‘I know the boy — as I have said.’

‘And he was all those things?’

’Some of them — but I have not yet found a Red Hat’s charm for making him overly truthful.  He has certainly been well nursed.’

‘The Sahiba is a heart of gold,’ said the lama earnestly.  ’She looks upon him as her son.’

’Hmph!  Half Hind seems that way disposed.  I only wished to see that the boy had come to no harm and was a free agent.  As thou knowest, he and I were old friends in the first days of your pilgrimage together.’

‘That is a bond between us.’  The lama sat down.  ’We are at the end of the pilgrimage.’

’No thanks to thee thine was not cut off for good and all a week back.  I heard what the Sahiba said to thee when we bore thee up on the cot.’  Mahbub laughed, and tugged his newly dyed beard.

’I was meditating upon other matters that tide.  It was the hakim from Dacca broke my meditations.’

‘Otherwise’ — this was in Pushtu for decency’s sake — ’thou wouldst have ended thy meditations upon the sultry side of Hell — being an unbeliever and an idolater for all thy child’s simplicity.  But now, Red Hat, what is to be done?’

‘This very night,’ — the words came slowly, vibrating with triumph — ’this very night he will be as free as I am from all taint of sin — assured as I am, when he quits this body, of Freedom from the Wheel of Things.  I have a sign’ — he laid his hand above the torn chart in his bosom — ’that my time is short; but I shall have safeguarded him throughout the years.  Remember, I have reached Knowledge, as I told thee only three nights back.’

’It must be true, as the Tirah priest said when I stole his cousin’s wife, that I am a Sufi [a free-thinker]; for here I sit,’ said Mahbub to himself, ’drinking in blasphemy unthinkable ...  I remember the tale.  On that, then, he goes to Fannatu l’Adn [the Gardens of Eden].  But how?  Wilt thou slay him or drown him in that wonderful river from which the Babu dragged thee?’

‘I was dragged from no river,’ said the lama simply.  ’Thou hast forgotten what befell.  I found it by Knowledge.’

‘Oh, ay.  True,’ stammered Mahbub, divided between high indignation and enormous mirth.  ’I had forgotten the exact run of what happened.  Thou didst find it knowingly.’

’And to say that I would take life is — not a sin, but a madness simple.  My chela aided me to the River.  It is his right to be cleansed from sin — with me.’

‘Ay, he needs cleansing.  But afterwards, old man — afterwards?’

’What matter under all the Heavens?  He is sure of Nibban — enlightened — as I am.’

’Well said.  I had a fear he might mount Mohammed’s Horse and fly away.’

‘Nay — he must go forth as a teacher.’

’Aha!  Now I see!  That is the right gait for the colt.  Certainly he must go forth as a teacher.  He is somewhat urgently needed as a scribe by the State, for instance.’