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it out by rending the amulet from my neck and reading all the
papers. He thinks that once a Sahib is always a Sahib, and between
the two of them they purpose to keep me in this Regiment or to send
me to a madrissah [a school]. It has happened before. I have always
avoided it. The fat fool is of one mind and the camel-like one of
another. But that is no odds. I may spend one night here and
perhaps the next. It has happened before. Then I will run away and
return to thee.'

'But tell them that thou art my chela. Tell them how thou didst
come to me when I was faint and bewildered. Tell them of our
Search, and they will surely let thee go now.'

'I have already told them. They laugh, and they talk of the
police.'

'What are you saying?' asked Mr Bennett.

'Oah. He only says that if you do not let me go it will stop him in
his business - his ur-gent private af-fairs.' This last was a
reminiscence of some talk with a Eurasian clerk in the Canal
Department, but it only drew a smile, which nettled him. 'And if
you did know what his business was you would not be in such a
beastly hurry to interfere.'

'What is it then?' said Father Victor, not without feeling, as he
watched the lama's face.

'There is a River in this country which he wishes to find so verree
much. It was put out by an Arrow which -' Kim tapped his foot
impatiently as he translated in his own mind from the vernacular to
his clumsy English. 'Oah, it was made by our Lord God Buddha, you
know, and if you wash there you are washed away from all your sins
and made as white as cotton-wool.' (Kim had heard mission-talk in
his time.) 'I am his disciple, and we must find that River. It is
so verree valuable to us.'

'Say that again,' said Bennett. Kim obeyed, with amplifications.

'But this is gross blasphemy!' cried the Church of England.

'Tck! Tck!' said Father Victor sympathetically. 'I'd give a good
deal to be able to talk the vernacular. A river that washes away
sin! And how long have you two been looking for it?'

'Oh, many days. Now we wish to go away and look for it again. It is
not here, you see.'

'I see,' said Father Victor gravely. 'But he can't go on in that
old man's company. It would be different, Kim, if you were not a
soldier's son. Tell him that the Regiment will take care of you and
make you as good a man as your - as good a man as can be. Tell him
that if he believes in miracles he must believe that -'

'There is no need to play on his credulity,' Bennett interrupted.

'I'm doing no such thing. He must believe that the boy's coming
here -to his own Regiment - in search of his Red Bull is in the
nature of a miracle. Consider the chances against it, Bennett. This
one boy in all India, and our Regiment of all others on the line o'
march for him to meet with! It's predestined on the face of it.
Yes, tell him it's Kismet. Kismet, mallum? [Do you understand?]'

He turned towards the lama, to whom he might as well have talked of

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