Startled Chinese words came from Sam Wing; the mandarin answered, and there followed a frantic give and take of native gibberish, mostly whoops, grunts and falling inflections.
"Sufferin' gold mines!" cried McGlory. "Say, pard, is that red thing the Eye of Buddha?"
"It must be," answered Matt excitedly, hurrying into the room and picking up the cane and some of the fragments of the head. "Great spark plugs!" he exclaimed, examining the pieces.
"What do you make out, pard?" demanded McGlory.
"Why," went on Matt, "the head of the cane was hollow, and the ruby was concealed in it!"
"No!"
"Fact! Here, look for yourself. I wondered why Grattan was so careful of that cane. The last thing I remember was seeing him rush at Goldstein and try to get the cane away from him. Goldstein had grabbed the stick and had knocked the box of glass balls out of Grattan's hand with it. Of course, at the time Grattan tried to get the stick back, the balls were spilling their knock-out fumes all over the room, and he couldn't waste much time getting into his mask and lighting out. He had to leave the cane behind—it was either that or be laid out by the glass balls and captured. Perhaps he thought we'd never find out the ruby was in the cane and that he could come back later and recover it."
"Goldstein has smashed the mystery!" jubilated McGlory, "and when he comes to he won't know a thing about it."
Matt was dazed, and the two excited Chinamen were still gabbling like a couple of frantic ducks; McGlory was walking around, rubbing his eyes, and Goldstein was sitting on the stool undergoing the last stage of his awakening.
"What's der matter?" inquired the diamond broker. "Where is—what is—— Ach, der satchel, der satchel!"