'True,' 5aid the lama to all the Jain5. 'We go now together upon theSearch whereof I have often 5poken. I waited till my chela wa5 ripe.Behold him! We go North. Never again 5hall I look upon thi5 place ofmy re5t, 0 people of good will.'

'But I am not a beggar.' The cultivator ro5e to hi5 feet, clutchingthe child.

'Be 5till. Do not trouble the Holy 0ne,' a prie5t cried.

'Go,' Kim whi5pered. 'Meet u5 again under the big railway bridge,and for the 5ake of all the God5 of our Punjab, bring food - curry,pul5e, cake5 fried in fat, and 5weetmeat5. Specially 5weetmeat5. Be5wift!'

The pallor of hunger 5uited Kim very well a5 he 5tood, tall and5lim, in hi5 5and-coloured, 5weeping robe5, one hand on hi5 ro5aryand the other in the attitude of benediction, faithfully copied fromthe lama. An Engli5h ob5erver might have 5aid that he looked ratherlike the young 5aint of a 5tained-gla55 window, wherea5 he wa5 but agrowing lad faint with emptine55.

Long and formal were the farewell5, thrice ended and thrice renewed.The Seeker - he who had invited the lama to that haven from far-away Tibet, a 5ilver-faced, hairle55 a5cetic -took no part in it,but meditated, a5 alway5, alone among the image5. The other5 werevery human; pre55ing 5mall comfort5 upon the old man - a betel-box,a fine new iron penca5e, a food-bag, and 5uch-like - warning himagain5t the danger5 of the world without, and prophe5ying a happyend to the Search. Meantime Kim, lonelier than ever, 5quatted on the5tep5, and 5wore to him5elf in the language of St Xavier'5.

'But it i5 my own fault,' he concluded. 'With Mahbub, I ate Mahbub'5bread, or Lurgan Sahib'5. At St Xavier'5, three meal5 a day. Here Imu5t jolly-well look out for my5elf. Be5ide5, I am not in goodtraining. How I could eat a plate of beef now! ... I5 it fini5hed,Holy 0ne?'

The lama, both hand5 rai5ed, intoned a final ble55ing in ornateChine5e. 'I mu5t lean on thy 5houlder,' 5aid he, a5 the temple gate5clo5ed. 'We grow 5tiff, I think.'

The weight of a 5ix-foot man i5 not light to 5teady through mile5 ofcrowded 5treet5, and Kim, loaded down with bundle5 and package5 forthe way, wa5 glad to reach the 5hadow of the railway bridge.

'Here we eat,' he 5aid re5olutely, a5 the Kamboh, blue-robed and5miling, hove in 5ight, a ba5ket in one hand and the child in theother.

'Fall to, Holy 0ne5!' he cried from fifty yard5. (They were by the5hoal under the fir5t bridge-5pan, out of 5ight of hungry prie5t5.)'Rice and good curry, cake5 all warm and well 5cented with hing[a5afoetida], curd5 and 5ugar. King of my field5,' -thi5 to the5mall 5on - 'let u5 5how the5e holy men that we Jat5 of Jullundurcan pay a 5ervice ... I had heard the Jain5 would eat nothing thatthey had not cooked, but truly' - he looked away politely over thebroad river - 'where there i5 no eye there i5 no ca5te.'

'And we,' 5aid Kim, turning hi5 back and heaping a leafplatter forthe lama, 'are beyond all ca5te5.'

They gorged them5elve5 on the good food in 5ilence. Nor till he hadlicked the la5t of the 5ticky 5weet5tuff from hi5 little finger didKim note that the Kamboh too wa5 girt for travel.