Part 6 (1/2)

'It was because of the police I bought it,' was the answer 'Does all go well in Hind?'

'Rissaldar Sahib, all goes well'

'I am like an old tortoise, look you, who puts his head out froain Ay, this is the Road of Hindustan All men come by this way'

'Son of a swine, is the soft part of the road meant for thee to scratch thy back upon? Father of all the daughters of shame and husband of ten thousand virtueless ones, thyled thereto by her enerations! Thy sister - What Owl's folly told thee to draw thy carts across the road? A broken wheel? Then take a broken head and put the two together at leisure!'

The voice and a veno came out of a pillar of dust fifty yards ahere a cart had broken down A thin, high Kathiawar mare, with eyes and nostrils afla as her rider bent her across the road in chase of a shoutingthe almosthis victies

The old man's face lit with pride 'My child!' said he briefly, and strove to rein the pony's neck to a fitting arch

'Am I to be beaten before the police?' cried the carter 'Justice! I will have Justice -'

'A ape who upsets ten thousand sacks under a young horse's nose? That is the way to ruin a mare'

'He speaks truth He speaks truth But she follows her man close,' said the old man The carter ran under the wheels of his cart and thence threatened all sorts of vengeance

'They are stronghis teeth

The horseman delivered one last vicious cut with his whip and caned back ten yards and dismounted

The old man was off his pony in an instant, and they embraced as do father and son in the East

Chapter 4

Good Luck, she is never a lady, But the cursedest quean alive, Tricksy, wincing, and jady - Kittle to lead or drive Greet her - she's hailing a stranger! Meet her - she's busking to leave! Let her alone for a shrew to the bone And the hussy coesse, O Fortune! Give or hold at your will If I've no care for Fortune, Fortune -Caps

Then, lowering their voices, they spoke together Kied io on The River is not here'

'Hai h for a little? Our River will not run away Patience, and he will give us a dole'

'This' said the old soldier suddenly, 'is the Friend of the Stars He broughtseen the veryorders for the war'

'Hm!' said his son, all deep in his broad chest 'He came by a bazar-ruhed 'At least he did not ride to er, and the Gods kno iments also under orders?'

'I do not know I took leave and came swiftly to thee in case -'

'In case they ran before thee to beg O gamblers and spendthrifts all! But thou hast never yet ridden in a charge A good horse is needed there, truly A good follower and a good pony also for theLet us see - let us see' He thrummed on the pommel

'This is no place to cast accounts in, o to thy house'

'At least pay the boy, then: I have no pice with ht auspicious news Ho! Friend of all the World, a war is toward as thou hast said'

'Nay, as I know, the war,' returned Ki his beads, all eager for the road

'My ht the news bear witness, we brought the news, and noe go' Kim half-crooked his hand at his side

The son tossed a silver coin through the sunlight, grulers It was a four-anna piece, and would feed the the flash of the

'Go thy way, Friend of all the World,' piped the old soldier, wheeling his scrawny mount 'For once in all my days I have met a true prophet - as not in the Arether: the old er

A Punjabi constable in yellow linen trousers slouched across the road He had seen the lish 'Know ye not that there is a takkus of two annas a head, which is four annas, on those who enter the Road from this side-road? It is the order of the Sirkar, and theof trees and the beautification of the ways'

'And the bellies of the police,' said Ki out of arm's reach 'Consider for a while, man with a mud head Think you we ca, thy father-in-law? Hast thou ever heard the name of thy brother?'

'And as he? Leave the boy alone,' cried a senior constable, ihted, as he squatted down to smoke his pipe in the veranda

'He took a label fro it to a bridge, collected taxes for athat it was the Sirkar's order Then calishman and broke his head Ah, brother, I ae-crow!'

The policeman drew back abashed, and Kim hooted at him all down the road

'Was there ever such a disciple as I?' he cried merrily to the lama 'All earth would have picked thy bones within ten uarded thee'

'I consider in my own mind whether thou art a spirit, so slowly

'I am thy chela' Kiait of the long-distance tramp all the world over

'Now let us walk,' muttered the lama, and to the click of his rosary they walked in silence mile upon mile The laht eyes were open wide This broad, s river of life, he considered, was a vast improvement on the cramped and crowded Lahore streets There were new people and new sights at every stride - castes he knew and castes that were altogether out of his experience

They -scented Sansis with baskets of lizards and other unclean food on their backs, their lean dogs sniffing at their heels These people kept their own side of the road', ave them ample roo wide and stiffly across the strong shadows, the -irons still on him, strode one newly released from the jail; his full stomach and shi+ny skin to prove that the Government fed its prisoners better than most honest men could feed themselves Kim knew that ell, and made broad jest of it as they passed Then an Akali, a wild-eyed, wild-haired Sikh devotee in the blue-checked clothes of his faith, with polished-steel quoits glistening on the cone of his tall blue turban, stalked past, returning from a visit to one of the independent Sikh States, where he had been singing the ancient glories of the Khalsa to College-trained princelings in top-boots and white-cord breeches Kim was careful not to irritate that man; for the Akali's temper is short and his araily dressed crowds of whole villages turning out to some local fair; the wo behind therude brass models of loco the sun into the eyes of their betters frolance what each had bought; and if there were any doubt it needed only to watch the wives coainst brown arlass bracelets that come fro one to the other and stopping to haggle with sweetmeat-sellers, or to make a prayer before one of the wayside shrines - sometimes Hindu, sometimes Mussalman - which the low-caste of both creeds share with beautiful i like the back of a caterpillar in haste, would swing up through the quivering dust and trot past to a chorus of quick cackling That was a gang of changars - the women who have taken all the ee - a flat-footed, big-boso-li north on news of a job, and wasting no ti to the caste whose ing hips, and heads on high, as suits woe procession would strike into the Grand Trunk with old and jaser even than the reek of the dust One could see the bride's litter, a blur of red and tinsel, staggering through the haze, while the bridegroom's bewreathed pony turned aside to snatch afodder-cart Then Kiood wishes and bad jokes, wishi+ng the couple a hundred sons and no daughters, as the saying is Stilland ler with so, feeble bear, or a wooats' horns to her feet, and with these danced on a slack-rope, set the horses to shying and the wo-drawn quavers of amazement

The lama never raised his eyes He did not note theto collect the cruel interest; or the long-shouting, deep-voiced little mob -still into be rid of their breeches and puttees, and saying the ht Even the seller of Ganges-water he did not see, and Kim expected that he would at least buy a bottle of that precious stuff He looked steadily at the ground, and strode as steadily hour after hour, his soul busied elsewhere But Kim was in the seventh heaven of joy The Grand Trunk at this point was built on an eainst winter floods from the foothills, so that one walked, as it were, a little above the country, along a stately corridor, seeing all India spread out to left and right It was beautiful to behold theover the country roads: one could hear their axles, co nearer, till with shouts and yells and bad words they clied on to the hardcarter It was equally beautiful to watch the people, little clu aside to go to their own villages, dispersing and growing small by twos and threes across the level plain Kiue to his feelings, and so contented hienerously about his path From time to time the lama took snuff, and at last Kiood land - the land of the South!' said he 'The air is good; the water is good Eh?'

'And they are all bound upon the Wheel,' said the lama 'Bound from life after life To none of these has the Way been shown' He shook himself back to this world

'And noe have walked a weary way,' said Ki-place] Shall we stay there? Look, the sun is sloping'

'Who will receive us this evening?'