will you leave China?"

"If there is a sign from her I'll leave China," said Marco Polo.

And it was dusk in the Garden by the Lake of Cranes.

CHAPTER XXII

The Sanang came over to Marco Polo.

"Give me the black tress that's over your heart."

And Marco Polo undid his coat and his undercoat and his fine sark and
took out the perfumed hair, and gave it to the Sanang.

"Let you sing a little song, Li Po," the magician said, "the way she'll
be hearing and come. I have part of her here, and let you put in the
garden the atmosphere she loved." And Li Po took his lute and plucked
gently at the strings.

"The swish of your silken skirt is discontinued,"

he sang,

"And the grass grows through the broken hearth stone,
And your room that was so warm and swept is cold and mouldy.
But he, the beloved of your heart, clings on,
A fallen leaf in the chink of a door,
In the chink of a closed door!"

And it was dusk in the garden, and the voice of Li Po broke, and his
lute stilled, and the old Emperor breathed his aged gentle breathing,
and the Sanang said his secret terrible formulae, and Marco Polo was
tense as a hunting dog.

And suddenly at the end of the garden, in the perfumed Asian dusk,
there was a beam like moonlight, and into the soft ray of it trod
little Golden Bells, with her wee warm face, and her wee warm hands,
and her hair dark as a cloud, and her eyes pleading, pleading...

"Go now, Marco Polo, please go!" Her lips made the words, but no sound
came to him.

"Oh, Golden Bells, Golden Bells!" he rushed forward, but the moonlight
of no moon faded, and there was nothing, and he dropped on his knees
sobbing in the dusk by the Lake of Cranes...

CHAPTER XXIII

And after a while he got up from his knees and set his teeth on his
sobbing and threw his head back and squared his shoulders and notched
his belt and faced the three ancient men.

"Well," he said, "that's that."

He went over and knelt and kissed the Khan's hand.

"You'll be seeing her soon, sir, you'll be telling her... everything..."

"Yes, son, I'll tell her."

Then he patted the Sanang on the shoulder, and "Thanks!" said he,
simply, and he took Li Po's hand in both his, and they looked at each
other for a moment and no words came to either.

"Well," he says at length, "I'll be hitting the road then. I'll not
say good-by to any of you. I'll be seeing you all pretty soon again.
There's a war on between