"He's good with his bazoo," remarked McGlory. "I reckon he makes out a clean case for himself."
Matt was satisfied. Still, he thought that instead of attending to his personal appearance and running around hiring an automobile, Tsan Ti might have taken some quicker method of finding out what had happened down the mountainside. But he was a Chinaman, and his ways and means were not those of a Caucasian.
"Where did you learn to drive an automobile, Tsan Ti?" asked Matt.
"We have the devil wagons in Canton. There are many in the foreign quarter, and I have one of my own." Tsan Ti fanned himself and looked troubled. "There is something," he went on presently, "of which I must inform you. Perhaps, when you know, you will leave me to find the Eye of Buddha unaided. But it is right that I should tell you."
"This, courageous youth: The ten thousand demons of misfortune have been let loose upon those most closely concerned with the loss of the ruby. While the great Buddha sits eyeless in the temple at Honam, his wrath falls upon me in particular; and, now that you are helping me, it will likewise fall upon you. Disasters have crowded upon me, and if you keep on in the search, they will surely overtake you. Already you have had experience of them."
"Sufferin' snakes!" grunted McGlory. "It'll take more'n a heathen idol over in China to get me on the run."
"I guess we'll face the music," laughed Matt. "That ruby eye may be a hoodoo, but we're not superstitious enough to get scared."
"Excellent!" wheezed Tsan Ti. "I have done well to secure your invaluable services. Shall we now proceed down the mountain in pursuit of the sailor?"
"Why, he may be a hundred miles from here by this time."
"Not so!" was the positive answer. "I have my warning that he is near, and that we must hasten."
Tsan Ti poked two fingers down the neck of his blouse and fished up a small black V-shaped object attached to a gold chain.
"Observe," he said solemnly, "my jade-stone amulet, covered with choice ideographs from the Book of Auguries. When it burns the skin upon the speaking of a name, then have I a warning. Look!" He held the stone on his fat palm. "With it thus I breathe the words 'one-eyed thief' and"--he winced as though from pain--"the amulet nearly burns."