Mary Hastings sighed softly. Then lifted her head stubbornly. She flushed rosily. "The white man is precious in my sight," she said dearly. "His life is like to the warmth of the sun, and if he dies, my life would pass, even as water vanishes when it is poured upon the sands." "Verily," pondered Timur, stroking his beard, "is he a brave man. But how then may Wu Fang Chien be appeased?" Anger flashed into the girl's expressive face. "So the Wusun are weak of soul," she accused. "Their heart is like the soul of a gully jackal. They would give up the warrior who came to be their friend, to buy their own comfort! _Aie_! Are you such men?" Timur stared, confronted for perhaps the first time in his life with the scorn of a woman who thought as a man. "Think you I will buy my comfort, upon such terms?" she continued mercilessly. "Or remain in the shadow of those who are not men but jackals?" Timur raised his hand. The decision of the leaders of the Wusun had been actuated by their jealous care of their people, not by selfish motives. But the girl's swift words had sadly confused him. "If you yield him up," said Mary Hastings, "I also will go. I will not part from him." And she would not. If Gray was to face the Chinese, she would be at his side. How often do men judge correctly the true strength of a woman's devotion? "We have planned otherwise," pointed out Timur. "For you----" "I have spoken, you have heard." Bassalor Danek questioned the councilor as to what had been said. Then the chieftain rose. "Say to the woman," he announced, "that I, the leader of the Wusun, have decided. What my wisdom decides, she cannot alter by hot words. Who is she, but a fair woman? I am master of the talisman of the Wusun." He pointed to the altar. Mary, intent upon his face, followed his gesture swiftly. She gave a little cry at seeing for the first time the cross. She caught Timur's arm. "What is that?" she begged. "What--does it mean?" Timur explained the symbol. "It is the sign of the Gur-Khan alone," he concluded. "None but those of a chieftain's rank bear it." He touched the smaller cross lying upon the broad shoulders of Bassalor Khan. Radiantly the girl's face brightened. She smiled, drawing nearer to the two old men. No need for a woman's wit to reason logically! She drew back the throat of her jacket, revealing the tiny gold cross which had been her sole belonging left by the avaricious Buddhists. If Wu Fang Chien had known of the token, he would have torn it from her. "See," she said softly. "I also am a bearer of the cross." The Wusun stared from her excited face to the glittering symbol on her breast. To their limited intelligence two things were plain. The girl's talisman had not been in Sungan before she came. So it was clearly hers. Also, she wore it as by right. They recalled her pride, and her angry words. Verily, she wore the sign of rank by right. Timur stepped back and bent his head.