CHAPTER XV.
A CRAFTY ORIENTAL.
Meeting Tsan Ti in this peculiar fashion was a seven-day wonder to themotor boys. The workings of chance, in connection with various mattersappertaining to the stolen ruby, could not have been better exemplified.
Tsan Ti roused himself under Matt's touch, and blinked up at himthrough sleepy eyes. By degrees the lad's face took form before him,and he gave an incredulous grunt and floundered to his feet.
"Estimable, never-to-be-forgotten friend!" the mandarin wheezed, hisflabby face beaming as he reached for Motor Matt's hand. "Also thenotable McGlory, friend of my friend! This is a delight, all the morejoyful because not expected until Catskill. Why is it I have the greathonor to see you here?"
"That's quite a yarn, Tsan Ti," replied Matt.
"Let me hear it forthwith, I beseech!" and Tsan Ti ordered Sam Wing outof the seat and motioned for Matt to take his place.
The mandarin had been educated at one of the most famous colleges inthe United States, and seemed, as McGlory expressed it, to have spentmost of his time corralling adjectives.
Sam Wing, apparently not in the least excited by the sudden appearanceof the motor boys, got a seat across the aisle and continued his doze.McGlory managed to secure a place behind Matt.
"I, most devoted youth," said Tsan Ti, as soon as Matt was seated,"am on my way to Catskill of a purpose to talk with you. No longer amI followed by the suspicious person whom I know to have been in theservice of Grattan. So soon as I discovered this, I started immediatelyto find you. The five hundred gods of good luck must have decreed thismeeting."
"Rather," answered Matt, "the ten thousand demons of misfortune. Isuppose, Tsan Ti, you are after the Eye of Buddha?"
"Quite true, honorable youth."
"Well," said Matt, "I haven't got it."
Tsan Ti started, then slumped back into his seat.
"It has escaped you, vigilant one?" he inquired, his puffy eyelids halfclosing as he regarded Matt.
"It has escaped me, all right."
"And who has it now?"
"Grattan."
The mandarin turned his face away and looked out of the car window intothe night. Motor Matt felt miserable enough. His words, just uttered,might have sealed the doom of the mandarin.
"Converse with me at length upon the subject," said Tsan Ti, againturning toward Matt. "What you say is of vast importance, excellentfriend."
Matt had twenty miles of slow traveling in which to make hisdisclosures, and he made them in detail, with now and then anexplanatory word from McGlory.
He began at the point where he had received the ruby, and set forththe manner in which Bunce had presented himself. Bunce's cock-and-bullstory was gone into, and Tsan Ti's eyes twinkled humorously--Mattwondered at the humor--as he heard how he had been lured into abasement by a beach comber and was being held a prisoner. The leavingof the box with the hotel clerk, the flight into the hills, and thedisappearance of Bunce, all dropped into the recital in chronologicalform; then came the tracking to the "pocket" under the ledge, and thefollowing of the motorcycle trails in the direction of Catskill, thearrival of the boys in town, and the report of the clerk concerning theforged letter and the removal of the box.
"So there," put in the mandarin, "is where my ruby escaped from yourunfortunate hands."
"Don't be so quick in your snap judgments, Tsan," spoke up McGlory."The ruby wasn't in the box, but in Motor Matt's pocket. My pard hadleft the empty box with the clerk for a bluff."
The mandarin chuckled, and his body shook with his suppressed mirth.
"Remarkably well planned!" approved Tsan Ti. "Who could have donebetter? You have a brain of great power, my renowned friend, and yourtalk gives me much amusement and instruction. Grattan had the empty boxand you had the ruby. What then?"
Then followed the call at the hotel of the man from the _Iris_, andMatt's agreement to take charge of the yacht's motor on the down-rivertrip, Matt to return to Catskill on the following morning. Thetreachery aboard the boat was listened to by the mandarin with flashingeyes.
"Grattan is possessed of a demon," declared Tsan Ti. "His wits are askeen as a sword's edge, and he knows how to use them. I do not wonder,estimable friend, that you fell into his power. Even I, had I been inyour place, could not have saved the jewel."
"What's to be done now, Tsan Ti?" asked Matt anxiously.
"Nothing," was the answer.
"But--but--the yellow cord!"
"It shall not be used by me."
Here was a mystery. If Tsan Ti could not bear the Eye of Buddha backto the Canton temple, it was the august decree of the regent that heshould perish by the yellow cord. The ruby had been recovered, and lostagain, but Tsan Ti had no intention of strangling himself by invitationof his ruler.
Failing to understand this point, Matt shifted the subject.
"Did you know, Tsan Ti," he queried, "that while you were in New Yorkyou had a Chinese spy around with you? A man who was carrying news ofeverything you did to an agent of Grattan's?"
"You refer to Charley Foo, honorable one?"
"Yes."
"Grattan can plan, my son, and so can the mandarin. This agent ofGrattan paid Charley Foo ten silver dollars to betray me, and CharleyFoo told me of it, showed the money, and asked what it was I would havehim tell this hireling of Grattan's. Charley Foo was of much help tome."
Tsan Ti folded his hands complacently over his capacious stomach.
"Well, sufferin' bluffs!" murmured McGlory. "Charley Foo was the kindof a dark horse they were playing both ways. He told Grattan's man onlywhat Tsan Ti wanted him to know; then why, in the name of all that'shard to figure out, did Tsan tell Charley to let it be known that theruby was being sent to Motor Matt?"
"It was my wish that Grattan should know about the sending of theruby," said this most amazing Chinaman.
"Then," went on McGlory, "you expected that Grattan would get on MotorMatt's trail and make a dead set to get back the Eye of Buddha."
"I thought it most likely, sagacious youth."
"Then," averred McGlory warmly, "you can't blame Motor Matt for losingthe ruby."
"Am I blaming him, inconsiderate one?" returned Tsan Ti. "Have I saidone scolding word, or emitted anything but praise? Motor Matt has doneexcellently well, and I shall engrave his deeds on the tablets of mymemory."
"But the ruby is gone!" said Matt.
"Not so, highly esteemed but most deceived friend. Observe!"
With that, Tsan Ti opened his yellow silk blouse and revealed a smallbag suspended by a chain from his neck. Opening the bag, he gave Mattand McGlory a swift glimpse of a shining, blood-red jewel.
"Behold the Eye of Buddha," smiled the mandarin. "Not Grattan, with allhis evil work, has it, but I."
This, as might be expected, heaped up the measure of astonishing eventsand topped off the motor boys' bewilderment.
"But the ruby--the Eye of Buddha Grattan took from me----"
"That, generous youth," answered the mandarin, dropping the bag on hisbreast and rearranging his blouse, "was not a ruby, but a base replicaof the true gem. It is worth, possibly, five dollars. I secured it froma stonecutter in New York."
By degrees the mandarin's crafty performance dawned on the motorboys. They were awed by the scope and audacious success of thedesign--completely fooling Grattan as it had done. As a specimen ofOriental craft, it was a revelation to Matt and McGlory.