Part 2 (1/2)

About the same hour Kim heard soft feet in Mahbub's deserted stall The horse-trader, curiously enough, had left his door unlocked, and histheir return to India with a whole sheep of Mahbub's bounty A sleek young gentleman from Delhi, armed with a bunch of keys which the Flower had unshackled frole box, bundle,in Mahbub's possession even more syste the owner

'And I think' said the Flower scornfully an hour later, one rounded elbow on the snoring carcass, 'that he is no ht except women and horses Moreover, he '

'Nay - in a s it would be next his black heart,' said the pundit 'Was there nothing?'

The Delhi hed and resettled his turban as he entered 'I searched between the soles of his slippers as the Flower searched his clothes This is not the man but another I leave little unseen'

'They did not say he was the very htfully 'They said, ”Look if he be the man, since our counsels are troubled”'

'That North country is full of horse-dealers as an old coat of lice There is Sikandar Khan, Nur Ali Beg, and Farrukh Shah all heads of kafilas [caravans] - who deal there,' said the Flower

'They have not yet come in,' said the pundit 'Thou must ensnare theust, rolling Mahbub's head fro a swashbuckler, and old Sikandar Khan - yaie! Go! I sleep now This sill not stir till dawn'

When Mahbub woke, the Flower talked to him severely on the sin of drunkenness Asiatics do not hen they have outhtened his belt, and staggered forth under the earlystars, he came very near to it

'What a colt's trick!' said he to hiirl in Peshawur did not use it! But 'twas prettily done Now God He kno many more there be upon the Road who have orders to test o to Uent I abide here, following the Flower and drinking wine as an Afghan coper should'

He halted at the stall next but one to his own His n of Kim or the lama

'Up!' He stirred a sleeper 'Whither went those who lay here last even - the larunted thehe would go to Benares, and the young one led him away'

'The curse of Allah on all unbelievers!' said Mahbub heartily, and cli in his beard

But it was Kiainst a knot-hole in the planking, who had seen the Delhi h the boxes This was no common thief that turned over letters, bills, and saddles - no lar who ran a little knife sideways into the soles of Mahbub's slippers, or picked the seas so deftly At first Ki-drawn choor - choor! [thief! thief!] that sets the serai ablaze of nights; but he looked more carefully, and, hand on aree of thatthat I carry to Us with knives may presently search bellies with knives Surely there is a wo old o to Benares'

The lama rose obediently, and they passed out of the serai like shadows

Chapter 2

And whoso will, fro neither creed nor priest, May feel the Soul of all the East About him at Kamakura

Buddha at Kamakura

They entered the fort-like railway station, black in the end of night; the electrics sizzling over the goods-yard where they handle the heavy Northern grain-traffic

'This is the work of devils!' said the laliirders above He stood in a gigantic stone hall paved, it seeers who had taken their tickets overnight and were sleeping in the waiting-rooms All hours of the twenty-four are alike to Orientals, and their passenger traffic is regulated accordingly

'This is where the fire-carriages come One stands behind that hole' - Kiive thee a paper to take thee to Uo to Benares,' he replied petulantly

'All one Benares then Quick: she comes!'

'Take thou the purse'

The lama, not so well used to trains as he had pretended, started as the 325 a to life, and the station filled with clas, cries of water and sweetmeat vendors, shouts of native police up their baskets, their families, and their husbands

'It is the train - only the te-rain It will not come here Wait!' Amazed at the la full of rupees), Kirunted and flung out a ticket to the next station, just six rin 'This may serve for farmers, but I live in the city of Lahore It was cleverly done, Babu Now give the ticket to Umballa'

The Babu scowled and dealt the proper ticket

'Now another to A Mahbub Ali'sso crude as a paid ride to Umballa 'The price is so much The small money in return is just so i need chela as thou dost,' he went onthee out at Mian Mir but foronly one anna in each rupee of the price of the Umballa ticket as his commission - the immemorial commission of Asia

The lae 'Were it not better to walk?' said he weakly

A burly Sikh artisan thrust forth his bearded head 'Is he afraid? Do not be afraid I remember the ti is the work of the Government'

'I do not fear,' said the lama 'Have ye room within for two?'

'There is no room even for a mouse,' shrilled the wife of a well-to-do cultivator - a Hindu Jat froht trains are not as well looked after as the day ones, where the sexes are very strictly kept to separate carriages

'Oh, mother of my son, we can make space,' said the blueturbaned husband 'Pick up the child It is a holy man, see'st thou?'

'And my lap full of seventy times seven bundles! Why not bid him sit on my knee, Shameless? But men are ever thus!' She looked round for approval An Amritzar courtesan near thesniffed behind her head drapery

'Enter! Enter!' cried a fat Hindu money-lender, his folded account-book in a cloth under his arm With an oily smirk: 'It is well to be kind to the poor'

'Ay, at seven per cent a ra soldier going south on leave; and they all laughed

'Will it travel to Benares?' said the lama

'assuredly Else why should we come? Enter, or we are left,' cried Kiirl 'He has never entered a train Oh, see!'

'Nay, help,' said the cultivator, putting out a large brown hand and hauling him in 'Thus is it done, father'

'But - but - I sit on the floor It is against the Rule to sit on a bench,' said the laan thehis lips, 'that there is not one rule of right living which these te-rains do not cause us to break We sit, for example, side by side with all castes and peoples'

'Yea, and withat the A sepoy

'I said wethe road,' said the husband, 'and thus have saved some money'