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 telling both her and Kit all and not half a truth. A
basket of gems! She and Kit did not wish to be rich, only free and
happy. And now her own folly in coming would but add to the miseries
of her loved ones.
Ahmed had told her of the two ordeals, the black dungeon, the whipping;
he had done so to convince her that she must be eternally on her guard,
search carefully into any proposition laid before her, and play for
time, time, for every minute she won meant a minute nearer her ultimate
freedom. She must promise to marry Umballa, but to set her own date.
Unlike Kathlyn, who had Pundita to untangle the intricacies of the
bastard Persian, Winnie had to depend wholly upon sign language; and
the inmates of the zenana did not give her the respect and attention
they had given to Kathlyn. Kathlyn was a novelty; Winnie was not.
Besides, one of them watched Winnie constantly, because the bearded
scoundrel had attracted her fancy and because she hoped to enchain his.
So the note from Kathlyn did not pass unnoticed, though Winnie believed
that she was without espionage.
Kathlyn, her father, Bruce, Ramabai and Pundita met at the colonel's
bungalow, and with Ahmed's help they thrashed out the plan to rescue
Winnie. Alone, the little sister would not be able to find her way out
of the garden of brides. It was Kathlyn's idea to have Winnie pretend
she needed air and sunshine and a walk in the garden after the doctor's
visit. The rescue would be attempted from the walls.
Juggernaut, or Jagannath in Hindustani (meaning Lord of the World), was
an idol so hideously done in wood that the Prince of Hell would have
taken it to be the personification of a damned soul, could he have
glimpsed it in the temple at Allaha. The god's face was dark, his lips
and mouth were horribly and significantly red; his eyes were polished
emeralds, his arms were of gilt, his body was like that of a toad. His
temporal reign in Allaha was somewhere near four hundred years, and no
doubt his emerald eyes had seen a crimson trail behind his car as many
hundred times.
He was married frequently. Some poor, benighted, fanatical woman would
pledge herself and would be considered with awe till she died. But in
these times no one flung himself under the car; nothing but the incense
of crushed flowers now followed his wake. His grin, however, was the
same as of old. Wood, paint, gilt and emeralds! Well, we enlightened
Europeans sometimes worship these very things, though we indignantly
deny it.