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Rh He raised his sword over the hermit's head, but before he could bring it down, Sunshine had leaped from his hiding-place, had caught hold of the captain's arm and had stayed the blow.

"Oho!" said the captain, and he flashed around upon the lad. "So you are here, after all—I was almost beginning to doubt!"

There was no use in struggling. The soldiers gathered around Sunshine, bound his hands behind his back, flung him on a horse and, without giving him a moment to bid farewell to the grief-stricken old hermit, rode away with him. Not until they had gone far over the desert on their way to the Khan's city did the captain remember that he had been told there were two boys living with the hermit. He stopped abruptly, wheeled his horse and gave orders that the troop should return at once to the old man's cave. Sunshine guessed what was in the captain's mind, and his heart sank within him. "There