o treated him and Dick with greater respect and reverence than
ever. The preparations for the festival proceeded apace; and to
compensate the masses for the loss of the most spectacular feature of
the event, Earle and Dick inaugurated a series of games and sports, with
valuable prizes for those successful in them, sufficient in number to
occupy the entire day; so that when that day arrived, it not only passed
without any marked demonstration of dissatisfaction, but was pronounced
to be a distinct improvement upon the old order of things.

True, it was not possible for those who keenly watched the demeanour of
the crowd to avoid noticing that the satisfaction was by no means
general; and another disconcerting fact in connection with the festival
was that, when it was over and Zorah was requested to report to Earle
the amount presented in the temple on that day, in lieu of the usual
offerings cast into the lake, the sum named by the high priest was
disappointingly meagre, amounting to less than a tenth of what had been
anticipated. Earle mentioned privately to Dick his suspicion that there
had been a tremendous amount of leakage somewhere, and expressed his
determination to look into the matter at the earliest possible
opportunity; but before he could do so his attention was distracted from
it by other and more important happenings.

The first of these happenings was the sudden and wholly unexpected death
of the king. When he retired to rest on the preceding night, Juda
appeared to be in the enjoyment of perfect health; but when his servants
entered the royal sleeping-apartment on the following morning to arouse
his Majesty and attend him to the bath, he was found lying dead upon his
couch, with every indication that dissolution had taken place several
hours previously. Of course, the court physicians were instantly
summoned; but they could do nothing except pronounce that death had
actually occurred, and that it was due to natural causes. To the great
surprise of Earle and Dick, no attempt was made to hold a _post mortem_,
with the object of ascertaining the actual cause of death; but a little
judicious inquiry soon elicited the fact that such investigations were
unknown in Ulua, the skill and knowledge of the physicians not having
advanced so far. With the permission of the princess, Earle was present
when the physicians viewed the body, and he was compelled to admit that
there was nothing in its appearance to jus