"No more he ain't, which I grant ye offhand an' freely, but supposin' he's in Noo York, held a pris'ner in a beach comber's joint in Front Street? An' supposin', furthermore, this same beach comber is a mate o' Grattan's, an' waitin' only for Grattan to come afore he makes Tsan Ti peg out? Put that in your pipe an' smoke it careful."
"You mean to say that Tsan Ti is a prisoner in New York—a prisoner of a confederate of Grattan's?"
"That's gospel truth! It happened recent—no longer ago than early mornin'. I bore the word to the beach comber in a letter of hand from Philo, an' the beach comber met me in a snug harbor on the front where sailormen are regularly hocused an' shipped for all parts. I don't know where the beach comber's place is, not me, but I did get him topping the boom an' he reported the whole matter entire. However Tsan Ti fell into the net is a notch above my understandin', but there he is, hard an' fast, an' when I'd done with the beach comber I took the train for Catskill to find Grattan an' tell him what's been pulled off."
Bunce was a trifle hard to follow.
"Let's see if I've got this right," said Matt, "When you and Grattan escaped from the officers, at the time the ruby was recovered, you hid yourselves away among the Catskills?"
"Ay, so we did!"
"And then Grattan gave you a letter to some man in New York and you carried it personally?"
"Personally, that's the word. I carried it personally."
"And this man in New York entrapped the mandarin and is holding him a prisoner until he can hear what Grattan wants done?"
"Ye've got the proper bearin's, an' no mistake."