tell lies, or return me to captivity.'

'Small wonder the Padre does not know how to unravel the thread. How
fast he talks to the Colonel Sahib!' Mahbub Ali chuckled. 'By Allah!'
the keen eyes swept the veranda for an Instant--'thy lama has sent what
to me looks like a note of hand. I have had some few dealings in
hoondis. The Colonel Sahib is looking at it.'

'What good is all this to me?' said Kim wearily. 'Thou wilt go away,
and they will return me to those empty rooms where there is no good
place to sleep and where the boys beat me.'

'I do not think that. Have patience, child. All Pathans are not
faithless--except in horseflesh.'

Five--ten--fifteen minutes passed, Father Victor talking energetically
or asking questions which the Colonel answered.

'Now I've told you everything that I know about the boy from beginnin
to end; and it's a blessed relief to me. Did ye ever hear the like?'

'At any rate, the old man has sent the money. Gobind Sahai's notes of
hand are good from here to China,' said the Colonel. 'The more one
knows about natives the less can one say what they will or won't do.'

'That's consolin'--from the head of the Ethnological Survey. It's this
mixture of Red Bulls and Rivers of Healing (poor heathen, God help
him!) an' notes of hand and Masonic certificates. Are you a Mason, by
any chance?'

'By Jove, I am, now I come to think of it. That's an additional
reason,' said the Colonel absently.

'I'm glad ye see a reason in it. But as I said, it's the mixture o'
things that's beyond me. An' his prophesyin' to our Colonel, sitting
on my bed with his little shimmy torn open showing his white skin; an'
the prophecy comin' true! They'll cure all that nonsense at St
Xavier's, eh?'

'Sprinkle him with holy water,' the Colonel laughed.

'On my word, I fancy I ought to sometimes. But I'm hoping he'll be
brought up as a good Catholic. All that troubles me is what'll happen
if the old beggar-man--'

'Lama, lama, my dear sir; and some of them are gentlemen in their own
country.'

'The lama, then, fails to pay next year. He's a fine business head to
plan on the spur of the moment, but he's bound to die some day. An'
takin' a heathen's money to give a child a Christian education--'

'But he said explicitly what he wanted. As soon as he knew the boy was
white he seems to have made his arrangements accordingly. I'd give a
month's pay to hear how he explained it all at the Tirthan