‘When will that be?’
’Ask the priests. Do not pester me.
Lay the food-bag at the foot, it balances better
so.’
‘Oh, Holy One, thy Hills are kinder than our
Plains!’ cried Kim, relieved, as the lama tottered
to the litter. ’It is a very king’s
bed — a place of honour and ease. And we
owe it to -’
’A woman of ill-omen. I need thy blessings
as much as I do thy curses. It is my order and
none of thine. Lift and away! Here!
Hast thou money for the road?’
She beckoned Kim to her hut, and stooped above a battered
English cash-box under her cot.
‘I do not need anything,’ said Kim, angered
where he should have been grateful. ‘I
am already rudely loaded with favours.’
She looked up with a curious smile and laid a hand
on his shoulder. ’At least, thank me.
I am foul-faced and a hillwoman, but, as thy talk
goes, I have acquired merit. Shall I show thee
how the Sahibs render thanks?’ and her hard
eyes softened.
‘I am but a wandering priest,’ said Kim,
his eyes lighting in answer. ‘Thou needest
neither my blessings nor my curses.’
’Nay. But for one little moment —
thou canst overtake the dooli in ten strides —
if thou wast a Sahib, shall I show thee what thou
wouldst do?’
‘How if I guess, though?’ said Kim, and
putting his arm round her waist, he kissed her on
the cheek, adding in English: ’Thank you
verree much, my dear.’
Kissing is practically unknown among Asiatics, which
may have been the reason that she leaned back with
wide-open eyes and a face of panic.
‘Next time,’ Kim went on, ’you must
not be so sure of your heatthen priests. Now
I say good-bye.’ He held out his hand English-fashion.
She took it mechanically. ‘Good-bye, my
dear.’
‘Good-bye, and — and’ — she
was remembering her English words one by one -’you
will come back again? Good-bye, and — thee
God bless you.’
Half an hour later, as the creaking litter jolted
up the hill path that leads south-easterly from Shamlegh,
Kim saw a tiny figure at the hut door waving a white
rag.
‘She has acquired merit beyond all others,’
said the lama. ’For to set a man upon
the way to Freedom is half as great as though she had
herself found it.’
‘Umm,’ said Kim thoughtfully, considering
the past. ’It may be that I have acquired
merit also ... At least she did not treat me
like a child.’ He hitched the front of
his robe, where lay the slab of documents and maps,
re-stowed the precious food-bag at the lama’s
feet, laid his hand on the litter’s edge, and
buckled down to the slow pace of the grunting husbands.
‘These also acquire merit,’ said the lama
after three miles.
‘More than that, they shall be paid in silver,’
quoth Kim. The Woman of Shamlegh had given it
to him; and it was only fair, he argued, that her
men should earn it back again.
