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178 At sunrise the next day everything was prepared as the Khan had ordered, and the two unfortunate young people were thrust into huge sacks which were tied about their necks. Then they were cast into an open, rocky cave by a river, where the demon-bears came daily to drink.

Sunshine sighed deeply as he saw the princess beside him, her fair face and long hair emerging from the mouth of the sack.

"Alas!" said he. "And ten times alas! That I should die is nothing, for what am I but a stranger and an outcast? But oh, the cruel pity of it, that you, loveliest princess, should perish too!"

"Nay, fair youth," said the Khan's daughter, "mourn not for me. I am only an unthinking girl whose life or death can mean nothing to the world—and since it is my father's will that I die thus, willing am I to obey him. But that you, a man of noble birth, unless your looks belie you, should meet such a cruel fate—and only because you are a stranger! Indeed, that