Tex was chewing a cigar by the rail. At her step his round impassive face turned toward her.
He replied, his one eye fixed on her: “Well, what is this job?”
“Listen, Tex--are you game for a big one?”
“The revolution's broken out at Hankow--or across at Wu Chang--”
“There's going to be another big battle near Hankow. The republicans are moving over. Sure to be a mix-up.”
“Wait! I know where there's a collection of jewels--diamonds, pearls, rubies, emeralds--all kinds.”
“Yes. It's a big thing. We'd be selling stones for years in America and Europe, Will you go in with me, fifty-fifty?”
“Not much--with things so confused. Looks to me like one of those chances that just happens once in a hundred years. Take some imagination and nerve.”
“I'll tell you when we get there. You'll have to trust me about that. I've never lied to you, and you have lied to me.”
“Listen! Here's the idea. There's a lot of nervous soldiers on this boat that wouldn't mind a little loot on their own. Here's your boxer--what's his name?”
“Tom Sung.” Connor's eye never left her face; and she, on her part, never flinched.
“To those soldiers he's the biggest man on earth. _He_ wouldn't mind a little clean-up either. Oh, there's enough, Tex--plenty! You see what I'm getting at. With your Tom for a leader you can pick up a few of those soldiers, enough to get away clean--”
“They shot two. They'd have trouble shooting forty. Make Tom do the work--right now, to-night, while we're lying up here. They'll follow him; and you won't have to stand back of him if he's caught. He'll just be one of the rebels then. Get this right, Tex! It's a real chance. You'll never get another like it. With the soldiers we can get a launch--hire it, even, if you want to play safe--and go right up there and get the stuff. Nobody'll ever know it wasn't just a case of soldiers on the loose.”
“How're you going to get away? They'd know we weren't here, wouldn't they?”
“Don't try to tell me we couldn't slip out of China, if we had to. This isn't England or America. I don't believe we'd even have to. Just a case of playing it right--using your head.”
Quietly she moved her head in the negative. He would hardly know that the viceroy was not going on through to Hankow and Peking; she had the information herself only from Rocky Kane. Nor would he know, by any chance, the situation of his excellency's ancestral home. For Tex was not what they termed a “sinologue”; he knew white men and women and yellow servants, the steamers and railways, the gambling clubs and race tracks; little else. There was then, little reason why he should think of the viceroy at all.