‘Who is that one?’

’An exceedingly holy one.  He comes from far off.  He comes from Tibet.’

‘Where in Tibet?’

’From behind the snows — from a very far place.  He knows the stars; he makes horoscopes; he reads nativities.  But he does not do this for money.  He does it for kindness and great charity.  I am his disciple.  I am called also the Friend of the Stars.’

‘Thou art no hillman.’

’Ask him.  He will tell thee I was sent to him from the Stars to show him an end to his pilgrimage.’

’Humph!  Consider, brat, that I am an old woman and not altogether a fool.  Lamas I know, and to these I give reverence, but thou art no more a lawful chela than this my finger is the pole of this wagon.  Thou art a casteless Hindu — a bold and unblushing beggar, attached, belike, to the Holy One for the sake of gain.’

‘Do we not all work for gain?’ Kim changed his tone promptly to match that altered voice.  ‘I have heard’ — this was a bow drawn at a venture — ‘I have heard -’

‘What hast thou heard?’ she snapped, rapping with the finger.

’Nothing that I well remember, but some talk in the bazars, which is doubtless a lie, that even Rajahs — small Hill Rajahs -’

‘But none the less of good Rajput blood.’

’Assuredly of good blood.  That these even sell the more comely of their womenfolk for gain.  Down south they sell them — to zemindars and such — all of Oudh.’

If there be one thing in the world that the small Hill Rajahs deny it is just this charge; but it happens to be one thing that the bazars believe, when they discuss the mysterious slave-traffics of India.  The old lady explained to Kim, in a tense, indignant whisper, precisely what manner and fashion of malignant liar he was.  Had Kim hinted this when she was a girl, he would have been pommelled to death that same evening by an elephant.  This was perfectly true.

‘Ahai!  I am only a beggar’s brat, as the Eye of Beauty has said,’ he wailed in extravagant terror.

’Eye of Beauty, forsooth!  Who am I that thou shouldst fling beggar-endearments at me?’ And yet she laughed at the long-forgotten word.  ’Forty years ago that might have been said, and not without truth.  Ay. thirty years ago.  But it is the fault of this gadding up and down Hind that a king’s widow must jostle all the scum of the land, and be made a mock by beggars.’

‘Great Queen,’ said Kim promptly, for he heard her shaking with indignation, ’I am even what the Great Queen says I am; but none the less is my master holy.  He has not yet heard the Great Queen’s order that -’

’Order?  I order a Holy One — a Teacher of the Law — to come and speak to a woman?  Never!’

‘Pity my stupidity.  I thought it was given as an order -’

‘It was not.  It was a petition.  Does this make all clear?’

A silver coin clicked on the edge of the cart.  Kim took it and salaamed profoundly.  The old lady recognized that, as the eyes and the ears of the lama, he was to be propitiated.