CHAPTER XVI.
THE MANDARIN WINS.
"Listen, honorable friends," said Tsan Ti, "while I talk to youinstructively. In the words of the great Confucius, 'the cautious manseldom errs.' When I departed from you, amiable ones, on recovering theEye of Buddha, I said that I was returning to my country by way of SanFrancisco. Such was my intention, of the moment, but further reflectiondissuaded me. I decided to go to New York and proceed to China by thelonger, but perhaps the safer, way.
"In the great city I discovered that I was being pursued and spiedupon, and a great fear overcame me. Immediately I thought of MotorMatt. Should I visit him with possible dangers, I besought of myself,in order that I might preserve the precious relic from the temple atHonam? I thought of your bravery, never sufficiently to be praised, andI decided to make the risk. The cutter of precious stones was sent for,and I showed my ruby and asked that he make a counterfeit of it thatwould deceive any but a dealer in jewels. This was done, and quickly. Isent this comparatively valueless replica to you, Motor Matt, and toldCharley Foo to let Grattan's man know what I had done. Also, the manwas to be informed of my desire that Motor Matt should carry the stoneabout with him continually.
"What would happen? I inquired of myself. Most certainly, reflectionmade answer. Grattan will be upon the brave youth's track, and he willnever rest until he secures the gem. This is as I desired, although Idared not so express myself in my letter which accompanied the falsegem.
"After the package had left me, my heart failed. I feared I had exposedyou to dangers which might cause your undoing. Hence, without lingeringfurther, Sam Wing and I took this train for Catskill, I being of theintention to tell you what I had planned, and to let it be known,through Charley Foo, that the real gem was in my hands and not yours.
"And see, I have come too late. Grattan, the wise and unscrupulous,has taken the counterfeit ruby and is pleased to think he has cheatedme, and that I shall pass by means of the yellow cord. All is well,and my plans are maturing most successfully. The five hundred gods ofgood fortune are smiling upon me. While Grattan goes his course, firmlybelieving he has the Eye of Buddha, I travel mine, knowing he has beenjustly deceived."
There was a little resentment in Matt's heart as he listened to themandarin's explanation of his crafty ways and means for circumventingGrattan. Tsan Ti had thrown upon Matt the weight of the wholeproceeding, and had not taken means to inform him of the true state ofaffairs. The king of the motor boys, had he understood the nature ofthe mandarin's scheme, could have worked out his part of it even moresuccessfully than he had done while being kept in ignorance.
"You're a keen one, Tsan," grunted McGlory, "but I'm a Piute if Iadmire the free-and-easy fashion you have of making dupes of yourfriends."
"It is that which has pained me," admitted the mandarin, "and it is myregret which was carrying me speedily to Catskill to tell my widelyknown friend the exact truth. Fate was quicker in the race than I.Events have come swiftly to pass, and out of them rises Grattan withthe false ruby. I have been fortunate, and while he goes to partsunknown, I shall hope to reach China before he discovers his error."
"Queer that Grattan, who knows the great ruby so well," said Matt,"could be fooled with a piece of glass of the same shape and size."
"And likewise of the exact color," returned Tsan Ti. "The color wasmost important of all. That Grattan was fooled shows how admirably thecutter of precious stones has done his work."
"You're really going to China this time, are you, Tsan Ti?"
"Of a certainty," declared the mandarin. "Now that you have been metmost wonderfully on this train, I shall not get off at Catskill, butwill accompany the cars to Buffalo. From there, without delay, I shallgo on to Chicago, from there to Denver, and so to San Francisco, whereI will embark on the first ship that will carry me across the Pacific."
Tsan Ti leaned over in front of Matt and called out something inChinese to Sam Wing. Sam Wing lifted his nodding head with a start,and from his blouse produced a small sack of alligator skin, which hehanded to his master.
The sack was stuffed with banknotes, and from the lot the mandarinextracted three five-hundred-dollar bills.
"Will you consider it of an insulting nature if I offer you these?"inquired the mandarin of Matt.
"I won't, if he does," chimed in McGlory.
"I think I'm entitled to the money, Tsan Ti," said Matt. "The way youChinamen do business doesn't make much of a hit with me. Your littleplot wouldn't have been hurt in the least if you had just mentioned inthe letter you sent with that supposed ruby that the gem was false, andthat you sent it to me hoping Grattan would get it and keep off yourtrail. I could have helped you even more in achieving your purpose."
"It is to be regretted deeply that I did not," answered the mandarinhumbly. "In my own country I would not have given two thoughts to thetroubles I caused another, so long as my aim was just and wise; buthere, in America, different standards rule, and that I brought dangersupon your head I shall never forget."
The door of the coach opened and a brakeman thrust in his head to callout the station of Catskill.
"That means us, pard," said McGlory. "Grab your money and let's hike."
Matt took the money and slowly placed it in his pocket.
"You bear no ill will, worthy one, and friend whose memory will alwaysblossom in the gardens of my recollections?" asked Tsan Ti.
"It's all right, Tsan Ti," returned Matt, getting up. "You win, andare off for the Flowery Kingdom with the Eye of Buddha. Grattan loses,and he'll find it out sooner or later. As for Joe and me, we'll callaccounts square. Good-by, and good luck to you." He took the mandarin'shand cordially.
"May the five hundred gods of good luck smile continually upon you,"said Tsan Ti.
With that, Motor Matt and McGlory left the coach and dropped off thetrain.
"Back in Catskill!" said the cowboy, "and after being fooled by Bunce,and Grattan, and Tsan Ti!"
"We've fooled Grattan twice where he has fooled us once, Joe," returnedMatt.
"Right you are, pard; and there's plenty of chance for Tsan Ti to runinto a snag between here and China."
"I'm hoping he makes the trip without any trouble."
"I don't know but I hope the same thing, although I get a trifle hotunder the collar every time I think of the way we fretted over a pieceof colored glass."
They stood on the platform until the tail lights of the train hadvanished from sight up the track.
"The mandarin is getting a good start on the home trail, anyhow,"remarked McGlory, as he and Matt turned away to climb the slope thatled to their hotel. "He's bound west by train, while Grattan is foolingaround, somewhere on the Hudson, with the _Iris_. I wouldn't turn overmy hand, after what Tsan Ti told us, to put the kibosh on Grattan, oreven Bunce."
"Grattan and Bunce have got their deserts," asserted Matt. "They'll bepunished enough when they discover that they've had all their troubleand taken so many chances for nothing more than a bogus ruby."
"Fine business," chuckled McGlory; "and yet," he added, with aperceptible change in his voice, "there's something about that PhiloGrattan that makes a hit with me. Maybe I've got a yellow streak inmy make-up, somewhere, and that it's wrong for me to own up to such anotion, but it's the truth."
"If Grattan was honest," said Matt, "he'd be a fellow any one couldlike. But his ideas are all wrong. He can't see where the harm comes inremoving a valuable ruby from an idol in a heathen temple, but if he'dstep into Tiffany's, in New York, and extract a gem like that from theshow case and make off with it, his crime wouldn't be any the less."
"A heathen has got property rights," agreed the cowboy, "just the sameas you or me--or Grattan, himself. Where do you suppose Grattan, andthat choice assortment of tinhorns he has with him on the _Iris_, aregoing?"
"I don't know, pard, and what happens to them now doesn't bother memuch. We're rid of them all, and I'm thankful for it. We've had toomuch of Tsan Ti, as well as of Grattan and Bunce."
/> "That's what you say now, but just let the mandarin write you one ofthose embroidered letters of his, asking for help, and you'll head inhis direction just a-smoking."
"Not again, Joe. I know what the Yellow Peril is, now, and I'm going tofight shy of it."
"Amen to that, pard, and I hope you stick to it."
"I will."
"And there's nothing more between us and a high old time in Manhattan?"
"Nothing but a stretch of river--or of railroad track, Joe, if you'drather go by train."
"Hooray!" jubilated McGlory.
THE END.
THE NEXT NUMBER (32) WILL CONTAIN
Motor Matt's Double-trouble;
OR,
THE LAST OF THE HOODOO.
The Red Jewel--Another End of the Yarn--Shock Number One--Shocks Two and Three--A Hot Starter--McGlory is Lost, and Found--"Pocketed"--Springing a Coup--Motor Matt's Chase--The Chase Concluded--A Double Capture--Another Surprise--Baiting a Trap--How the Trap was Sprung--Back to the Farm--Conclusion.
Motor Matt's Mariner; or, Filling the Bill for Bunce Page 16
