e Way, there would have been added to
me yet another life ere I had found my River. Is it plain, chela?'

Kim stared at the brutally disfigured chart. From left to right
diagonally the rent ran--from the Eleventh House where Desire gives
birth to the Child (as it is drawn by Tibetans)--across the human and
animal worlds, to the Fifth House--the empty House of the Senses. The
logic was unanswerable.

'Before our Lord won Enlightenment'--the lama folded all away with
reverence--'He was tempted. I too have been tempted, but it is
finished. The Arrow fell in the Plains--not in the Hills. Therefore,
what make we here?'

'Shall we at least wait for the hakim?'

'I know how long I shall live in this body. What can a hakim do?'

'But thou art all sick and shaken. Thou canst not walk.'

'How can I be sick if I see Freedom?' He rose unsteadily to his feet.

'Then I must get food from the village. Oh, the weary Road!' Kim felt
that he too needed rest.

'That is lawful. Let us eat and go. The Arrow fell in the Plains ...
but I yielded to Desire. Make ready, chela.'

Kim turned to the woman with the turquoise headgear who had been idly
pitching pebbles over the cliff. She smiled very kindly.

'I found him like a strayed buffalo in a cornfield--the Babu; snorting
and sneezing with cold. He was so hungry that he forgot his dignity
and gave me sweet words. The Sahibs have nothing.' She flung out an
empty palm. 'One is very sick about the stomach. Thy work?'

Kim nodded, with a bright eye.

'I spoke to the Bengali first--and to the people of a near-by village
after. The Sahibs will be given food as they need it--nor will the
people ask money. The plunder is already distributed. The Babu makes
lying speeches to the Sahibs. Why does he not leave them?'

'Out of the greatness of his heart.'

'Was never a Bengali yet had one bigger than a dried walnut. But it is
no matter ... Now as to walnuts. After service comes reward. I have
said the village is thine.'

'It is my loss,' Kim began. 'Even now I had planned desirable things
in my heart which'--there is no need to go through the compliments
proper to these occasions. He sighed deeply ... 'But my master, led
by a vision--'

'Huh! What can old eyes see except a full begging-bowl?'

'--turns from this village to the Plains again.'

'Bid him stay.'

Kim shook his head. 'I know my Holy One, and his rage if he be
crossed,' he replied impress