Motor Matt's Mariner; or, Filling the Bill for Bunce

by Stanley R. Matthews

  CHAPTER XIV.

  LANDED--AND STUNG.

  Pardo left the saloon to give the necessary orders to the man outside.There was a splash in the water as the tender was put over, and the_Iris_ slowed until she had no more than steerage way.

  "Get into your clothes, McGlory," said Grattan to the cowboy. "I'mabout ready to send you ashore."

  "The quicker the better!" exclaimed McGlory wrathfully. "We don't wantto lose a minute getting to some place where we can send the officersafter you."

  Grattan laughed.

  "You will have your trouble for your pains," said he. "After you arelanded, the _Iris_ and those aboard her will vanish as completely asthough they had gone to the bottom. I have planned for this. Do whatyou please, and as soon as you please. Philo Grattan and his friendswill never be captured."

  "Ten thousand demons of misfortune pester a man who has anything to dowith the Eye of Buddha," snarled McGlory, stamping into his shoes. "Mypard and I know that. Sufferin' hoodoos! Haven't we been tangled upwith all sorts of backsets since we met Tsan Ti? If it ain't one thing,it's two. You never know what minute's going to be the next."

  "I'll risk the ten thousand demons," smiled Grattan.

  "Something'll hit you," declared McGlory. "You take that from me, andspread your blankets on it."

  "You forget that I have carried the ruby for a good many thousands ofmiles."

  "I'm gloomed up more to think we ever saw that Eye of Buddha," scowledMcGlory, getting up from the seat and jamming on his hat, "than to knowthat we lost it."

  "Are you ready?" asked Grattan.

  "I've been ready to leave this boat ever since we came aboard! You're afine bunch of outlaws, the lot of you, and you'll all get hung, one ofthese days. I'd like to be around when it happens."

  Matt left his wrathful chum to do the talking. So far as he wasconcerned, he had nothing to say.

  "We're going to put you ashore near a place where you can catch atrain north, to Catskill," said Grattan, after a brief, whisperedconversation with Pardo. "There doesn't happen to be any telegraphstation at the place, but the train will stop on signal."

  "There are other telegraph stations," fumed McGlory. "I reckon we canfind 'em."

  "I hope, Motor Matt," went on Grattan, "that you don't cherish any hardfeelings?"

  "No matter how I feel, Grattan," returned Matt, "I think you've made abig mistake."

  "How?"

  "Why, in your choice of a career. Half the energy you put into yourcriminal work would make you a power in the world."

  "I used to talk like that," said Grattan, with a tinge of bitterness,"when I was young. Good-by."

  Matt did not answer, but went out of the saloon and through thestateroom to the steps leading to the after deck. McGlory came closebehind him. When they gained the deck, Pierson was in the tender, andanother man stood ready to help them over the side.

  Silently Pierson rowed them ashore through the moonlight. When the boyshad debarked, Pierson rowed swiftly back to the _Iris_, and the lads onshore could hear the noise as the tender was taken aboard.

  "Landed," muttered Matt.

  "And stung," finished McGlory. "Wasn't it neat? Say, I take off my hatto Grattan. He's the king bee of all the tinhorns. Let's watch and seewhich way the _Iris_ goes."

  The boys watched, but under their staring eyes the lights vanished oneby one from forward and aft, and from starboard and port. The cabinwindows winked out in darkness, and the gloom of the river swallowed upthe motor yacht. Her disappearance was helped by a cloud which floatedacross the face of the moon and threw the river into deepest shadow.

  "Speak to me about that, pard!" exclaimed McGlory. "I wonder if itwould do any good to send out telegrams?"

  "I don't think it would, Joe," Matt answered, "but if there was atelegraph office handy, we'd try it."

  "Let's find the place where the trains stop. If a train comes alongpretty soon, we can get to a telegraph office."

  When the cloud had swept on, and the moon shone out again, a survey ofthe place showed the boys a dark building at the top of the bank. Theyclimbed up to the structure and found that it was an open shed, withbenches. There was no light, and the cowboy struck a match and huntedfor a time card. He could find none.

  "Oh, hang such a place!" grumbled McGlory. "If we knew how far it wasto the next station, pard, we could set out and hoof it."

  "Haven't you done enough walking for one day, Joe?" asked Matt. "Ibelieve I have. I'm going to sit down here and wait for a train to comealong."

  Suiting his action to the word, Matt dropped down on one of thebenches. His chum took a place beside him.

  "You're as full of surprises, pard," remarked McGlory, "as a cocoanutis of milk. There's no guessing what you're going to do next. Youdidn't tell me anything about taking the Eye of Buddha from that emptybox when you left it with the clerk, and you never let out a yip aboutremoving the ruby from the handkerchief and putting it in your cap.Regular greaser trick--carrying things in your hat."

  "I thought I had to do something, Joe. When I was at work in the engineroom, I had planned to take off the cap and put it in my pocket."

  "What did you have in that handkerchief?"

  "My pocketknife."

  "Great guns! Was the knife in the handkerchief when we left Catskill?"

  "No. The knife and the handkerchief were both in the same pocket. Imanaged to tie the knife up in the handkerchief, after a fashion, whilewe were facing Grattan, and he was talking."

  "Well, glory to glory and all sashay! And Grattan never saw you!"

  "I'm inclined to think he did, from the way the thing turned out."

  "You didn't think you could fool Grattan so he wouldn't search you, didyou?"

  "It was a desperate chance to keep him from looking into my cap. But Imight have known I couldn't fool him."

  Just at that moment a lantern could be seen coming from down the track.A man reached the shed and began lighting a lamp at each end of it.

  "Hello, neighbor!" called McGlory. "Do you belong around here?"

  The man turned and looked toward the boys. Evidently he had not seenthem before, and the call startled him.

  "I live down the track a ways," he answered.

  "Do you take care of this palatial depot?"

  "I put out the lights," was the reply.

  "A little late getting them out to-night, aren't you?"

  "Well, no. There's no use putting them out before, 'cause the firsttrain to stop hasn't come along yet."

  "How far is it to Catskill?"

  "Twenty mile."

  "Where's the nearest telegraph office?"

  "Three miles below. You fellers waitin' to ketch a train for Catskill?"

  "Yes. When will it be along?"

  "It's due now."

  "Does it stop here?"

  "Yes, if it's signaled."

  "How'll we flag it?"

  "I'll do that for ye with the lantern. That's what I come up herefor--to put out the lights an' do the flaggin'."

  "Here's a piece of luck, anyhow, Matt," said McGlory. "We can go on toCatskill and do our telegraphing from there."

  "We might just as well," said Matt.

  Matt's failure to keep the ruby was preying on his spirits. He couldn'thelp what had happened, but the sting of failure, when he always pridedhimself on "making good," was hard to bear.

  "Buck up, pardy!" cried McGlory. "Old Tsan Ti can't find any fault withyou."

  "I know that. I'm thinking, though, we weren't cautious enough in goingaboard that boat."

  "Cautious? Tell me about that! Who wouldn't have been fooled, when thegame was worked like Grattan worked it? I don't know how any one couldhave helped what happened."

  "Anyhow," said Matt, "we fell down. It might have been just as well ifI had disobeyed Tsan Ti's instructions and placed the ruby in some bankvault."

  "But the mandarin said no. You carried out orders to the letter, andthat's what lost us the ruby."

  "We were to
stay in the Catskills, and we didn't. Because we broke overour instructions, we fell into the hands of Grattan."

  "He'd have got at you somehow even if we'd stayed in Catskill. I neversaw such a man to keep after a thing he's set his mind on. Now, ifwe----"

  "Train's comin'," called the man, stepping upon the track and wavingthe lantern.

  The rumble of the passenger could be heard, growing rapidly in volume.

  "Well," remarked McGlory, as he and Matt got up, "we've shuffled offthe hoodoo and nothing more will go crossways with us. That's worth awhole lot. And if Tsan Ti is fool enough to choke himself with thatyellow cord, well, let him do it. Grattan was more than half right inwhat he said about that."

  The train, with its row of dimly lighted windows, came to a halt. Mattand McGlory climbed aboard, and the train started on again.

  The boys walked from one car into another trying to find a vacant seatwhich they could share together. At last Matt, who was in the lead,came to a halt in the aisle at the rear of the second coach.

  "Move on, pard," said McGlory. "We'll try the next car. It can't bethat all the coaches are as full as this one."

  But Matt did not move on. He turned, amazement shining in his grayeyes, and pointed to a seat ahead of him, and on the right.

  Two drowsy Chinamen occupied the seat. One of them was fleshy, and tookup two-thirds of the space. This man wore a black silk cap with a redbutton. His chin was sunk on his breast and he was snoring loudly.

  "Tsan Ti!" murmured McGlory, wondering if his eyes were playing him atrick.

  "And Sam Wing," added Matt. "The mandarin is going to Catskill to getthe ruby. Here's where I have to tell him the truth."

  With that, Motor Matt leaned over and touched Tsan Ti on the shoulder.