CHAPTER XVI.
THE BROKEN HOODOO.
The constable, in leaving the sugar camp for Purling to do histelephoning, had taken his own rig. Having finished his work inPurling, he made his return journey to the sugar camp in the automobilewhich Matt and McGlory had hired. A few words were enough to convincethe driver of the car that it was useless for him to wait at thegeneral store for the one-eyed sailor.
The automobile could not ascend the rough hill road, but waited at thefoot of the slope while the constable climbed to the sugar camp andinformed those there that a conveyance was ready to take them whereverthey wanted to go.
Pryne having suddenly recovered and bolted, only Matt, McGlory,Goldstein, and the two Chinamen were in the hut. Without loss of timethey accompanied the constable down the long wooded slope.
"What are the prospects for capturing Bunce and Grattan, officer?"inquired Matt, while they were slipping toward the foot of the hill.
"Mighty poor," answered the constable, "if you want me to give itto you straight. But I've done everythin' I could. There ain't anytelegraft line to Purling, so I had to telephone my message to Cairo.They're pretty much all over the hills by now."
"Then what makes you think Bunce and Grattan will get away?"
"Why, they'll be goin' so tarnation fast on them pesky machines therewon't be any constable in the hills with an eye quick enough torecognize 'em from the description. Anyhow, what do you care? The fatChinaman's happy, an' the Jew's so glad he walks lop-sided. What is itto you whether them hoodlums git away or not?"
"Oh, hear him!" muttered McGlory. "It means three hundred cold, hardplunks to us, constable. The two pesky machines that took thosetinhorns away have to be paid for by Motor Matt and Pard McGlory."
"Do tell!"
"If you hated to hear it as bad as I hate to tell it you wouldn't askme to repeat."
"Noble sir," spoke up Tsan Ti, "you and your worshipful friend shallnot be out a single tael. I, whom you have benefited, will pay for thego-devil machines. That, if you will allow me, comes in as part of yourexpenses."
"Now, by heck," said the constable, "that's what I call doin' thehan'some thing. I've put in a leetle time myself, to-day," he added,"an' I cal-late I'm out nigh onto ten dollars. But I helped do somegood, an' that's enough fer me."
"Here, exalted sir," observed the mandarin, and dropped a twenty-dollargold piece into the constable's palm.
"I don't believe I got any change," said the officer.
"No change would be acceptable to me," answered Tsan Ti, with dignity.
"Waal, now, ain't I tickled? There's a dress in that fer S'manthy an'the kids. 'Bliged to ye."
"The old boy's beginning to get generous, Matt," whispered McGlory."Maybe, after all, he really intends to fork over that thousand andexpenses."
"Of course he does," said Matt.
When they reached the automobile, all six of them crowded into thecar. Seven passengers--counting the driver--made tight squeezing inaccommodations built for five, but Goldstein and the constable weredropped at Purling, and comfort followed those who remained, thereon.
Goldstein, following his burst of ecstasy over the recovery of thesatchel, had relapsed into a subdued condition. Very likely he realizedthat he was under something of a cloud, inasmuch as he had come toPurling to treat with a thief for the loot of a magnificent haul.Goldstein remembered that Grattan had not been at all backward ingiving Motor Matt the details of everything connected with the Eye ofBuddha, and the reflections of the diamond broker could not have beenat all comfortable or reassuring.
Matt allowed the Jew to go his way without a rebuke. He felt thatthe man had been punished enough; and, besides, he was the cause oftheir discovering the place where the ruby had been concealed. But forGoldstein, the Eye of Buddha might never have been located.
On the way to Catskill from Purling, Matt gave an account of what hadtaken place in the old sugar camp. Grattan had been at considerablepains to explain many things that had been dark to Matt and hisfriends, and the king of the motor boys passed along the explanation.
The history of the Egyptian balls was particularly interesting to TsanTi, no less than other details connected with the robbery; and the wayBunce had played tag up and down the mountainside with Matt and McGloryheld a deep fascination for the cowboy.
"Taking this little fracas by and large," observed McGlory, when Matthad finished, "I think it's about the most novel piece of business Iever had anything to do with. It began with a lot of 'con' paper talkshoved at Pard Matt by Tsan Ti, and from the moment we met up withthe mandarin there's been nothing to it but excitement, and a littleuncertainty as to just where the lightning was going to strike next."
"You two illustrious young men," said Tsan Ti gravely, "have laid meunder staggering obligations. Money may pay you for your loss of time,but nothing except my gratitude can requite you for the excellence ofyour service. You will hear from me through Sam Wing to-morrow."
The boys got out of the automobile at the hotel, and Matt had the cartake Tsan Ti and Sam Wing up the mountain to the Kaaterskill.
"They're a pair of pretty good chinks, after all," said McGlory, "andI'm glad to think I had a little something to do with keeping theyellow cord from getting in its work on Tsan Ti."
On the following day, Tsan Ti sent Sam Wing to Catskill with a heavycanvas bag.
"Me blingee flom Tsan Ti," explained Sam Wing. "Him takee choo-chootlain fol San Flisco, bymby ketchee boat fol China. Heap happy."
"He has a right to be happy," said McGlory.
"How much did he have to put up for that wrecked motor car, Sam?" askedMatt.
"Twenty-fi' hunnerd dol'."
"He went and stung him!" whooped McGlory. "The old robber."
"No makee hurt. Twenty-fi' hunnerd dol' all same Tsan Ti likeetwenty-fi' cent to me. Him plenty lichee man."
When Sam Wing went away, Matt and McGlory dumped the contents of thecanvas sack out on the table. The money was all in gold, and totaledtwo thousand dollars, even.
"He figured out expenses at a thousand dollars," remarked the cowboy."They're 'way inside that figure."
"He's the sort of fellow, Joe," said Matt, "who'd rather pay a man tendollars when he only owed him five, than five when he owed ten."
"Sure! He's the clear quill, but he sure had me guessing, the way hejumped around. I'll bet he connected with more good, hard jolts on thistrip to America than he ever encountered in his life before."
"We came pretty near it, ourselves," laughed Matt. "I can't rememberthat I ever had a more violent time."
"It was some strenuous, and that's a fact. If you live a hundred years,pard, and drive automobiles all the while, you'll never scrape closerto kingdom come, and miss it, than you did when we came down themountainside with the mandarin at the steering wheel."
"I wouldn't go through that experience again for ten times the amountof money there was in that bag."
"I wouldn't, either--not for the Eye of Buddha. There's no easy moneyin turning a trick for Tsan Ti. I reckon we earned all we got."
THE END.