, and now in the dusk that was nearly night,
the eagle carried him silently over the city as he looked for what he
wanted to find.

At last the very fragrance, rising up toward him on the night air,
guided him to a large palace set in gardens. Pools of water reflected
the first stars among their lilypads. The shaded walks and lawns were
deserted at that hour.

Swooping down and flying back and forth to make sure he would not be
seen, Chris grounded the eagle, and holding fast to one wing tip in
case he should have to take off in a hurry, he walked up and down,
examining and searching.

CHAPTER 30

The night was too clear to suit Chris for the dangerous work that lay
ahead. The eagle bore him up again from the garden, and turning back,
lifted high in the air as it neared the maze of walls of the Emperor's
palace.

Chris longed to fly lower but he was afraid that one of the many
guards might give the alarm. The eagle flying between the palace and
the moon cast a quick-racing shadow over wall and ground. The one
advantage on such a clear night, Chris thought, when he could be
easily spotted, was in the silence of the magic bird. He bent over to
peer down between the eagle's beaked head and widespread, beating
wings.

Wall after wall, palace and garden within palace and garden, he saw.
Windows were lit like fireflies far below him and the series of
courtyards opened themselves in seemingly endless duplication. How, he
wondered, could he ever find the inner garden--well hidden,
certainly--where the Princess of China walked under trees and looked
at her goldfish in long clear pools? Then he remembered with a start
the folded paper seized so long ago in a ship anchored on the
Potomac. A cabin under a smoking lamp, the strong scent of flowers, a
monkey's form, came back into his memory and he felt in the leather
pouch for Claggett Chew's plan.

His fingers touched it and brought out the creased, finger-marked
scrap of paper. In the moonlight he unfolded it, sitting on the
eagle's back high above the walls and palaces of the Emperor of China.
He found that he could follow, from his height, and check with the
map, building by building and one courtyard after another. Moving
cautiously forward in the air, he looked at the heavy cross-mark made
by Claggett Chew the night the _Mirabelle_ had set sail. Then, all at
once beneath him, Chris made out walls ahead that seemed higher than
the others. He flew over temples