Page:Wonder Tales from Tibet.djvu/212

174 will be no possible escape for my brother," he thought, "for the soldiers will come upon Moonshine unexpectedly before he has time to hide again!" Then he began planning and wondering if he could not, by craft, prevent the soldiers from returning. At last he groaned aloud.

"Woe is me!" he said. "Alas! And woe is me! Would that I had died with my brother before this evil fate befell me!"

"What do you mean by that?" said the captain, who had heard his sorrowful words.

"What should I mean but what I say?" said Sunshine, with another groan. "When you stood at the door of our cave we had but just returned from digging the grave of my brother. And now, surely, the poor old man, our foster-father, will die of grief, for both his sons are lost to him—all in the space of a day!"

The captain drew rein, and the soldiers behind him halted respectfully. The heat of the desert was great, and he had no