'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
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