dy scheming to liberate the younger sister. All
his enemies where he could put his hand on them!

Cheerful was the word.

The crust of civilization was thin; the true savage was cracking out
through it. In the days of the Mutiny Umballa would have been the Nana
Sahib's right hand. He would have given the tragedy at Cawnpur an
extra touch.

Ten thousand rupees did not go far among soldiers whose arrears called
for ten times that sum. So he placed it where it promised to do the
most good. It was a capital idea, this of cutting Ramabai's throat
with his own money. The lawless element among the troops was his,
Umballa's; at least his long enough for the purpose he had in mind.

When the multitude round the platform dissolved and Winnie was led to
her chamber in the zenana, Umballa treated himself to a beverage known
as the king's peg--a trifle composed of brandy and champagne. That he
drank to stupefaction was God's method of protecting that night an
innocent child--for Winnie was not much more than that.

Alone, dazed and terrified, she dropped down upon the cushions and
cried herself to sleep--exactly as Kathlyn had done. In the morning
she awoke to find tea and food. She had heard no one enter or leave.
Glancing curiously round her prison of marble and jasper and porphyry,
she discovered a slip of white paper protruding through a square in the
latticed window which opened out toward the garden of brides.

Hope roused her into activity. She ran to the window and snatched the
paper eagerly. It was from Kathlyn, darling Kit. The risk with which
it had been placed in the latticed window never occurred to Winnie.

The note informed her that the woman doctor of the zenana had been
sufficiently bribed to permit Kathlyn to make up like her and gain
admittance to the zenana. Winnie must complain of illness and ask for
the doctor, but not before the morning of the following day. So far as
she, Kathlyn, could learn, Winnie would be left in peace till the
festival of the car of Juggernaut. Ill, she would not be forced to
attend the ceremonies, the palace would be practically deserted, and
then Kathlyn would appear.

This news plucked up Winnie's spirits considerably. Surely her father
and Kit were brave and cunning enough to circumvent Umballa. What a
frightful country! What a dreadful people! She was miserable over the
tortures her father had suffered, but nevertheless she held him
culpable for not telli