. A brawler and a
swashbuckler upon the hillsides was I.' Kim bit back a smile. 'Just
and perfect is the Wheel, swerving not a hair. When I was a man--a
long time ago--I did pilgrimage to Guru Ch'wan among the poplars' (he
pointed Bhotanwards), 'where they keep the Sacred Horse.'

'Quiet, be quiet!' said Shamlegh, all arow. 'He speaks of
Jam-lin-nin-k'or, the Horse That Can Go Round The World In a Day.'

'I speak to my chela only,' said the lama, in gentle reproof, and they
scattered like frost on south eaves of a morning. 'I did not seek
truth in those days, but the talk of doctrine. All illusion! I drank
the beer and ate the bread of Guru Ch'wan. Next day one said: "We go
out to fight Sangor Gutok down the valley to discover" (mark again how
Lust is tied to Anger!) "which Abbot shall bear rule in the valley and
take the profit of the prayers they print at Sangor Gutok." I went,
and we fought a day.'

'But how, Holy One?'

'With our long pencases as I could have shown ... I say, we fought
under the poplars, both Abbots and all the monks, and one laid open my
forehead to the bone. See!' He tilted back his cap and showed a
puckered silvery scar. 'Just and perfect is the Wheel! Yesterday the
scar itched, and after fifty years I recalled how it was dealt and the
face of him who dealt it; dwelling a little in illusion. Followed that
which thou didst see--strife and stupidity. Just is the Wheel! The
idolater's blow fell upon the scar. Then I was shaken in my soul: my
soul was darkened, and the boat of my soul rocked upon the waters of
illusion. Not till I came to Shamlegh could I meditate upon the Cause
of Things, or trace the running grass-roots of Evil. I strove all the
long night.'

'But, Holy One, thou art innocent of all evil. May I be thy sacrifice!'

Kim was genuinely distressed at the old man's sorrow, and Mahbub Ali's
phrase slipped out unawares.

'In the dawn,' the lama went on more gravely, ready rosary clicking
between the slow sentences, 'came enlightenment. It is here ... I am
an old man ... hill-bred, hill-fed, never to sit down among my Hills.
Three years I travelled through Hind, but--can earth be stronger than
Mother Earth? My stupid body yearned to the Hills and the snows of the
Hills, from below there. I said, and it is true, my Search is sure.
So, at the Kulu woman's house I turned hillward, over-persuaded by
myself. There is no blame to the hakim. He--following
Desir