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'I am but the Holy One's disciple. When he has eaten perhaps he
will come.'

'Oh, villain and shameless rogue!' The jewelled forefinger shook
itself at him reprovingly; but he could hear the old lady's
chuckle.

'Nay, what is it?' he said, dropping into his most caressing and
confidential tone - the one, he well knew, that few could resist.
'Is - is there any need of a son in thy family? Speak freely, for
we priests -' That last was a direct plagiarism from a fakir by the
Taksali Gate.

'We priests! Thou art not yet old enough to -' She checked the joke
with another laugh. 'Believe me, now and again, we women, O priest,
think of other matters than sons. Moreover, my daughter has borne
her man-child.'

'Two arrows in the quiver are better than one; and three are better
still.' Kim quoted the proverb with a meditative cough, looking
discreetly earthward.

'True - oh, true. But perhaps that will come. Certainly those down-
country Brahmins are utterly useless. I sent gifts and monies and
gifts again to them, and they prophesied.'

'Ah,' drawled Kim, with infinite contempt, 'they prophesied!' A
professional could have done no better.

'And it was not till I remembered my own Gods that my prayers were
heard. I chose an auspicious hour, and - perhaps thy Holy One has
heard of the Abbot of the Lung-Cho lamassery. It was to him I put
the matter, and behold in the due time all came about as I desired.
The Brahmin in the house of the father of my daughter's son has
since said that it was through his prayers - which is a little
error that I will explain to him when we reach our journey's end.
And so afterwards I go to Buddh Gaya, to make shraddha for the
father of my children.'

'Thither go we.'

'Doubly auspicious,' chirruped the old lady. 'A second son at
least!'

'O Friend of all the World!' The lama had waked, and, simply as a
child bewildered in a strange bed, called for Kim.

'I come! I come, Holy One!' He dashed to the fire, where he found
the lama already surrounded by dishes of food, the hillmen visibly
adoring him and the Southerners looking sourly.

'Go back! Withdraw!' Kim cried. 'Do we eat publicly like dogs?'
They finished the meal in silence, each turned a little from the
other, and Kim topped it with a native-made cigarette.

'Have I not said an hundred times that the South is a good land?
Here is a virtuous and high-born widow of a Hill Rajah on
pilgrimage, she says, to Buddha Gay. She it is sends us those
dishes; and when thou art well rested she would speak to thee.'

'Is this also thy work?' The lama dipped deep into his snuff-gourd.

'Who else watched over thee since our wonderful journey began?'
Kim's eyes danced in his head as he blew the rank smoke through his
nostrils and stretched him on the dusty ground. 'Have I failed to
oversee thy comforts, Holy One?'

'A blessing on thee.' The lama inclined his solemn head. 'I have
known many men in my so long life, and disciples not a few.

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