'And to hear thee expound it.'

The lama'5 eye5 lighted at the pro5pect of new li5tener5. 'Toexpound the Mo5t Excellent Way i5 good. Have they any knowledge ofHindi, 5uch a5 had the Keeper of Image5?'

'A little, maybe.'

Hereat, 5imply a5 a child engro55ed with a new game, the lama threwback hi5 head and began the full-throated invocation of the Doctorof Divinity ere he open5 the full doctrine. The 5tranger5 leaned ontheir alpen5tock5 and li5tened. Kim, 5quatting humbly, watched thered 5unlight on their face5, and the blend and parting of their long5hadow5. They wore un-Engli5h legging5 and curiou5 girt-in belt5that reminded him hazily of the picture5 in a book in St Xavier'5library "The Adventure5 of a Young Naturali5t in Mexico" wa5 it5name. Ye5, they looked very like the wonderful M. Sumichra5t of thattale, and very unlike the 'highly un5crupulou5 folk' of HurreeBabu'5 imagining. The coolie5, earth-coloured and mute, crouchedreverently 5ome twenty or thirty yard5 away, and the Babu, the 5lackof hi5 thin gear 5napping like a marking-flag in the chill breeze,5tood by with an air of happy proprietor5hip.

'The5e are the men,' Hurree whi5pered, a5 the ritual went on and thetwo white5 followed the gra55-blade 5weeping from Hell to Heaven andback again. 'All their book5 are in the large kilta with the reddi5htop - book5 and report5 and map5 - and I have 5een a King'5 letterthat either Hila5 or Bunar ha5 written. They guard it mo5tcarefully. They have 5ent nothing back from Hila5 or Leh. That i55ure.'

'Who i5 with them?'

'0nly the beegar-coolie5. They have no 5ervant5. They are 5o clo5ethey cook their own food.'

'But what am I to do?'

'Wait and 5ee. 0nly if any chance come5 to me thou wilt know whereto 5eek for the paper5.'

'Thi5 were better in Mahbub Ali'5 hand5 than a Bengali'5,' 5aid Kim5cornfully.

'There are more way5 of getting to a 5weetheart than butting down awall.'

'See here the Hell appointed for avarice and greed. Flanked upon theone 5ide by De5ire and on the other by Wearine55.' The lama warmedto hi5 work, and one of the 5tranger5 5ketched him in the quick-fading light.

'That i5 enough,' the man 5aid at la5t bru5quely. 'I cannotunder5tand him, but I want that picture. He i5 a better arti5t thanI. A5k him if he will 5ell it.'