"It is not likely, Captain Gray," he said, "that either of us will see it."
Whereupon they fell silent, each busied with his thoughts, in this manner.
Delabar, to himself: My companion is a physical brute; how can he understand the high mysteries of Asian thought?
Gray: Either this Syrian has a grand imagination, or he knows more than he has been telling me—the odds being the latter is correct.
CHAPTER VI
MIRAI KHAN
Near Kia-yu-kwan, the western gate of the Great Wall, the twin pagodas of Liangchowfu rise from the plain.
In former centuries Liangchowfu was the border town, a citadel of defense against the outer barbarians of the northern steppe and Central Asia. It is a walled city, standing squarely athwart the highway from China proper to the interior. Beyond Liangchowfu are the highlands of Central Asia.
In exactly a month after leaving Honanfu, as Gray had promised, the wagons bearing the two Americans passed through the town gate.
Gray, dusty and travel-stained to his waist, but alert and erect of carriage, walked before the two carts. He showed no ill effects from the hard stage of the journey they had just completed.