"Behold the Eye of Buddha," smiled the mandarin. "Not Grattan, with all his evil work, has it, but I."
This, as might be expected, heaped up the measure of astonishing events and topped off the motor boys' bewilderment.
"But the ruby—the Eye of Buddha Grattan took from me——"
"That, generous youth," answered the mandarin, dropping the bag on his breast and rearranging his blouse, "was not a ruby, but a base replica of the true gem. It is worth, possibly, five dollars. I secured it from a stonecutter in New York."
By degrees the mandarin's crafty performance dawned on the motor boys. They were awed by the scope and audacious success of the design—completely fooling Grattan as it had done. As a specimen of Oriental craft, it was a revelation to Matt and McGlory.
[CHAPTER XVI.]
THE MANDARIN WINS.
"Listen, honorable friends," said Tsan Ti, "while I talk to you instructively. In the words of the great Confucius, 'the cautious man seldom errs.' When I departed from you, amiable ones, on recovering the Eye of Buddha, I said that I was returning to my country by way of San Francisco. Such was my intention, of the moment, but further reflection dissuaded me. I decided to go to New York and proceed to China by the longer, but perhaps the safer, way.