Kim | Page 8

When our gracious Lord, being as
yet a youth, sought a mate, men said, in His father's Court, that He was too tender for
marriage. Thou knowest?'
The Curator nodded, wondering what would come next.
'So they made the triple trial of strength against all comers. And at the test of the Bow,
our Lord first breaking that which they gave Him, called for such a bow as none might
bend. Thou knowest?'
'It is written. I have read.'
'And, overshooting all other marks, the arrow passed far and far beyond sight. At the last
it fell; and, where it touched earth, there broke out a stream which presently became a
River, whose nature, by our Lord's beneficence, and that merit He acquired ere He freed
himself, is that whoso bathes in it washes away all taint and speckle of sin.'
'So it is written,' said the Curator sadly.
The lama drew a long breath. "Where is that River? Fountain of Wisdom, where fell the
arrow?"

'Alas, my brother, I do not know,' said the Curator.
'Nay, if it please thee to forget - the one thing only that thou hast not told me. Surely thou
must know? See, I am an old man! I ask with my head between thy feet, O Fountain of
Wisdom. We know He drew the bow! We know the arrow fell! We know the stream
gushed! Where, then, is the River? My dream told me to find it. So I came. I am here. But
where is the River?'
'If I knew, think you I would not cry it aloud?'
'By it one attains freedom from the Wheel of Things,' the lama went on, unheeding. 'The
River of the Arrow! Think again! Some little stream, maybe - dried in the heats? But the
Holy One would never so cheat an old man.'
'I do not know. I do not know.'
The lama brought his thousand-wrinkled face once more a handsbreadth from the
Englishman's. 'I see thou dost not know. Not being of the Law, the matter is hid from
thee.'
'Ay - hidden - hidden.'
'We are both bound, thou and I, my brother. But I' - he rose with a sweep of the soft thick
drapery - 'I go to cut myself free. Come also!'
'I am bound,' said the Curator. 'But whither goest thou?'
'First to Kashi [Benares]: where else? There I shall meet one of the pure faith in a Jain
temple of that city. He also is a Seeker in secret, and from him haply I may learn. Maybe
he will go with me to Buddh Gaya. Thence north and west to Kapilavastu, and there will
I seek for the River. Nay, I will seek everywhere as I go - for the place is not known
where the arrow fell.'
'And how wilt thou go? It is a far cry to Delhi, and farther to Benares.'
'By road and the trains. From Pathankot, having left the Hills, I came hither in a te-rain. It
goes swiftly. At first I was amazed to see those tall poles by the side of the road snatching
up and snatching up their threads,' - he illustrated the stoop and whirl of a telegraph-pole
flashing past the train. 'But later, I was cramped and desired to walk, as I am used.'
'And thou art sure of thy road?' said the Curator.
'Oh, for that one but asks a question and pays money, and the appointed persons despatch
all to the appointed place. That much I knew in my lamassery from sure report,' said the
lama proudly.
'And when dost thou go?' The Curator smiled at the mixture of old-world piety and
modern progress that is the note of India today.
'As soon as may be. I follow the places of His life till I come to the River of the Arrow.
There is, moreover, a written paper of the hours of the trains that go south.'
'And for food?' Lamas, as a rule, have good store of money somewhere about them, but
the Curator wished to make sure.
'For the journey, I take up the Master's begging-bowl. Yes. Even as He went so go I,
forsaking the ease of my monastery. There was with me when I left the hills a chela
[disciple] who begged for me as the Rule demands, but halting in Kulu awhile a fever
took him and he died. I have now no chela, but I will take the alms- bowl and thus enable
the charitable to acquire merit.' He nodded his head valiantly. Learned doctors of a
lamassery do not beg, but the lama was an enthusiast in this quest.
'Be it so,' said the Curator, smiling. 'Suffer me now to acquire merit. We be craftsmen
together, thou and I. Here