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SUNSHINE AND MOONSHINE
175

sire to travel the long distance back to the cave of the red door, to no purpose.

"Young man," he said sternly to Sunshine. "Is it indeed true that your brother is dead, and that there is now no strange youth in the cave of the hermit?"

"Have I not said it?" replied Sunshine impatiently. "Indeed, I know not which I wish the more—that I were dead beside my brother, or that he were here beside me to share my woe!" Then he wept aloud.

The captain hesitated, then he slowly turned his horse and bade his soldiers gruffly to proceed to the palace of the Khan.

Sunshine's heart bounded with joy and relief for his brother, but he still continued to groan and lament, that the soldiers might be deceived.

It was a long distance to the Khan's city, and by the time Sunshine and his cruel captors had reached the gates, the sun was setting. Now it happened that a young and beautiful daughter of the Khan was