He looked round the little clean cell complacently.  A low cushion gave him a seat, on which he had disposed himself in the cross-legged attitude of the Bodhisat emerging from meditation; a black teak-wood table, not twenty inches high, set with copper tea-cups, was before him.  In one corner stood a tiny altar, also of heavily carved teak, bearing a copper-gilt image of the seated Buddha and fronted by a lamp, an incense-holder, and a pair of copper flower-pots.

’The Keeper of the Images in the Wonder House acquired merit by giving me these a year since,’ he said, following Kim’s eye.  ’When one is far from one’s own land such things carry remembrance; and we must reverence the Lord for that He showed the Way.  See!’ He pointed to a curiously-built mound of coloured rice crowned with a fantastic metal ornament.  ’When I was Abbot in my own place — before I came to better knowledge I made that offering daily.  It is the Sacrifice of the Universe to the Lord.  Thus do we of Bhotiyal offer all the world daily to the Excellent Law.  And I do it even now, though I know that the Excellent One is beyond all pinchings and pattings.’  He snuffed from his gourd.

‘It is well done, Holy One,’ Kim murmured, sinking at ease on the cushions, very happy and rather tired.

‘And also,’ the old man chuckled, ’I write pictures of the Wheel of Life.  Three days to a picture.  I was busied on it — or it may be I shut my eyes a little — when they brought word of thee.  It is good to have thee here:  I will show thee my art — not for pride’s sake, but because thou must learn.  The Sahibs have not all this world’s wisdom.’

He drew from under the table a sheet of strangely scented yellow Chinese paper, the brushes, and slab of Indian ink.  In cleanest, severest outline he had traced the Great Wheel with its six spokes, whose centre is the conjoined Hog, Snake, and Dove (Ignorance, Anger, and Lust), and whose compartments are all the Heavens and Hells, and all the chances of human life.  Men say that the Bodhisat Himself first drew it with grains of rice upon dust, to teach His disciples the cause of things.  Many ages have crystallized it into a most wonderful convention crowded with hundreds of little figures whose every line carries a meaning.  Few can translate the picture-parable; there are not twenty in all the world who can draw it surely without a copy:  of those who can both draw and expound are but three.

‘I have a little learned to draw,’ said Kim.  ’But this is a marvel beyond marvels.’

‘I have written it for many years,’ said the lama.  ’Time was when I could write it all between one lamp-lighting and the next.  I will teach thee the art — after due preparation; and I will show thee the meaning of the Wheel.’

‘We take the Road, then?’