"But you cabled me to come, weeks ago!"
"I? Never!" And the mystery was no longer a mystery to Kathlyn. The
hand of Umballa lay bare. Could they eventually win out against a man
who seemed to miss no point in the game? "You were deceived, Winnie.
To think of it! We had escaped, were ready to sail for home, when we
learned that you had left for India. It nearly broke our hearts."
"What ever shall we do, Kit?" Winnie flung her arms round her sister
and drew her down. "My Kit!"
"We must be brave whatever happens."
"And am I not your sister?" quietly. "Do you believe in me so little?
Why shouldn't I be brave? But you've always treated me like a baby;
you never tried to prove me."
Kathlyn's arms wound themselves tightly about the slender form. . . .
And thus Umballa found them.
[Illustration: And thus Umballa found them.] "Very touching!" he said, standing with his back to the door. "But
nicely trapped!" He laughed as Kathlyn sprang to her feet, as her hand
sought the dagger at her side. "Don't draw it," he said. "I might
hurt your arm in wrenching it away from you. Poor little fool! Back
into the cage, like a homing pigeon! Had I not known you all would
return, think you I would have given up the chase so easily? You would
not bend, so then you must break. The god Juggernaut yearns for a
sacrifice to prove that we still love and worship him. You spurned my
love; now you shall know my hate. You shall die, unpleasantly."
Quickly as a cat springs he caught her hands and wrenched them toward
him, dragging her toward the door. Winnie sprang up from the cushions,
her eyes ablaze with the fighting spirit. Too soon the door closed in
her face and she heard the bolt outside go slithering home.
Said Umballa from the corridor: "To you, pretty kitten, I shall come
later. I need you for my wife. When I 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?