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Mesopotamia.

'They say,' - the old man's eye lighted at Kim's speech 'they say
that the meaning of my horoscope is now accomplished, and that
being led back - though as thou knowest I went out of curiosity -
to these people and their Red Bull I must needs go to a madrissah
and be turned into a Sahib. Now I make pretence of agreement, for
at the worst it will be but a few meals eaten away from thee. Then
I will slip away and follow down the road to Saharunpore.
Therefore, Holy One, keep with that Kulu woman - on no account
stray far from her cart till I come again. Past 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

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