Be it so--be it so.' The old man nodded his head. 'This is a great
and terrible world. I never knew there were so many men alive in it.'

Next morning the priest was in a very bad temper, but the lama was
quite happy; and Kim had enjoyed a most interesting evening with the
old man, who brought out his cavalry sabre and, balancing it on his dry
knees, told tales of the Mutiny and young captains thirty years in
their graves, till Kim dropped off to sleep.

'Certainly the air of this country is good,' said the lama. 'I sleep
lightly, as do all old men; but last night I slept unwaking till broad
day. Even now I am heavy.'

'Drink a draught of hot milk,' said Kim, who had carried not a few such
remedies to opium-smokers of his acquaintance. 'It is time to take the
Road again.'

'The long Road that overpasses all the rivers of Hind,' said the lama
gaily. 'Let us go. But how thinkest thou, chela, to recompense these
people, and especially the priest, for their great kindness? Truly they
are but parast, but in other lives, maybe, they will receive
enlightenment. A rupee to the temple? The thing within is no more
than stone and red paint, but the heart of man we must acknowledge when
and where it is good.'

'Holy One, hast thou ever taken the Road alone?' Kim looked up
sharply, like the Indian crows so busy about the fields.

'Surely, child: from Kulu to Pathankot--from Kulu, where my first
chela died. When men were kind to us we made offerings, and all men
were well-disposed throughout all the Hills.'

'It is otherwise in Hind,' said Kim drily. 'Their Gods are many-armed
and malignant. Let them alone.'

'I would set thee on thy road for a little, Friend of all the World,
thou and thy yellow man.' The old soldier ambled up the village
street, all shadowy in the dawn, on a punt, scissor-hocked pony. 'Last
night broke up the fountains of remembrance in my so-dried heart, and
it was as a blessing to me. Truly there is war abroad in the air. I
smell it. See! I have brought my sword.'

He sat long-legged on the little beast, with the big sword at his
side--hand dropped on the pommel--staring fiercely over the flat lands
towards the North. 'Tell me again how He showed in thy vision. Come
up and sit behind me. The beast will carry two.'

'I am this Holy One's disciple,' said Kim, as they cleared the
village-gate. The villagers seemed almost sorry to be rid of them, but
the priest's farewell was cold