of rice upon dust, to teach His disciples the cause
of things. Many ages have crystallized it into a most wonderful
convention crowded with hundreds of little figures whose every line
carries a meaning. Few can translate the picture-parable; there are
not twenty in all the world who can draw it surely without a copy: of
those who can both draw and expound are but three.

'I have a little learned to draw,' said Kim. 'But this is a marvel
beyond marvels.'

'I have written it for many years,' said the lama. 'Time was when I
could write it all between one lamp-lighting and the next. I will
teach thee the art--after due preparation; and I will show thee the
meaning of the Wheel.'

'We take the Road, then?'

'The Road and our Search. I was but waiting for thee. It was made
plain to me in a hundred dreams--notably one that came upon the night
of the day that the Gates of Learning first shut that without thee I
should never find my River. Again and again, as thou knowest, I put
this from me, fearing an illusion. Therefore I would not take thee
with me that day at Lucknow, when we ate the cakes. I would not take
thee till the time was ripe and auspicious. From the Hills to the Sea,
from the Sea to the Hills have I gone, but it was vain. Then I
remembered the Tataka.'

He told Kim the story of the elephant with the leg-iron, as he had told
it so often to the Jam priests.

'Further testimony is not needed,' he ended serenely. 'Thou wast sent
for an aid. That aid removed, my Search came to naught. Therefore we
will go out again together, and our Search sure.'

'Whither go we?'

'What matters, Friend of all the World? The Search, I say, is sure. If
need be, the River will break from the ground before us. I acquired
merit when I sent thee to the Gates of Learning, and gave thee the
jewel that is Wisdom. Thou didst return, I saw even now, a follower of
Sakyamuni, the Physician, whose altars are many in Bhotiyal. It is
sufficient. We are together, and all things are as they were--Friend
of all the World--Friend of the Stars--my chela!'

Then they talked of matters secular; but it was noticeable that the
lama never demanded any details of life at St Xavier's, nor showed the
faintest curiosity as to the manners and customs of Sahibs. His mind
moved all in the past, and he revived every step of their wonderful
first journey together, rubbing his hands and chuckling, till it
pleased him to curl himself up in