eep it--I think thou wilt. If the boy be
not a good servant, pull his ears off.'

With a hitch of his broad Bokhariot belt the Pathan swaggered off into
the gloaming, and the lama came down from his clouds so far as to look
at the broad back.

'That person lacks courtesy, and is deceived by the shadow of
appearances. But he spoke well of my chela, who now enters upon his
reward. Let me make the prayer! ... Wake, O fortunate above all born
of women. Wake! It is found!'

Kim came up from those deep wells, and the lama attended his yawning
pleasure; duly snapping fingers to head off evil spirits.

'I have slept a hundred years. Where--? Holy One, hast thou been here
long? I went out to look for thee, but'--he laughed drowsily--'I slept
by the way. I am all well now. Hast thou eaten? Let us go to the
house. It is many days since I tended thee. And the Sahiba fed thee
well? Who shampooed thy legs? What of the weaknesses--the belly and
the neck, and the beating in the ears?'

'Gone--all gone. Dost thou not know?'

'I know nothing, but that I have not seen thee in a monkey's age. Know
what?'

'Strange the knowledge did not reach out to thee, when all my thoughts
were theeward.'

'I cannot see the face, but the voice is like a gong. Has the Sahiba
made a young man of thee by her cookery?'

He peered at the cross-legged figure, outlined jet-black against the
lemon-coloured drift of light. So does the stone Bodhisat sit who
looks down upon the patent self-registering turnstiles of the Lahore
Museum.

The lama held his peace. Except for the click of the rosary and a
faint clop-clop of Mahbub's retreating feet, the soft, smoky silence of
evening in India wrapped them close.

'Hear me! I bring news.'

'But let us--'

Out shot the long yellow hand compelling silence. Kim tucked his feet
under his robe-edge obediently.

'Hear me! I bring news! The Search is finished. Comes now the
Reward... Thus. When we were among the Hills, I lived on thy strength
till the young branch bowed and nigh broke. When we came out of the
Hills, I was troubled for thee and for other matters which I held in my
heart. The boat of my soul lacked direction; I could not see into the
Cause of Things. So I gave thee over to the virtuous woman altogether.
I took no food. I drank no water. Still I saw not the Way. They
pressed food upon me and cried at my shut door. So I removed myself to
a hollow under a tree.