CHAPTER IV.
BUNCE HAS A PLAN.
"Avast, there!" gurgled Bunce, half choked, trying to pull the cowboy'shands from his throat.
The green patch was over his left eye, and the right eye gleamedglassily in the electric light.
Matt was as much surprised at Bunce's appearance as was McGlory, but heheld his temper better in hand. The cowboy, profoundly disgusted withthe trend of recent events, showed a disposition to take it out of thesailor.
Had Bunce been even the half of an able seaman he would have givenMcGlory a hard scramble, but he seemed a wizened, infirm old salt,although he had proved active enough during the experiences the motorboys had already had with him.
"Don't strangle him, Joe!" called Matt. "Take your hands from histhroat and grab his arm. He came here openly, and he must have knownwe were here. Judging from that, I should say that his intentions arepeaceable."
"Ask him," gritted McGlory, "why he doesn't change eyes with the patch.Let's get to the bottom of this moving-picture business, too. We canhave a little heart-to-heart talk, I reckon, and find out a few thingsbefore we turn the old webfoot over to the police."
"Right you are, my blood," gasped the half-suffocated Bunce, as thecowboy dropped his hands to his arm and dragged him down into a chair,"a heart-to-heart talk's the thing. Didn't I bear away for this placefor nothin' else than to fall afoul o' ye? Ay, ay, that was the way ofit, but split me through if I ever expected such treatment as this whatI'm a-gettin'. Motor Matt's the lad, says I to myself, to fill the billfor Bunce, so I trips anchor an' slants away, only to be laid holt oflike I was a reg'lar skull-and-crossbones, walk-the-plank pirate, withthe Jolly Roger at the peak."
"Oh, put a crimp on that sort of talk," growled McGlory. "Sufferin'freebooters! If you're anything better than a pirate, I'd like to haveyou tell me."
"So, ho!" and Bunce's eye glittered wrathfully, "if I had a cutlass, myfine buck, I'd slit ye like a herrin' for that. I'm a fair-weather sortof man, an' I hates a squall, but stir up nasty weather an' then giveme somethin' to fight with, an' I'm a bit of a handful. Nigh Pangool,on the south coast o' Java, I laid out a hull boat's crew with my fistsalone, once, not so many years back. That was when I was mate o' thebrig _Hottentot_, as fine a two-sticker as ever shoved nose into theSouth Seas--reg'lar bucko mate, I was, an' a main hard man when roused."
At the time the Eye of Buddha was recovered, Bunce had made his escapewith Grattan; and he had been equally guilty, with Grattan, in thetheft of the ruby from the Honam joss house. That the sailor shouldhave shown himself at all, in those parts, was a wonder; and that heshould have shown himself to Matt and McGlory, who knew of his evildeeds, was a puzzle past working out.
"You say you came here to see me?" inquired Matt.
"Ay, ay, my hearty," answered Bunce. "Motor Matt, says I to myself, isthe lad to fill the bill for me, an' I luffed into the wind an' boredown for Catskill. Here I am, an' here's you, an' if I blow the gaffa bit that's my business, ain't it? But take me to the cabin; what Ihas to say is between us an' the mainmast with no other ears to get asizing of it."
McGlory glared at Bunce as though he would have liked to bore into himwith his eyes and see what he had at the back of his head.
"If you're trying to play double with us, you gangle-legged old hiderack," he threatened, "you'll live to wish you'd thought twice beforeyou did it."
"Now, burn me," snorted Bunce, "d'ye take me for a dog fish? By theseven holy spritsails, I'm as good a man as you, an' ye'll l'arn----"
"Enough of that, Bunce," broke in Matt sharply, getting up from hischair. "You want to say something to us in private, and I'm going togive you the chance. Come after me; you trail along behind him, Joe,"and, with that, Matt went into the hotel and up the stairs to the roomjointly occupied by himself and McGlory.
At the door, Matt pushed a button that turned on the lights. As soon asMcGlory and Bunce were in the room, the door was locked and Matt tookcharge of the key.
"That's the stuff, pard," approved McGlory, with great satisfaction."If the old tinhorn don't spout to please us, we can phone the officefor a policeman."
"Ye're not sending me to the brig this trip, mates," spoke up Bunce."'Cos why? 'Cos in fillin' the bill for me, ye're givin' the mandarin aleg up out of a purty bad hole."
"What have you got to tell us?" inquired Matt curtly. "Out with it,Bunce."
"When ye last seen me, my lad," said Bunce, "I was sailin' in convoywith Philo Grattan. But he's doin' things I don't approve of, not anyways. It was all right to put our helm up an' bear down on a chink josshouse to lift the Eye o' Buddha, an' it was all right, too, when yehelped the big high boy get the ruby back. That was all in the game,an' we'd ought to've made the most of it. But not Philo Grattan. D'yeknow what he's layin' to do? Nothin' more, on my soul, than to strangleTsan Ti with a yellow cord an' take the ruby away from him. My eye,mates, but Grattan's a clever hand at overhauling his locker for a gamelike that. The boss of the Chinee Empire sends these yellow cords tothe chinks he don't like an' don't want around. When the cords come tohand, then the chinks receivin' thereof uses them to choke out theirlives. Tsan Ti is found, dead as a mackerel, with the yellow cordtwisted into his fat neck. Eye o' Buddha is missin' from his clothes.What's the answer? Why, that Tsan Ti lost the ruby, an' used the cordsent him from the home country. That'll seem plain as a burgee flyin'from the gaff o' one o' these fresh-water yachts. Won't it, now?"
Matt knew that Tsan Ti had received the yellow cord from China, andthat he had been allowed two weeks in which either to find the stolenruby or to use the cord. Of course, the ruby had been recovered, andthere was no necessity for using the hideous cord; but, if he was foundstrangled, it would have seemed as though he himself had committed thedeed in compliance with orders from the Chinese regent.
Bunce may have been romancing, but there was a little plausibility backof his words.
"Where is Grattan?" demanded Matt.
"In these here hills, shipmate," replied Bunce.
"Tsan Ti isn't in the Catskills!"
"No more he ain't, which I grant ye offhand an' freely, but supposin'he's in Noo York, held a pris'ner in a beach comber's joint in FrontStreet? An' supposin', furthermore, this same beach comber is a mate o'Grattan's, an' waitin' only for Grattan to come afore he makes Tsan Tipeg out? Put that in your pipe an' smoke it careful."
"You mean to say that Tsan Ti is a prisoner in New York--a prisoner ofa confederate of Grattan's?"
"That's gospel truth! It happened recent--no longer ago than earlymornin'. I bore the word to the beach comber in a letter of hand fromPhilo, an' the beach comber met me in a snug harbor on the front wheresailormen are regularly hocused an' shipped for all parts. I don't knowwhere the beach comber's place is, not me, but I did get him toppingthe boom an' he reported the whole matter entire. However Tsan Ti fellinto the net is a notch above my understandin', but there he is, hardan' fast, an' when I'd done with the beach comber I took the train forCatskill to find Grattan an' tell him what's been pulled off."
Bunce was a trifle hard to follow.
"Let's see if I've got this right," said Matt, "When you and Grattanescaped from the officers, at the time the ruby was recovered, you hidyourselves away among the Catskills?"
"Ay, so we did!"
"And then Grattan gave you a letter to some man in New York and youcarried it personally?"
"Personally, that's the word. I carried it personally."
"And this man in New York entrapped the mandarin and is holding him aprisoner until he can hear what Grattan wants done?"
"Ye've got the proper bearin's, an' no mistake."
"And you came back on the train to tell Grattan?"
Bunce nodded, and pulled at his fringe of whiskers.
"Then, why didn't you go and tell Grattan," asked Matt, "instead ofcoming and telling me?"
"I'm no blessed cut-an'-slash pirate," protested Bunce. "So long as theruby was to be come by without any stranglin', I was will
in' to beara bob an' do my share; an' while mebby there ain't anythin' morillywrong in chokin' the breath out of a heathen Chinee, yet they'll bowsea man up to the yardarm for doin' the same. Mates, on the ride back tothe Catskills I overhauled the hull matter, an' I makes up my mind I'dsailed in company with Grattan as long as 'twas safe. If I can save themandarin, I thinks to myself, mebby Motor Matt'll play square with mean' let me off for what I done in helpin' lift the ruby. If so be hethinks that way, says I to myself further, then he's the one to fillthe bill for Bunce. So, instid o' slantin' for the cove where the motorcar is hid away, I 'bouts ship an' lays a course for this hotel."
"What's your plan, Bunce?" queried Matt.
"Easy, does it; simple as a granny's knot. You kiss the Book that I'mfree as soon's I do my part, then I takes you to where Grattan is,an' you lays him by the heels--just us three in it an' not a man Jackelse. The beach comber don't do a thing to Tsan Ti till he hears fromGrattan; an' how'll he ever hear from Grattan if he's safe in irons insome jail in these hills? That's my plan, an' you take it or leave it.If ye don't follow the course I've laid, then Grattan gets the rubyback, an' the mandarin's life along with it. If ye think I'm talkin'crooked, an' put the lashings on me an' hand me over to the police,then not a soul'll ever know where Grattan's hid, an' he'll clear outan' get to Noo York whether I see him or not--but Tsan Ti'll be forDavy Jones' locker, no matter what ye try to do to prevent it. I'vesaid my say an' eased my mind; now it's you for it."
With that, Bunce calmly drew a plug of tobacco from his pocket andnibbled at one corner reflectively.
Motor Matt's Mariner; or, Filling the Bill for Bunce Page 4
