return you will be all alone in
the world, truly an orphan. And do not make your eyes red needlessly."

Winnie screamed, and Kathlyn fought with the fury of a netted tigress.
For a few minutes Umballa had his hands full, but in the end he
conquered.

Outside the garden of brides three men waited in vain for the coming of
Kathlyn and her sister.

The god Juggernaut did not repose in his accustomed niche in the temple
that night. The car had to be pulled up and down a steep hill, and on
the return, owing to the darkness, it was left at the top of the hill,
safely propped to prevent its rolling down of its own accord. When the
moon rose Juggernaut's eyes gleamed like the striped cat's. Long since
he had seen a human sacrifice. Perhaps the old days would return once
more. He was weary at heart riding over sickly flowers; he wanted
flesh and bones and the music of the death-rattle. His cousins, War
and Pestilence, still took their tithes. Why should he be denied?

The whispering became a murmuring, and the murmuring grew into
excitable chattering; and by ten o'clock that night all the bazaars
knew that the ancient rites of Juggernaut were to be revived that
night. The bazaars had never heard of Nero, called Ahenobarbus, and
being without companions, they missed the greatness of their august but
hampered regent Umballa.

Always the bazaars heard news before any other part of the city. The
white Mem-sahib was not dead, but had been recaptured while posing as
the zenana physician in an attempt to rescue her sister, the new queen.
Oh, the chief city of Allaha was in the matter of choice and unexpected
amusements unrivaled in all Asia.

Yes, Umballa was not unlike Nero--to keep the populace amused so they
would temporarily forget their burdens.

But why the sudden appearance of soldiers, who stood guard at every
exit, compelling the inmates of the bazaars not to leave their houses?
Ai, ai! Why this secrecy, since they knew what was going to take
place? But the soldiers, ordinarily voluble, maintained grim silence,
and even went so far as to extend the bayonet to all those who tried to
leave the narrow streets.

"An affair of state!" was all the natives could get in answer to their
inquiries. Men came flocking to the roofs. But the moonshine made all
things ghostly. The car of the god Juggernaut was visible, but what
lay in its path could not be seen.

Umballa was not popular that night. But this was a