renched beyond a thousand blows. Not till I had repeated the
Blessings' (he meant the Buddhist Beatitudes) 'did I achieve calm. But
the evil planted in me by that moment's carelessness works out to its
end. Just is the Wheel, swerving not a hair! Learn the lesson, chela.'

'It is too high for me,' Kim muttered. 'I am still all shaken. I am
glad I hurt the man.'

'I felt that, sleeping upon thy knees, in the wood below. It
disquieted me in my dreams--the evil in thy soul working through to
mine. Yet on the other hand'--he loosed his rosary--'I have acquired
merit by saving two lives--the lives of those that wronged me. Now I
must see into the Cause of Things. The boat of my soul staggers.'

'Sleep, and be strong. That is wisest.'

'I meditate. There is a need greater than thou knowest.'

Till the dawn, hour after hour, as the moonlight paled on the high
peaks, and that which had been belted blackness on the sides of the far
hills showed as tender green forest, the lama stared fixedly at the
wall. From time to time he groaned. Outside the barred door, where
discomfited kine came to ask for their old stable, Shamlegh and the
coolies gave itself up to plunder and riotous living. The Ao-chung man
was their leader, and once they had opened the Sahibs' tinned foods and
found that they were very good they dared not turn back. Shamlegh
kitchen-midden took the dunnage.

When Kim, after a night of bad dreams, stole forth to brush his teeth
in the morning chill, a fair-coloured woman with turquoise-studded
headgear drew him aside.

'The others have gone. They left thee this kilta as the promise was. I
do not love Sahibs, but thou wilt make us a charm in return for it. We
do not wish little Shamlegh to get a bad name on account of
the--accident. I am the Woman of Shamlegh.' She looked him over with
bold, bright eyes, unlike the usual furtive glance of hillwomen.

'Assuredly. But it must be done in secret.'

She raised the heavy kilta like a toy and slung it into her own hut.

'Out and bar the door! Let none come near till it is finished,' said
Kim.

'But afterwards--we may talk?'

Kim tilted the kilta on the floor--a cascade of Survey-instruments,
books, diaries, letters, maps, and queerly scented native
correspondence. At the very bottom was an embroidered bag covering a
sealed, gilded, and illuminated document such as one King sends to
another. Kim caught his breath with delight, and reviewed