we need money; we need one
another," pointing a finger suggestively toward the floor.

"Only when we have the troops," replied the council firmly. "We have
bent our heads to your will so far in everything, but we refuse to
sacrifice these heads because of a personal spite against Ramabai, whom
we frankly and wisely fear. We dare not break into the treasury. The
keepers are unbribable; the priests are with them, and the people are
with the priests. Bring back the white man and his daughter. If that
is impossible, marry this second daughter and we will crown her; and
then you may work your will upon Ramabai. You have failed in all
directions so far. Succeed but once and we are ready to follow you."

Umballa choked back the hot imperious words that crowded to his lips.
These were plain unvarnished facts, and he must bow to the inevitable,
however distasteful it might be. For the present then, Ramabai should
be permitted to go unharmed. But Ramabai might die suddenly and
accidentally in the recapture of the Colonel Sahib. An accidental
death would certainly extinguish any volcanic fires that smoldered
under Allaha. So, with this secret determination in mind, Umballa set
forth.

Ahmed, his mind busy with a thousand things, forgot the thousand and
first, at that stage most important of all; and this was the short cut,
a mere pathway through the jungle, but which lessened the journey by
some thirty miles. And this pathway Umballa chose. The three hours'
headway was thus pared down to minutes, and at the proper time Umballa
would appear, not behind the pursued, but in the road in front of them.

There was, to be sure, a bare possibility of the colonel and his party
getting beyond the meeting of the path and the road, that is, if he
kept going forward all through the night, which, by the way, was
exactly what the astute Ahmed did. But Kathlyn's curiosity the next
morning neutralized the advantage gained.

A group of masked dancers, peripatetic, was the cause. Confident that
they had outstripped pursuit, she saw no reason why she should not
witness the dancing.

How Umballa came upon them suddenly, like a thunderbolt, confiscating
the elephants; how they fled to a near-by temple, bribed the dancers
for masks and garments, fled still farther into the wooded hills, and
hid there with small arms ready, needs but little telling. Umballa
returned to the city satisfied. He had at least deprived them of their
mea