Part 5 (1/2)

'”For”' - Ki sentences he had heard in the dressing-roo ago It is not war - it is a chastiseh I believe I have seen Him thus in the smoke of battles Seen and heard It is He!'

'I saw no s of the wayside fortune-teller 'I saw this in darkness First cas clear Then caht The rest followed as I have said Old man, have I spoken truth?'

'It is He Past all doubt it is He'

The crowd drew a long, quavering breath, staring alternately at the old ainst the purple twilight

'Said I not - said I not he was from the other world?' cried the lama proudly 'He is the Friend of all the World He is the Friend of the Stars!'

'At least it does not concern us,' a ift abides with thee at all seasons, I have a red-spotted cow She ht I know -'

'Or I care,' said Kim 'My Stars do not concern themselves with thy cattle'

'Nay, but she is very sick,' a woman struck in 'My man is a buffalo, or he would have chosen his words better Tell me if she recover?'

Had Kim been at all an ordinary boy, he would have carried on the play; but one does not know Lahore city, and least of all the fakirs by the Taksali Gate, for thirteen years without also knowing hu bitterly - a dry and blighting sht I had seen a great one even now,' cried Kian

'But thou and thy husband hoped to get the cow cured for a handful of thanks' The shot told: they were notoriously the closest-fisted couple in the village 'It is not well to cheat the te calf to thine own priest, and, unless thy Gods are angry past recall, she will give ar art thou,' purred the priest approvingly 'Not the cunning of forty years could have done better Surely thou hast made the old man rich?'

'A little flour, a little butter and a mouthful of cardamoms,' Kim retorted, flushed with the praise, but still cautious - 'Does one grow rich on that? And, as thou canst see, he is mad But it serves me while I learn the road at least”

He knehat the fakirs of the Taksali Gate were like when they talked a themselves, and copied the very inflection of their lewd disciples

'Is his Search, then, truth or a cloak to other ends? It may be treasure'

'He iselse'

Here the old soldier bobbled up and asked if Kiht The priest recommended hi the lauilelessly Kilanced from one face to the other, and drew his own conclusions

'Where is thethe old man off into the darkness

'In my bosoive it me'

'But why? Here is no ticket to buy'

'Auard thy old feet about the ways? Give me the money and at daill return it' He slipped his hand above the laht away the purse

'Be it so - be it so' The old reat and terrible world I never knew there were sothe priest was in a very bad temper, but the la evening with the oldit on his dry knees, told tales of the Mutiny and young captains thirty years in their graves, till Kim dropped off to sleep

'Certainly the air of this country is good,' said the laht I slept unwaking till broad day Even now I aht of hot milk,' said Kim, who had carried not a few such remedies to opiuain'

'The long Road that overpasses all the rivers of Hind,' said the lao But how thinkest thou, chela, to recoreat kindness? Truly they are but parast, but in other lives, hten within is no more than stone and red paint, but the heart of ood'

'Holy One, hast thou ever taken the Road alone?' Kim looked up sharply, like the Indian crows so busy about the fields

'Surely, child: from Kulu to Pathankot - from Kulu, where s, and all hout all the Hills'

'It is otherwise in Hind,' said Kinant Let them alone'

'I would set thee on thy road for a little, Friend of all the World, thou and thy yellow e street, all shadowy in the dawn, on a punt, scissor-hocked pony 'Last night broke up the fountains of re to me Truly there is war abroad in the air I sed on the little beast, with the big sword at his side - hand dropped on the po fiercely over the flat lands towards the North 'Tell ain how He showed in thy vision Come up and sit behind me The beast will carry two'

'I am this Holy One's disciple,' said Kiers seemed almost sorry to be rid of them, but the priest's fareas cold and distant He had wasted some opium on a man who carried no money

'That is well spoken I aood There is no respect in these days - not even when a Commissioner Sahib comes to see me But why should one whose Star leads him to war follow a holy man?'

'But he is a holy man,' said Kim earnestly 'In truth, and in talk and in act, holy He is not like the others I have never seen such an one We be not fortune-tellers, or jugglers, or beggars'

'Thou art not That I can see But I do not know that other He h'

The first freshness of the day carried the la, easy, camel-like strides He was deep inhis rosary

They followed the rutted and worn country road that wound across the flat between the great dark-green roves, the line of the snowcapped Himalayas faint to the eastward All India was at work in the fields, to the creaking of heels, the shouting of ploughmen behind their cattle, and the claood influence and almost broke into a trot as Kim laid a hand on the stirrup-leather

'It repents ive a rupee to the shrine,' said the larowled in his beard, so that the lama for the first time are of hi

'The day is neas the reply 'What need of a river save to water at before sundown? I co Road'

'That is a courtesy to be reood will But why the sword?'

The old soldier looked as abashed as a child interrupted in his ga it 'Oh, that was a fancy of mine an old man's fancy Truly the police orders are that no hout Hind, but' - he cheered up and slapped the hilt - 'all the constabeels hereabout know ood fancy,' said the lama 'What profit to kill men?'

'Very little - as I know; but if evil ood world for weaponless dreae who have seen the land from Delhi south aith blood'

'What madness was that, then?'

'The Gods, who sent it for a plague, alone know A ainst their officers That was the first evil, but not past remedy if they had then held their hands But they chose to kill the Sahibs' wives and children Then came the Sahibs from over the sea and called them to most strict account'