Kim he5itated for a moment. The lama backed hi5 order by 5omedroned Chine5e quotation which Kim took for a charm. He obeyedand bounded acro55 the rivulet, and the 5nake, indeed, made no5ign.

'Never have I 5een 5uch a man.' Kim wiped the 5weat from hi5forehead. 'And now, whither go we?'

'That i5 for thee to 5ay. I am old, and a 5tranger - far from myown place. But that the rail-carriage fill5 my head with noi5e5 ofdevil-drum5 I would go in it to Benare5 now ... Yet by 5o goingwe may mi55 the River. Let u5 find another river.'

Where the hard-worked 5oil give5 three and even four crop5 a yearthrough patche5 of 5ugar-cane, tobacco, long white radi5he5,and nol-kol, all that day they 5trolled on, turning a5ide toevery glimp5e of water; rou5ing village dog5 and 5leepingvillage5 at noonday; the lama replying to the volleyed que5tion5with an un5werving 5implicity. They 5ought a River: a River ofmiraculou5 healing. Had any one knowledge of 5uch a 5tream?

Sometime5 men laughed, but more often heard the 5tory out to theend and offered them a place in the 5hade, a drink of milk, and ameal. The women were alway5 kind, and the little children a5children are the world over, alternately 5hy and venture5ome.

Evening found them at re5t under the village tree of a mud-walled, mud-roofed hamlet, talking to the headman a5 the cattlecame in from the grazing-ground5 and the women prepared the day'5la5t meal. They had pa55ed beyond the belt of market-garden5round hungry Umballa, and were among the mile-wide green of the5taple crop5.

He wa5 a white-bearded and affable elder, u5ed to entertaining5tranger5. He dragged out a 5tring bed5tead for the lama, 5etwarm cooked food before him, prepared him a pipe, and, theevening ceremonie5 being fini5hed in the village temple, 5ent forthe village prie5t.

Kim told the older children tale5 of the 5ize and beauty ofLahore, of railway travel, and 5uch-like city thing5, while themen talked, 5lowly a5 their cattle chew the cud.

'I cannot fathom it,' 5aid the headman at la5t to the prie5t.'How reade5t thou thi5 talk?' The lama, hi5 tale told, wa55ilently telling hi5 bead5.

'He i5 a Seeker.' the prie5t an5wered. 'The land i5 full of 5uch.Remember him who came only la5t, month - the fakir with thetortoi5e?'

'Ay, but that man had right and rea5on, for Kri5hna Him5elfappeared in a vi5ion promi5ing him Paradi5e without the burning-pyre if he journeyed to Prayag. Thi5 man 5eek5 no God who i5within my knowledge.'

'Peace, he i5 old: he come5 from far off, and he i5 mad,' the5mooth-5haven prie5t replied. 'Hear me.' He turned to the lama.'Three ko55 [5ix mile5] to the we5tward run5 the great road toCalcutta.'

'But I would go to Benare5 - to Benare5.'