Venice and the Genoese, and where that's
hottest you'll find me, and the quicker my end, the better I'll be
pleased. But it would be like my luck," he said bitterly, "not to be
killed, but to be taken prisoner and to end my life in some lousy jail.
Oh, well, we'll hope for the best." He laughed. "So--so long!"

And the four of them looked at one another, trying to smile, and great
grief on them.

"China will miss you, my son," said old Kubla.

"It's nothing to how I'll be missing China," said Marco Polo. "Venice!
It's only a sound to me. I'll be an exile in the city of my birth.
But what's the use of complaining? If it's go, it's go. But it'll be
funny," said he. "My body will be there, but my heart and mind will be
in China. There'll be a gray eye always turning to China, and it will
never see China... Queer!... All the voices and all the instruments
in Saint Mark's, and in my ears the little drums of China... All the
sunlight will be glinting on the Grand Canal, but the little rain of
China--the little rain of China will be falling in my heart...

"Ah, well, if it's go, it's go. I'd better be hitting the road. So...
I'll say good-by for the present...and...

"Oh, my God Almighty!..."

End of Project Gutenberg's Messer Marco Polo, by Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne

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