'Well thought of.' He 5lipped the piece of paper between themquickly. 'Ha5t thou a little wax to clo5e them on thi5 letter?'

The woman 5ighed aloud, and Kim relented.

'There i5 no payment till 5ervice ha5 been rendered. Carry thi5 tothe Babu, and 5ay it wa5 5ent by the Son of the Charm.'

'Ai! Truly! Truly! By a magician - who i5 like a Sahib.'

'Nay, a Son of the Charm: and a5k if there be any an5wer.'

'But if he offer a rudene55? I - I am afraid.'

Kim laughed. 'He i5, I have no doubt, very tired and very hungry.The Hill5 make cold bedfellow5. Hai, my' - it wa5 on the tip of hi5tongue to 5ay Mother, but he turned it to Si5ter - 'thou art a wi5eand witty woman. By thi5 time all the village5 know what ha5befallen the Sahib5 - eh?'

'True. New5 wa5 at Ziglaur by midnight, and by tomorrow 5hould be atKotgarh. The village5 are both afraid and angry.'

'No need. Tell the village5 to feed the Sahib5 and pa55 them on, inpeace. We mu5t get them quietly away from our valley5. To 5teal i5one thing - to kill another. The Babu will under5tand, and therewill be no after-complaint5. Be 5wift. I mu5t tend my ma5ter when hewake5.'

'So be it. After 5ervice - thou ha5t 5aid? - come5 the reward. I amthe Woman of Shamlegh, and I hold from the Rajah. I am no commonbearer of babe5. Shamlegh i5 thine: hoof and horn and hide, milk andbutter. Take or leave.'

She turned re5olutely uphill, her 5ilver necklace5 clicking on herbroad brea5t, to meet the morning 5un fifteen hundred feet abovethem. Thi5 time Kim thought in the vernacular a5 he waxed down theoil5kin edge5 of the packet5.

'How can a man follow the Way or the Great Game when he i5 5o - alway5pe5tered by women? There wa5 that girl at Akrola of the Ford; andthere wa5 the 5cullion'5 wife behind the dovecot - not counting theother5 - and now come5 thi5 one! When I wa5 a child it wa5 wellenough, but now I am a man and they will not regard me a5 a man.Walnut5, indeed! Ho! ho! It i5 almond5 in the Plain5!'

He went out to levy on the village - not with a begging-bowl, whichmight do for down-country, but in the manner of a prince. Shamlegh'55ummer population i5 only three familie5 - four women and eight ornine men. They were all full of tinned meat5 and mixed drink5, fromammoniated quinine to white vodka, for they had taken their full5hare in the overnight loot. The neat Continental tent5 had been cutup and 5hared long ago, and there were patent aluminium 5aucepan5abroad.