Kim

question, my sign is of War and of armed men. See how they have given

me wine to drink and set me upon a bed of honour! My father must have

been some great person. So if they raise me to honour among them,

good. If not, good again. However it goes, I will run back to thee

when I am tired. But stay with the Rajputni, or I shall miss thy feet

... Oah yess,' said the boy, 'I have told him everything you tell me to

say.'

'And I cannot see any need why he should wait,' said Bennett, feeling

in his trouser-pocket. 'We can investigate the details later--and I

will give him a ru--'

'Give him time. Maybe he's fond of the lad,' said Father Victor, half

arresting the clergyman's motion.

The lama dragged forth his rosary and pulled his huge hat-brim over his

eyes.

'What can he want now?'

'He says'--Kim put up one hand. 'He says: "Be quiet." He wants to

speak to me by himself. You see, you do not know one little word of

what he says, and I think if you talk he will perhaps give you very bad

curses. When he takes those beads like that, you see, he always wants

to be quiet.'

The two Englishmen sat overwhelmed, but there was a look in Bennett's

eye that promised ill for Kim when he should be relaxed to the

religious arm.

'A Sahib and the son of a Sahib--' The lama's voice was harsh with

pain. 'But no white man knows the land and the customs of the land as

thou knowest. How comes it this is true?'

'What matter, Holy One?--but remember it is only for a night or two.

Remember, I can change swiftly. It will all be as it was when I first

spoke to thee under Zam-Zammah the great gun--'

'As a boy in the dress of white men--when I first went to the Wonder

House. And a second time thou wast a Hindu. What shall the third

incarnation be?' He chuckled drearily. 'Ah, chela, thou has done a

wrong to an old man because my heart went out to thee.'

'And mine to thee. But how could I know that the Red Bull would bring

me to this business?'

The lama covered his face afresh, and nervously rattled the rosary. Kim

squatted beside him and laid hold upon a fold of his clothing.

'Now it is understood that the boy is a Sahib?' he went on in a

muffled tone. 'Such a Sahib as was he who kept the images in the

Wonder House.' The lama's experience of white men was limited. He

seemed to be repeating a lesson. 'So then it is not seemly that he

should do other than as the Sahibs do. He must go back to his own

people.'

'For a day and a night and a day,' Kim pleaded.

'No, ye don't!' Father Victor saw Kim edging towards the door, and

interposed a strong leg.

'I do not understand the customs of white men. The Priest of the

Images in the Wonder House in Lahore was more courteous than the thin

one here. This boy will be taken from me. They will make a Sahib of

my disciple? Woe to me! How shall I find my River? Have they no

disciples? Ask.'

'He says he is very sorree that he cannot find the River now any more.

He says, Why have you no disciples, and stop bothering him? He wants to

be washed of his sins.'

Neither Bennett nor Father Victor found any answer ready.

Said Kim in English, distressed for the lama's agony: 'I think if you

will let me go now we will walk away quietly and not steal. We will

look for that River like before I was caught. I wish I did not come

here to find the Red Bull and all that sort of thing. I do not want

it.'

'It's the very best day's work you ever did for yourself, young man,'

said Bennett.

'Good heavens, I don't know how to console him,' said Father Victor,

watching the lama intently. 'He can't take the boy away with him, and

yet he's a good man--I'm sure he's a good man. Bennett, if you give him

that rupee he'll curse you root and branch!'

They listened to each other's breathing--three--five full minutes.

Then the lama raised his head, and looked forth across them into space

and emptiness.

'And I am a Follower of the Way,' he said bitterly. 'The sin is mine

and the punishment is mine. I made believe to myself for now I see it

was but make-belief--that thou wast sent to me to aid in the Search.

So my heart went out to thee for thy charity and thy courtesy and the

wisdom of thy little years. But those who follow the Way must permit

not the fire of any desire or attachment, for that is all Illusion. As

says ...' He quoted an old, old Chinese text, backed it with another,

and reinforced these with a third. 'I stepped aside from the Way, my

chela. It was no fault of thine. I delighted in the sight of life,

the new people upon the roads, and in thy joy at seeing these things.

I was pleased with thee who should have considered my Search and my

Search alone. Now I am sorrowful because thou art taken away and my

River is far from me. It is the Law which I have broken!'

'Powers of Darkness below!' said Father Victor, who, wise in the

confessional, heard the pain in every sentence.

'I see now that the sign of the Red Bull was a sign for me as well as

for thee. All Desire is red--and evil. I will do penance and find my

River alone.'

'At least go back to the Kulu woman,' said Kim, 'otherwise thou wilt be

lost upon the roads. She will feed thee till I run back to thee.'

The lama waved a hand to show that the matter was finally settled in

his mind.

'Now,'--his tone altered as he turned to Kim,--'what will they do with

thee? At least I may, acquiring merit, wipe out past ill.'

'Make me a Sahib--so they think. The day after tomorrow I return. Do

not grieve.'

'Of what sort? Such an one as this or that man?' He pointed to Father

Victor. 'Such an one as those I saw this evening, men wearing swords

and stamping heavily?'

'Maybe.'

'That is not well. These men follow desire and come to emptiness. Thou

must not be of their sort.'

'The Umballa priest said that my Star was War,' Kim interjected. 'I

will ask these fools--but there is truly no need. I will run away this

night, for all I wanted to see the new things.'

Kim put two or three questions in English to Father Victor, translating

the replies to the lama.

Then: 'He says, "You take him from me and you cannot say what you will

make him." He says, "Tell me before I go, for it is not a small thing

to make a child."'

'You will be sent to a school. Later on, we shall see. Kimball, I

suppose you'd like to be a soldier?'

'Gorah-log [white-folk]. No-ah! No-ah!' Kim shook his head

violently. There was nothing in his composition to which drill and

routine appealed. 'I will not be a soldier.'

'You will be what you're told to be,' said Bennett; 'and you should be

grateful that we're going to help you.'

Kim smiled compassionately. If these men lay under the delusion that

he would do anything that he did not fancy, so much the better.

Another long silence followed. Bennett fidgeted with impatience, and

suggested calling a sentry to evict the fakir.

'Do they give or sell learning among the Sahibs? Ask them,' said the

lama, and Kim interpreted.

'They say that money is paid to the teacher--but that money the

Regiment will give ... What need? It is only for a night.'

'And--the more money is paid the better learning is given?' The lama

disregarded Kim's plans for an early flight. 'It is no wrong to pay

for learning. To help the ignorant to wisdom is always a merit.' The

rosary clicked furiously as an abacus. Then he faced his oppressors.