Page:Kim - Rudyard Kipling (1912).djvu/69

Rh thou with war?' said the priest to Kim. 'Thine is a red and an angry sign of war to be loosed very soon.'

'None—none,' said the lama earnestly. 'We seek only peace and our river.'

Kim chuckled, remembering what he had overheard in the dressing-room. Decidedly he was a favourite of the stars.

The priest brushed his foot over the rude horoscope. 'More than this I cannot see. In three days comes the Bull to thee, boy.'

'And my river, my river.' pleaded the lama. 'I had hoped his Bull would lead us both to the river.'

'Alas for that wondrous river, my brother,' the priest replied. 'Such things are not common.'

Next morning, though they were pressed to stay, the lama insisted on departure. They gave Kim a large bundle of good food and nearly three annas in copper money for the needs of the road, and with many blessings watched the two go southward in the dawn.

'Pity it is that these and such as these could not be freed from the Wheel of Things,' said the lama.

'Nay, then would only evil people be left on the earth, and who would give us meat and shelter?' quoth Kim, stepping merrily under his burden.

'Yonder is a small stream. Let us look,' said the lama, and he led from the white road across the still fields; walking into a very hornet's-nest of pariah dogs.