Transcriber’s Notes Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged. Italics are represented thus _italic_. The Subscription Price of the FRANK READE LIBRARY by the year is $2.50: $1.25 per six months, post-paid. Address FRANK TOUSEY, PUBLISHER, 34 and 36 North Moore Street, New York. Box 2730. FRANK READE, JR., WITH HIS NEW STEAM MAN IN MEXICO; OR, HOT WORK AMONG THE GREASERS. By “NONAME,” Author of “Frank Reade, Jr., With His New Steam Man in Texas; or, Chasing the Train Robbers,” etc., etc. CHAPTER I. KIDNAPPED BY GREASERS. Frank Reade, Jr., the inventor of many wonderful machines and whose fame was world wide, sat in his study one day in September looking over a heap of mail matter which the servant had just brought in. He was a handsome dark complexioned young man with a distingue air and that individuality of appearance which stamps the man of genius. Frank’s father was a famous inventor before him. Foremost among Frank Reade, Jr.’s inventions was the New Steam Man, a machine of truly wonderful character. We will not attempt a description of the Steam Man for certain good reasons until later; first let us give our attention for the moment to the young inventor. Frank Reade, Jr., was naturally the foremost man in Readestown, a respectable sized and thriving town, founded by and named after the Reades. Here they had built the wonderful machine shops for the construction of their own machines. These employed many of the most skilled workers in wood and steel. Money was not a scarcity with the Reades nor was it ever likely to be, with their superlative genius to make it. Frank opened one letter after another, hastily read them and placed those on a file which he meant to answer. Some of them were of importance, some were not, but he encountered none which claimed his attention greatly for some while. Then a letter lay before him, superscribed in a foreign style, and bearing the stamp and postmark of Mexico. He opened it with a curious premonition of its importance. The letter was written in Spanish, but Frank knew the language well, so he read it easily. Thus it read: “SENOR READE--Pardon me for addressing you, a stranger, but I am impelled to lay before you a matter of the utmost moment. A gentleman from New York has been sojourning in the city of Laredo for the past year, being interested in a certain mining claim in Los Pueblos Mountains, five hundred miles from here, in the interior of Mexico.