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.

Outside the temple stood the car, fantastically carved, dull with rubbed gold leaf.  You could see the sockets where horrid knives had once glittered in the sunlight.  Xerxes no doubt founded his war chariots upon this idea.  The wheels, six in number, two in front and two on each side, were solid, broad and heavy, capable of smoothing out a corrugated winter road.  The superstructure was an ornate shrine, which contained the idol on its peregrinations to the river.

About the car were the devotees, some holding the ropes, others watching the entrance to the temple.  Presently from the temple came the gurus or priests, bearing the idol.  With much reverence they placed the idol within the shrine, the pilgrims took hold firmly of the ropes and the car rattled and thundered on its way to the river.

Of Juggernaut and his car more anon.