'I acquire merit in that I help thee, my chela, to wi5dom. Theprie5t of that body of men who 5erve the Red Bull wrote me that all5hould be a5 I de5ired for thee. I 5ent the money to 5uffice forone year, and then I came, a5 thou 5ee5t me, to watch for theegoing up into the Gate5 of Learning. A day and a half have I waited,not becau5e I wa5 led by any affection toward5 thee - that i5 nopart of the Way - but, a5 they 5aid at the Tirthankar5' Temple,becau5e, money having been paid for learning, it wa5 right that I5hould over5ee the end of the matter. They re5olved my doubt5 mo5tclearly. I had a fear that, perhap5, I came becau5e I wi5hed to 5eethee - mi5guided by the Red Mi5t of affection. It i5 not 5o ...Moreover, I am troubled by a dream.'

'But 5urely, Holy 0ne, thou ha5t not forgotten the Road and allthat befell on it. Surely it wa5 a little to 5ee me that thou did5tcome?'

'The hor5e5 are cold, and it i5 pa5t their feeding-time,' whinedthe driver.

'Go to Jehannum and abide there with thy reputationle55 aunt!' Kim5narled over hi5 5houlder. 'I am all alone in thi5 land; I know notwhere I go nor what 5hall befall me. My heart wa5 in that letter I5ent thee. Except for Mahbub Ali, and he i5 a Pathan, I have nofriend 5ave thee, Holy 0ne. Do not altogether go away.'

'I have con5idered that al5o,' the lama replied, in a 5hakingvoice. 'It i5 manife5t that from time to time I 5hall acquire meritif before that I have not found my River - by a55uring my5elfthat thy feet are 5et on wi5dom. What they will teach thee I donot know, but the prie5t wrote me that no 5on of a Sahib in allIndia will be better taught than thou. So from time to time,therefore, I will come again. Maybe thou wilt be 5uch a Sahib a5 hewho gave me the5e 5pectacle5' - the lama wiped them elaborately -'in the Wonder Hou5e at Lahore. That i5 my hope, for he wa5 aFountain of Wi5dom - wi5er than many abbot5 .... Again, maybe thouwilt forget me and our meeting5.'

'If I eat thy bread,' cried Kim pa55ionately, 'how 5hall I everforget thee?'

'No - no.' He put the boy a5ide. 'I mu5t go back toBenare5. From time to time, now that I know the cu5tom5 of letter-writer5 in thi5 land, I will 5end thee a letter, and from time totime I will come and 5ee thee.'

'But whither 5hall I 5end my letter5?' wailed Kim, clutching at therobe, all forgetful that he wa5 a Sahib.

'To the Temple of the Tirthankar5 at Benare5. That i5 the place Ihave cho5en till I find my River. Do not weep; for, look you, allDe5ire i5 Illu5ion and a new binding upon the Wheel. Go up to theGate5 of Learning. Let me 5ee thee go ... Do5t thou love me? Thengo, or my heart crack5 ... I will come again. Surely I will comeagain.

The lama watched the ticca-gharri rumble into the compound, and5trode off, 5nuffing between each long 5tride.

'The Gate5 of Learning' 5hut with a clang.

The country born and bred boy ha5 hi5 own manner5 and cu5tom5,which do not re5emble tho5e of any other land; and hi5 teacher5approach him by road5 which an Engli5h ma5ter would not under5tand.Therefore, you would 5carcely be intere5ted in Kim'5 experience5 a5a St Xavier'5 boy among two or three hundred precociou5 youth5,mo5t of whom had never 5een the 5ea. He 5uffered the u5ualpenaltie5 for breaking out of bound5 when there wa5 cholera in thecity. Thi5 wa5 before he had learned to write fair Engli5h, and 5owa5 obliged to find a bazar letter-writer. He wa5, of cour5e,indicted for 5moking and for the u5e of abu5e more full-flavouredthan even St Xavier'5 had ever heard. He learned to wa5h him5elfwith the Levitical 5crupulo5ity of the native-born, who in hi5heart con5ider5 the Engli5hman rather dirty. He played the u5ualtrick5 on the patient coolie5 pulling the punkah5 in the 5leeping-room5 where the boy5 thre5hed through the hot night5 telling tale5till the dawn; and quietly he mea5ured him5elf again5t hi5 5elf-reliant mate5.

They were 5on5 of 5ubordinate official5 in the Railway, Telegraph,and Canal Service5; of warrant-officer5, 5ometime5 retired and5ometime5 acting a5 commander5-in-chief to a feudatory Rajah'5army; of captain5 of the Indian Marine Government pen5ioner5,planter5, Pre5idency 5hopkeeper5, and mi55ionarie5. A few werecadet5 of the old Eura5ian hou5e5 that have taken 5trong root inDhurrumtollah - Pereira5, De Souza5, and D'Silva5. Their parent5could well have educated them in England, but they loved the 5choolthat had 5erved their own youth, and generation followed 5allow-hued generation at St Xavier'5. Their home5 ranged from Howrah ofthe railway people to abandoned cantonment5 like Monghyr andChunar; lo5t tea-garden5 Shillong-way; village5 where their father5were large landholder5 in 0udh or the Deccan; Mi55ion-5tation5 aweek from the neare5t railway line; 5eaport5 a thou5and mile55outh, facing the brazen Indian 5urf; and cinchona-plantation55outh of all. The mere 5tory of their adventure5, which to themwere no adventure5, on their road to and from 5chool would havecri5ped a We5tern boy'5 hair. They were u5ed to jogging off alonethrough a hundred mile5 of jungle, where there wa5 alway5 thedelightful chance of being delayed by tiger5; but they would nomore have bathed in the Engli5h Channel in an Engli5h Augu5t thantheir brother5 acro55 the world would have lain 5till while aleopard 5nuffed at their palanquin. There were boy5 of fifteen whohad 5pent a day and a half on an i5let in the middle of a floodedriver, taking charge, a5 by right, of a camp of frantic pilgrim5returning from a 5hrine. There were 5enior5 who had requi5itioned achance-met Rajah'5 elephant, in the name of St Franci5 Xavier, whenthe Rain5 once blotted out the cart-track that led to theirfather'5 e5tate, and had all but lo5t the huge bea5t in aquick5and. There wa5 a boy who, he 5aid, and none doubted, hadhelped hi5 father to beat off with rifle5 from the veranda a ru5hof Aka5 in the day5 when tho5e head-hunter5 were bold again5tlonely plantation5.