"Captain Gray, you know something you won't tell me! Did the Wusun threaten you?" "No. They shielded me----" "Then you were in danger. I thought so. Now what did you mean by--respite?" Instead, Gray told her how he had found his way into Sungan, omitting the details of the fighting, or his own achievement. Mary considered him gravely, chin on hand. "I prayed that you would follow our caravan," she said. "I wished for you when every one was fighting so. Somehow, I was sure that you would reach Sungan. You see, you made me feel you were the kind of man who went where he wanted to go." Gray looked up, and she shook her head reproachfully. "You're just like Uncle Singh. You won't tell if there's any danger. Will not the Wusun protect us from the priests?" She stretched out a slim hand appealingly. "There's just the two of us left. Shouldn't you be quite frank with me? Now tell me what you meant by 'respite'!" He cordially regretted his unfortunate choice of the word. Perforce, he told her of Wu Fang Chien, and the dispute in the council. "So you see our case comes up for trial to-night," he concluded. "It's a question of the Gur-Khan's authority against the power of Wu Fang Chien. I'm rooting for old Bassalor Danek. I think he'll treat us well. For one thing, because he's curious about us. In a way, we're his guests. I hope he checkmates Wu, because--to be frank--we're better off in Sungan than with the Buddhists." This time she was satisfied. "Of course," she nodded. "Wu Fang Chien would not let us go free easily. He would have to answer, then, for the attack on the caravan. To answer to the British embassy." Gray reflected that they were the only survivors of the fight and that the Chinese could not afford to permit them to escape. "I'll appear to argue for immunity--our immunity--to-night," he smiled. "Are you a lawyer, Captain Gray?" The girl tried to enter into the spirit of his remark. "Have we a good case?" "Chiefly our wits," he admitted. "And perhaps the tie the Wusun may feel for us as a kindred race." "Splendid!" She clapped her hands. "I think you're a first-rate attorney." Gray recalled the majestic face of Bassalor Danek, and the anger of the Wusun at the entrance of Wu Fang Chien. "They made some kind of a covenant, didn't they, with the Chinese Emperor?" "Timur said it was an agreement by which the Wusun were to keep their city inviolate, and not to leave its boundaries. Even the invading sands have not dislodged them. Timur described them as numerous as the trees of the Thian Shan, the Celestial Mountains, at first. Now only a few survive. The Chinese have posted lepers around them."