CHAPTER XV.
BACK TO THE FARM.
The skirmish--for it amounted to little more than that--was over within short order.
Grattan resisted stoutly, but Boggs went to Banks' assistance, whileMatt and Gridly went to McGlory's. In almost less time than it takes totell it, handcuffs were snapped on the wrists of the prisoners and theywere loaded into the tonneau with the two officers.
"It worked as slick as greased lightning, Motor Matt!" cried thedelighted sheriff. "Those two crooks never suspected a thing!"
Pardo was exceedingly bitter.
"Now, see what your confounded plans have done for me, Grattan!" hecried angrily. "I was a fool to ever tie up with you."
"If we'd been successful," returned Grattan coolly "and secured theruby, you'd have talked the other way. Where's your nerve, Pardo?"
Pardo, still dazed by the suddenness of the capture, sank back into thecorner of the tonneau, muttering.
"This is your work, is it, Motor Matt?" inquired Grattan, leaning overthe side of the car and fixing his gaze on the young motorist.
"I helped plan it," said Matt.
"He was the whole works," spoke up McGlory. "Maybe it wasn't _quite_so clever as the way you played it on me and Tsan Ti, Grattan," and atantalizing grin accompanied the words; "but I reckon it'll do."
"The more I see and learn about Motor Matt," declared Grattan, "themore I admire his shining abilities. He's a wonder. We've matched witsseveral times, and he's always had a shade the best of it. Will youanswer a civil question, my lad?"
"What is it?"
"Where's Tsan Ti and the ruby?"
"Tsan Ti and Bunce are at a farm near here, but----"
"So that old idiot has got tangled in the net, too!"
"But the ruby," finished Matt, "has been lost."
"Lost?" Grattan showed considerable excitement. "How was it lost?"
"Sam Wing stole the ruby from Tsan Ti, on the train, and jumped offat Gardenville. The mandarin discovered his loss in time to leave thetrain at the same station."
"Oh, thunder!" exclaimed Grattan disgustedly. "So _that_ was why TsanTi followed Sam Wing out of Gardenville!"
"And you thought the mandarin was afraid of you, and that that was hisreason for hot-footing it into the hills," derided Pardo.
"Where and how was the ruby lost?" went on Grattan, paying no attentionto Pardo.
"I started out with Martin to look for this automobile," said Matt,"and we found Sam Wing at the watering place on the Gardenville road.McGlory and I followed him, but my chum got lost and I was left to keepup the chase alone. It was somewhere along the course Sam Wing led methat the ruby was lost."
"Sam Wing is fooling you!"
"I think he's telling the truth, Grattan."
"Bosh! The chink has hidden the ruby and is trying to make you believehe lost it. If you let him go, he'll find the stone and get away withit."
"Why not turn him loose, an' then follow him?" suggested Banks.
Matt shook his head.
"I'm positive Sam Wing is giving the straight of it," he declared.
"Well," laughed Grattan, but with an undernote of regret, "I hopehe is. If I can't have the ruby that I've worked for so long, I'mglad to think that no one else will have it. Where are we bound for,gentlemen?" and Grattan turned to Banks and Gridly.
"To the Boggs farm to pick up the sailor," Banks replied, "then for theCatskill jail."
"Very pleasant outlook," observed Grattan.
"Can you drive a motor car, Matt?" asked Gridly.
"_Can_ he?" exploded McGlory. "Say, pard," he added, turning to Matt,"do you know a spark-plug from the carburetor?"
"No offense," proceeded Gridly hastily. "I was only going to ask Mattif he would bring our roadster along."
"Boggs and I will come in the roadster," said Matt. "You take the bluecar to the farm, Joe."
"On the jump, pard!" came heartily from McGlory.
"You motor boys are a great team!" exclaimed Banks.
"They're hard to beat," put in Grattan. "If it hadn't been for them, Ishould have been in Paris about now, in very comfortable circumstances."
Matt waited for no more, but, accompanied by Boggs and Tige, hurriedalong the road to the place where Banks had left the roadster. Matt wascranking when McGlory whirled past on his way to the farm. Two minuteslater the roadster was crowding the touring car hard, and Matt washonking for the cowboy to make better time.
"Everybody seems to be your friend, Motor Matt," said Boggs, "even thatthere thief."
"Grattan is a strange fellow, Boggs," answered Matt. "He's as talenteda chap as you'll find anywhere, but he'd rather steal for a living thanwork honestly."
"Some folks is that way," ruminated Boggs. "They'll waste more brainsan' elbow grease pullin' off a robb'ry that'll bring 'em in a thousanddollars than they'd need for makin' ten thousand honestly. Look at me,scrubbin' along on a stony farm, raisin' garden truck for the hotels,when I might go out with a drill an' a jimmy, an'----"
"Make a nice comfortable home for yourself in a stone house with irondoors and barred windows," laughed Matt. "There are lots of worseplaces than a stony truck farm, Boggs."
"I guess yew're right."
At that moment the touring car turned in at the farmyard and came to ahalt near the barn. The roadster followed and stopped alongside.
Leaving Gridly to take care of Grattan and Pardo, Banks accompaniedMatt and Boggs into the barn. Josi' met them at the door.
"What luck, Zeke?" he asked.
"Best kind, Josi'," replied Boggs. "Got our men, too easy for any use.The sheriff, here, and his deputy, Gridly, come along jest in time tohelp. They want one o' the prisoners we left yew to take keer of."
"They're all here, you bet," said Josi', with laudable pride. "The'wa'n't any of 'em could git away from _me_."
Banks cast his eyes over the three men.
"What's to be done with the two Chinamen?" he asked.
"I think they ought to go to Catskill, too," said Matt.
"We can carry the sailor in the tonneau of the big car, and there'sroom for one of the Chinamen on the seat alongside McGlory. T'otherchink could go with you, in the roadster. Which is the mandarin thatgot robbed of the ruby?"
Matt pointed to the dejected figure of Tsan Ti.
"What is he roped for?" asked Banks.
"So he can't put himself out of the way," said Matt. "The regent ofChina sent him a yellow cord, and told him that if he did not recoverthe ruby in two weeks he was please to strangle himself. I had to tiethe mandarin in that way to keep him from obeying orders."
Banks was not a hard-hearted man, and something in the mandarin'splight touched him. Perhaps it was the Celestial's hopeless air,coupled with his torn and dusty garments.
The sheriff stood for a few minutes in front of Tsan Ti, looking downat him and shaking his head.
"They're a queer lot, these chinks," he commented finally. "Their ideasare not ours, by a long shot, but I don't know as that's anythingagainst them. Do you want to take the mandarin with you in theroadster, Matt?"
"I think I'd better."
Matt bent down and removed the rope from Tsan Ti's ankles. The mandarindid not want to get up or make a move, but Matt and Banks lifted him tohis feet and succeeded in getting him out of the barn.
As they stood beside the roadster, the mandarin slumping limply intheir supporting hands, a cry came from the road.
"Well, by golly! If dar ain't de man whut got ole Gin'ral Jackson backfo' me. Ah's monsus 'bliged tuh yo', boss, Ah is, fer er fac'."
Matt looked around and saw the old darky ambling toward the barn on hismule.
"That's Neb Hogan," spoke up Boggs. "He's got a cabin down beyond abouthalf a mile. Do you know him, Motor Matt?"
Although old Neb Hogan did not look it, yet he was, at that moment,engaged upon one of the most important missions of his life.