Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1914-07-16
FeslIns Cautiously Of the Walls.

FeelIns Cautiously Of the Walls.
bestowed upon Hooker and De Lancey
the task Of finding an honest Mexican.
and keeping him honest until he made
the transfer.
While the papers we're being made
out there might be a great many
temptations placed before that Mexi-
can-either to keep the property for
himself or to hold out for bigger re-
ward than had been specified. After
his experience with the aristocratic
Don Cipriano Aragon y Tres Palacios.
Kruger was in favor Of taking a chance
on the lower classes. He had therefore
accompanied to them one Cruz Men
dez, a wood vender whom he had
known and befriended, as the man to
play the part.
Cruz Mendez, according to Kruger,
was hard-working, sober and honest
for a Mexican. He was also simple
minded and easy to handle, and was
the particular man who had sent word
that the Eagle Tail had at last been
abandoned. And also he was easy to
pick out, being little. one-eyed man
and going by the name of Eel Tuerto."
So. in pursuance of their policy of
playing a waiting game, Hooker and
De Lancy hung around the hotel for
several daye, listening to the gossip
of Don Juan de Dios and watching for
one-eyed men with prospects to sell.
In Sonora he is a poor and unimag-
NATIVE man indeed who has not at
least one lost mine or "prospecto" to
sell; and prosperous-looking strangers.
riding through the country. are often
beckoned aside by halfnaked paisanos
eager to show them the gold mines of
the Spanish padres for a hundred dol
lars Mex.
1t was only a matter OF time. they
thought, until Cruz Mendez would hunt
them up and try to sell them the Eagle
Tail; and 1t was their intention re-
luctanuy to close the bargain with
him, for a specified sum, and then
stake him to the announcement fees
and gain possession Of the mine.
As this was a commonplace In the
district-no Mexican having capital
enough to work claim and no Ameri-
can having the right to locate one-it
was a very natural and inconspicuous
way Of jumping Senior Aragon y Tres
Palacios' abandoned claim. II they
discovered the lead Immediately after
ward 1t would pass for case OF FOOLS
luck. or at least so they hoped. and,
riding out a little each day and sitting
on the hotel porch with Don Juan the
rest OF the time, they waited until pa
tience seemed no longer virtue.
Don JUAN" said De Lancey, taking
up the probe at last, II had a Mexican
working for me when we were over in
the Sierras-one of your real, old
time workers that had never been
spoiled by an education-and he was
always talking about La Fortuna
1t doesn't look like it-according to
him 1t was a Mexican town. Maybe
he's around here now-his name was
Mendez."
Jose Maria Mendez?" inquired Don
Juan. who was a living directory of
the place. Ricardo? Pancho? CRUZ"
"Cruz!" cried De Lancey; that was
it,"
HE lives down the river q couple Of
miles," said Don Juan; down at Old
Fortuna"
"Old Fortuna!" repeated Phil. 81
didn't know there was such a place"
why, my gracious!" exclaimed Don
Juan de Dios, scandalized by such
ignorance. do you mean to say you
have been here three days and never
heard about Fortuna Vieja? Why,
this isn't Fortuna! This is an Ameri-
can mining camp-the old town is
down below.
That's where this man Aragon, the
big Mexican of the country, has his
ranch and store. SPANISH Him? No,
indeed-mitad! He is half Spanish and
half Yaqui Indian. but his wife Is a
pure Spanjard-one of the few In the
country. Her father was from Madrid
and she Ii villanuevs--A very bsas-