"Will you tote it along on a trip of this kind?" proceeded Joe, "or will you leave it in the hotel safe? Maybe that's what Bunce is playing for."
"He don't know we have the ruby. How could he?"
"I'm by. But he's up to something, and that's a cinch."
"We'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt—on account of Tsan Ti."
"Consarn that bungling chink!" grunted the cowboy, venting his anger on the mandarin as the original cause of their perplexing situation. "You can't do a thing with that red stone but lug it along."
"If the banks were open between now and the time we start, I might leave it with one of them for safe-keeping."
"And go dead against your letter of instructions! Then you would be responsible."
"I'll think it over to-night," said Matt, and began his preparations for turning in.
But sleeping over the question didn't answer it. Matt's quandary lasted until far into the night.
He had no faith in Bunce; he couldn't understand why Tsan Ti should have sent the ruby to him for safe-keeping; he doubted the wisdom of going into the hills with the mariner, and he understood well the risk of carrying the priceless Eye of Buddha with him on the morning's venture.