Page:Kim - Rudyard Kipling (1912).djvu/350

318 healed employed his strength for evil. Just is the Wheel! What of the hakim?' 'I feared that thou hadst been bruised—and and I knew he was wise.,' Kim took the waxed walnut-shell and read in English on the back of his note: '''Your favour received. Cannot get away from present company at present, but shall take them into Simla. After which, hope to rejoin you. Inexpedient to follow angry gentlemen. Return by same road you came, and will overtake. Highly gratified about correspondence due to my forethought?''' He says, Holy One, that he will escape from the idolaters, and will return to us. Shall we wait a while at Shamlegh, then?'

The lama looked long and lovingly upon the hills and shook his head.

'That may not be, chela. From my bones outward I do desire it, but it is forbidden. I have seen the Cause of Things.'

'Why? when hills gave thee back thy strength day by day. Remember we were weak and fainting down below there in the Doon.'

'I became strong to do evil and to forget—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 Jamlesi-nisi-Kor, 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!