formed, so
that people said, "Now will be the second coming of Christ and the end
of the world."

And a great desire came on the Christian people to tell the truth of
Christ to the strange and foreign peoples of the world. So that every
day out of Jerusalem you would see friars hitting the road, some of
them to confront the wizards of the Land of Darkness, and some to argue
theology with the old lamas of Tibet, and some to convert the sunny
Southern islands, where the young women do be letting down their hair
and the men do be forgetting God for them. And all over the world there
was spreading a great rumor that the truth of all things was at last
known.

Even Kubla Khan had heard of it far off in China, and he had charged
the uncle and father of Marco with a message to the Pope of Rome. Let
the pope be sending some theologians to his court, and they'd argue the
matter out; and if he was satisfied that this new religion was the True
Religion, then he'd turn Christian and tell his people to turn
Christian, too. And let them be bringing back some of the Oil of the
Lamp which burns in the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and is a cure for
all the ills in the world.

And when they came to the City of Acre, sure the pope was dead. And
they waited a long time, but no new pope was chosen, so they decided to
go back, because they had a good business there, and they didn't want
to lose it. And yet they knew there'd be trouble with the Grand Khan,
if they didn't bring back the news of the True Religion and people to
argue it.

"I've been a long time trading," says Nicolo, "and it's a queer thing,
but the more trading you do, the less religion you have. The arguing
of religion would not come easy to me. And I'd be up against experts.
I'm not the man for it," says he. "How about you, Matthew?"

"Oh, sure, they'd never listen to me," Matthew laughs--"me that's drank
with them, and deludhered their women, and gambled until I left them
nothing but the sweat of their brows. I'd be a great one to preach
religion to them. Why, man, they'd laugh at me. But I tell you what,
Nicolas. There's a bishop in Negropont, and I know where he lives, and
I know his house and everything. What do you say, Nicolas? We'll just
throw a bag over his head and tie him on a horse. Oh, sure, he'd give
grand discourses to the Great Khan!"

"Have sense, Matthew; have sense. You're always too rough; always
ready to end an argument with a knife, o