Part 6 (2/2)

'That is all one This country is full of good folk Besides' he sunk his voice beneath a whisper - 'we have -place which marked the end of their day's journey A line of stalls selling very simple food and tobacco, a stack of firewood, a police-station, a well, a horse-trough, a few trees, and, under theround dotted with the black ashes of old fires, are all that ars and the crows - both hungry

By this tih the lower branches of thehorey-backed Seven Sisters, talking over the day's adventures, walked back and forth in twos and threes als and scufflings in the branches showed that the bats were ready to go out on the night-picket Swiftly the light gathered itself together, painted for an instant the faces and the cartwheels and the bullocks' horns as red as blood Then the night fell, changing the touch of the air, drawing a low, even haze, like a gossa out, keen and distinct, the sood scent of wheaten cakes cooked on ashes The evening patrol hurried out of the police-station with is and reiterated orders; and a live charcoal ball in the cup of a wayside carter's hookah glowed red while Kim's eye mechanically watched the last flicker of the sun on the brass tweezers

The life of the parao was very like that of the Kashmir Serai on a small scale Kim dived into the happy Asiatic disorder which, if you only allow ti that a simple man needs

His wants were few, because, since the lama had no caste scruples, cooked food from the nearest stall would serve; but, for luxury's sake, Ki-cakes to build a fire All about, co round the little flarain, or sweet one another while they waited their turn at the well; and under the h squeals and giggles of women whose faces should not be seen in public

Nowadays, well-educated natives are of opinion that when their woood deal - it is better to take them quickly by rail in a properly screened co But there are always those of the old rock who hold by the use of their forefathers; and, above all, there are always the old women - more conservative than the e They, being withered and undesirable, do not, under certain circu seclusion, during which they have always been in business touch with a thousand outside interests, they love the bustle and stir of the open road, the gatherings at the shrines, and the infinite possibilities of gossip with like- faued, iron-willed old lady should disport herself about India in this fashi+on; for certainly pilgrirateful to the Gods So all about India, in the most rerizzled servitors in noe of an old lady who is more or less curtained and hid away in a bullock-cart Such h-caste native is near will net their charge with most elaborate precautions; but in the ordinary haphazard chances of pilgrie the precautions are not taken The old lady is, after all, intensely huaily ornamented ruth or family bullock-cart, with a broidered canopy of two domes, like a double-huht ht were arns that they followed a person of distinction, for the co cackle of complaints, orders, and jests, and what to a European would have been bad language, came from behind the curtains Here was evidently a woman used to command

Kim looked over the retinue critically Half of therey-bearded Ooryas from down country The other half were duffle-clad, felt-hatted hillmen of the North; and that mixture told its own tale, even if he had not overheard the incessant sparring between the two divisions The old lady was going south on a visit - probably to a rich relative, most probably to a son-in- laho had sent up an escort as a mark of respect The hillra folk It was quite clear that she was not taking her daughter down to be wedded, or the curtains would have been laced houard would have allowed no one near the car Athe dung-cake in one hand, the cooked food in the other, and piloting the laht be ive hihted to beg for two

He built his fire as close to the cart as he dared, waiting for one of the escort to order hiround,bat cowers, and returned to his rosary

'Stand farther off, beggar!' The order was shouted in broken Hindustani by one of the hillmen

'Huh! It is only a pahari [a hillman]', said Kim over his shoulder 'Since when have the hill-asses owned all Hindustan?'

The retort was a swift and brilliant sketch of Kienerations

'Ah!' Ki-cake into fit pieces 'Inof love-talk'

A harsh, thin cackle behind the curtains put the hillman on his mettle for a second shot

'Not so bad - not so bad,' said Kim with calm 'But have a care, ive a curse or so in return And our curses have the knack of biting ho forward threateningly The lae taht of Kim's new-started fire

'What is it?' said he

The h struck to stone 'I - I - aner has found him a priest at last,' whispered one of the Ooryas

'Hai! Why is that beggar-brat not well beaten?' the old woman cried

The hill to the curtain There was dead silence, then aneither to see nor hear

'When - when - he has eaten' - the hillman fawned on Kim - 'it - it is requested that the Holy One will do the honour to talk to one ould speak to him'

'After he has eaten he will sleep,' Kiame had taken, but stood resolute to profit by it 'Noill get him his food' The last sentence, spoken loudly, ended with a sigh as of faintness

'I - I myself and the others of my people will look to that - if it is permitted'

'It is permitted,' said Ki us food'

'The land is good All the country of the South is good - a great and a terrible world,' mumbled the lama drowsily

'Let him sleep,' said Kim, 'but look to it that we are well fed when he wakes He is a very holycontemptuously

'He is not a fakir He is not a down-country beggar,' Ki the stars 'He is the most holy of holy men He is above all castes I am his chela'

'Come here!' said the flat thin voice behind the curtain; and Ki at hie of the cart, and the talk went this way: 'Who is that one?'

'An exceedingly holy one He comes from far off He comes from Tibet'

'Where in Tibet?'

'From behind the snows - from a very far place He knows the stars; he makes horoscopes; he reads nativities But he does not do this for reat charity I am his disciple I am called also the Friend of the Stars'

'Thou art no hillman'

'Ask him He will tell thee I was sent to hie'

'Huether a fool Laive reverence, but thou art no er is the pole of this wagon Thou art a casteless Hindu - a bold and unblushi+ng beggar, attached, belike, to the Holy One for the sake of gain'

'Do we not all work for gain?' Kied his tone promptly to match that altered voice 'I have heard' - this was a bon at a venture - 'I have heard -'

'What hast thou heard?' she snapped, rapping with the finger

'Nothing that I well remember, but some talk in the bazars, which is doubtless a lie, that even Rajahs - sood Rajput blood'

'assuredly of good blood That these even sell the ain Down south they sell them - to ze in the world that the se; but it happens to be one thing that the bazars believe, when they discuss the mysterious slave-traffics of India The old lady explained to Kinant whisper, precisely what nant liar he was Had Kiirl, he would have been po by an elephant This was perfectly true

'Ahai! I aar's brat, as the Eye of Beauty has said,' he wailed in extravagant terror

'Eye of Beauty, forsooth! Who aar-endearotten word 'Forty years ago that ht have been said, and not without truth Ay thirty years ago But it is the fault of this gadding up and down Hind that a king'smust jostle all the scuars'

'Great Queen,' said Kination, 'I am even what the Great Queen says I am; but none the less is my master holy He has not yet heard the Great Queen's order that -'

'Order? I order a Holy One - a Teacher of the Law - to come and speak to a woiven as an order -'