Part 7 (2/2)

'Get her her pipe In the naet her her pipe and stop her ill-o up his shapeless bundles of bedding 'She and the parrots are alike They screech in the dawn'

'The lead-bullocks! Hai! Look to the lead-bullocks!' They were backing and wheeling as a grain-cart's axle caught theo?' This to the grinning carter

'Ai! Yai! Yai! That within there is the Queen of Delhi going to pray for a son,' the h load 'Rooreyup his oord!' Another cart loaded with bark for a down-country tannery followed close behind, and its driver added a few coain

Fro curtains ca, but in kind and quality, in blistering, biting appropriateness, it was beyond anything that even Kim had heard He could see the carter's bare chest collapse with amazement, as the man salaamed reverently to the voice, leaped from the pole, and helped the escort haul their volcano on to the main road Here the voice told him truthfully what sort of wife he had wedded, and what she was doing in his absence

'Oh, shabash!+' murmured Kim, unable to contain himself, as the man slunk away

'Well done, indeed? It is a shao to make prayer to her Gods except she be jostled and insulted by all the refuse of Hindustan - that sheleft to ue - a word or tell spoken that serves the occasion And still am I without my tobacco! Who is the one-eyed and luckless son of shame that has not yet prepared my pipe?'

It was hastily thrust in by a hillman, and a trickle of thick smoke from each corner of the curtains showed that peace was restored

If Kim had walked proudly the day before, disciple of a holy man, today he paced with tenfold pride in the train of a senized place under the patronage of an old lady of char manners and infinite resource The escort, their heads tied up native-fashi+on, fell in on either side the cart, shuffling enormous clouds of dust

The la his stick of sugarcane, andway for no one under the status of a priest They could hear the old lady's tongue clack as steadily as a rice-husker She bade the escort tell her as going on on the road; and so soon as they were clear of the parao she flung back the curtains and peered out, her veil a third across her face Her men did not eye her directly when she addressed them, and thus the proprieties were more or less observed

A dark, sallowish District Superintendent of Police, faultlessly unifor from her retinue what manner of person she was, chaffed her

'O mother,' he cried, 'do they do this in the zenanas? Suppose an Englishman came by and saw that thou hast no nose?'

'What?' she shrilled back 'Thine own mother has no nose? Why say so, then, on the open road?'

It was a fair counter The Englishesture of a hed and nodded

'Is this a face to tempt virtue aside?' She withdrew all her veil and stared at hiathered up his reins he called it a Moon of Paradise, a Disturber of Integrity, and a few other fantastic epithets which doubled her up with ue],' she said 'All police-constables are nut-cuts; but the police-wallahs are the worst Hai, my son, thou hast never learned all that since thou camest from Belait [Europe] Who suckled thee?'

'A pahareen - a hillwoman of Dalhousie, my hts,' and he was gone

'These be the sort' - she took a fine judicial tone, and stuffed her mouth with pan - 'These be the sort to oversee justice They know the land and the customs of the land The others, all new froues fros' Then she told a long, long tale to the world at large, of an ignorant young policeman who had disturbed some small Hill Rajah, a ninth cousin of her own, in theup with a quotation froed, and she bade one of the escort ask whether the laion So Kiar-cane For an hour or h the haze; and, froathered that the old woized for his rudeness overnight, saying that he had never known his mistress of so bland a tee priest Personally, he believed in Brahh, like all natives, he was acutely aware of their cunning and their greed Still, when Brah demands the mother of his ry that they cursed the whole retinue (which was the real reason of the second off-side bullock going laht before), he was prepared to accept any priest of any other denomination in or out of India To this Kim assented ise nods, and bade the Oorya observe that the lama took no money, and that the cost of his and Kiood luck that would attend the caravan henceforward He also told stories of Lahore city, and sang a song or thich h As a town-s by the most fashi+onable composers - they are woe over e behind Saharunpore, but he let that advantage be inferred

At noon they turned aside to eat, and the ood, plentiful, and well-served on plates of clean leaves, in decency, out of drift of the dust They gave the scraps to certain beggars, that all require, luxurious smoke The old lady had retreated behind her curtains, butwith and contradicting her as servants do throughout the East She cora and Kulu hills with the dust and the oes of the South; she told a tale of soe of her husband's territory; she roundly abused the tobacco which she was then s, reviled all Brahrandsons

Chapter 5

Here coain Claiain, And sib to flesh of my flesh!+ The fatted calf is dressed for s will be best for al Son

Once ot under way, and she slept till they reached the next halting-stage It was a very short march, and time lacked an hour to sundown, so Kim cast about for means of amusement

'But why not sit and rest?' said one of the escort 'Only the devils and the English walk to and fro without reason'

'Never make friends with the Devil, a Monkey, or a Boy No man knohat they will do next,' said his fellow

Kim turned a scornful back - he did not want to hear the old story how the Devil played with the boys and repented of it and walked idly across country

The lama strode after him All that day, whenever they passed a stream, he had turned aside to look at it, but in no case had he received any warning that he had found his River Insensibly, too, the coue, and of being properly considered and respected as her spiritual adviser by a well-born wohts a little from the Search And further, he was prepared to spend serene years in his quest; having nothing of the white oest thou?' he called after Kim

'Nowhither - it was a small march, and all this' - Kim waved his hands abroad - 'is new towoman But it is hard to ht have Solomon

'Before the la up the orn rosary, 'of stone On that I have left theto and fro with these'

He clicked the beads, and began the 'Orateful for the cool, the quiet, and the absence of dust

One thing after another drew Kim's idle eye across the plain There was no purpose in his wanderings, except that the build of the huts near by seeate

They caround, brown and purple in the afternoon light, with a heavy cluoes in the centre It struck Kiible a spot: the boy was observing as any priest for these things Far across the plain walked side by side four men, made small by the distance He looked intently under his curved palht the sheen of brass

'Soldiers White soldiers!' said he 'Let us see'

'It is always soldiers when thou and I go out alone together But I have never seen the white soldiers'

'They do no harm except when they are drunk Keep behind this tree'

They stepped behind the thick trunks in the cool dark of the ures halted; the other two caiment on the march, sent out, as usual, to s, and called to each other as they spread over the flat earth

At last they entered theheavily

'It's here or hereabouts - officers' tents under the trees, I take it, an' the rest of us can stay outside Have they ain to their coh answer ca in here, then,' said one

'What do they prepare?' said the lareat and terrible world What is the device on the flag?'

A soldier thrust a stave within a few feet of theain, conferred with his coreenery, and returned it

Ki short and sharp between his teeth The soldiers staasped 'My horoscope! The drawing in the dust by the priest at Umballa! Remember what he said First cos ready - in a dark place, as it is always at the beginning of a vision'