Page:Harold Lamb--Marching Sands.djvu/167

 pressing. Mirai Khan smiled, showing yellow, serried teeth.

"No, Excellency. An ounce of gold apiece will not bribe these Chinese to come into the Gobi." "The Kirghiz?"

Mirai Khan squinted thoughtfully at the glare of sunlight without the tent. "Is the Excellency determined to go into the Gobi?"

"Yes."

"What God wills, will come to pass. I, Mirai Khan, have helped you to safety. For the space of ten days I have eaten the food you have killed. Because of this, I shall go a part of the way into the Gobi. Also, a tribe of Kirghiz should be here within four days, from the northern steppe. It may so happen that some of these will come with us. I know not."

"Four days!" Gray groaned.

"Likewise, the men of this tribe will not be carriers of burdens. It is not their custom."

"Mirai Khan: why is it that you fear the city of Sungan? I thought you were a brave man."

Gray's purposeful taunt failed of its effect. Mirai Khan stared at him and spat out into the sand.

"The region of Sungan is unclean. It is the law of the Prophet that no one shall touch what is unclean."

"But you do not know that," cried the exasperated white man. "You are running from a shadow."