“Patience a little! We reach Freedom together. Then thou and I, upon the far bank of the River, will look back upon our lives as in the Hills we saw our days’ marches laid out behind us. Perhaps I was once a Sahib.”
“Was never a Sahib like thee, I swear it.”
“I am certain the Keeper of the Images in the Wonder House was in past life a very wise Abbot. But even his spectacles do not make my eyes see. There fall shadows when I would look steadily. No matter—we know the tricks of the poor stupid carcass—shadow changing to another shadow. I am bound by the illusion of Time and Space. How far came we today in the flesh?”
“Perhaps half a kos .” Three quarters of a mile, and it was a weary march.
“Half a kos . Ha! I went ten thousand thousand in the spirit. How, we are all lapped and swathed and swaddled in these senseless things.” He looked at his thin blue-veined hand that found the beads so heavy. “ Chela , hast thou never a wish to leave me?”
Kim thought of the oilskin packet and the books in the food-bag. If someone duly authorized would only take delivery of them the Great Game might play itself for aught he then cared. He was tired and hot in his head, and a cough that came from the stomach worried him.
“No,” he said almost sternly. “I am not a dog or a snake to bite when I have learned to love.”
“Thou art too tender towards me.”
“Not that either. I have moved in one matter without consulting thee. I have sent a message to the Kulu woman by that woman who gave us the goat’s milk this morn, saying that thou wast a little feeble and wouldst need a litter. I beat myself in my mind that I did not do it when we entered the Doon. We stay in this place till the litter returns.”