fear we shall not be able to obtain this rich mineral property.”

“Tell me the particulars,” begged the real Don Luis.

Tom Reade stated the case fully, though in the fewest words that would accomplish the telling.

“You shall have the property by transferring the purchase price to me after I have recovered this estate at law,” promised the real Don Luis simply.

“But, my dear sir,” objected Mr. Haynes, honestly, “do you realize that we paid two and a half millions for the property, and that our trusted engineers assure us that it may be worth more.”

“That makes no difference, Senor,” replied the new Don Luis.  “The money you were first willing to pay is far more money than I shall ever need.  I crave only life and my child.  If you journeyed down into Mexico, expecting to buy a property at a certain figure, and if you did do it, acting in perfectly good faith, then that is enough.  I will ratify the bargain.”

“But that would hardly be good business,” smiled Mr. Haynes.

“Business is a word that will interest me but little after I have established my rights in the world,” remarked Don Luis, mildly.

The true Don Luis Montez did establish his rights.  He secured the estate built by Rabasco on the looted Montez fortune.  The money paid Rabasco for the mining property was easily recovered through the courts and turned over to the rightful Don Luis.  Then the Americans secured the property at the original figure.  Don Luis soon won the affection of his daughter, and the two were wonderfully happy together.

Rabasco, the impostor, was sentenced to twenty years of penal servitude.  On his way to begin serving his sentence he broke away from the military guard, and was shot to death.

Dr. Carlos Tisco died, of fever, within six months of the time of the real Don Luis’s arrival.  The governor of Bonista was discovered guilty of so much corruption in office that he died, while serving a sentence in prison.

Pedro Gato became an avowed outlaw.  Senor Honda, while acting for the government in Bonista, sent the troops in pursuit of the outlaw.  He was caught and shot by the soldiers.

As for Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton, they were happy indeed when they found themselves wholly reestablished in the respect of Mr. Haynes and his friends.  The young engineers had played a most daring game throughout, and would have gone to their deaths at the hands of the sham Don Luis sooner than to have betrayed their own honor.

Tom and Harry spent days showing the American investors through that forest stretch.  It proved an amazingly wonderful mineral claim, and has since paid enormous dividends.