Kim by Rudyard Kipling (best summer reads of all time TXT) 📖

‘Powers of Darkness below!’ said Father Victor, who, wise in the confessional, heard the pain in every sentence.

‘I see now that the sign of the Red Bull was a sign for me as well as for thee. All Desire is red - and evil. I will do penance and find my River alone.’

‘At least go back to the Kulu woman,’ said Kim, ‘otherwise thou wilt be lost upon the roads. She will feed thee till I run back to thee.’

The lama waved a hand to show that the matter was finally settled in his mind.

‘Now,’ - his tone altered as he turned to Kim, - ‘what will they do with thee? At least I may, acquiring merit, wipe out past ill.’

‘Make me a Sahib - so they think. The day after tomorrow I return. Do not grieve.’

‘Of what sort? Such an one as this or that man?’ He pointed to Father Victor. ‘Such an one as those I saw this evening, men wearing swords and stamping heavily?’

‘Maybe.’

‘That is not well. These men follow desire and come to emptiness. Thou must not be of their sort.’

‘The Umballa priest said that my Star was War,’ Kim interjected. ‘I will ask these fools - but there is truly no need. I will run away this night, for all I wanted to see the new things.’

Kim put two or three questions in English to Father Victor, translating the replies to the lama.

Then: ‘He says, “You take him from me and you cannot say what you will make him.” He says, “Tell me before I go, for it is not a small thing to make a child.”’

‘You will be sent to a school. Later on, we shall see. Kimball, I suppose you’d like to be a soldier?’

‘Gorah-log [white-folk]. No-ah! No-ah!’ Kim shook his head violently. There was nothing in his composition to which drill and routine appealed. ‘I will not be a soldier.’

‘You will be what you’re told to be,’ said Bennett; ‘and you should be grateful that we’re going to help you.’

Kim smiled compassionately. If these men lay under the delusion that he would do anything that he did not fancy, so much the better.

Another long silence followed. Bennett fidgeted with impatience, and suggested calling a sentry to evict the fakir.

‘Do they give or sell learning among the Sahibs? Ask them,’ said the lama, and Kim interpreted.

‘They say that money is paid to the teacher - but that money the Regiment will give … What need? It is only for a night.’

‘And - the more money is paid the better learning is given?’ The lama disregarded Kim’s plans for an early flight. ‘It is no wrong to pay for learning. To help the ignorant to wisdom is always a merit.’ The rosary clicked furiously as an abacus. Then he faced his oppressors.

‘Ask them for how much money do they give a wise and suitable teaching? And in what city is that teaching given?’

‘Well,’ said Father Victor in English, when Kim had translated, ‘that depends. The Regiment would pay for you all the time you are at the Military Orphanage; or you might go on the Punjab Masonic Orphanage’s list (not that he or you ‘ud understand what that means); but the best schooling a boy can get in India is, of course, at St Xavier’s in Partibus at Lucknow.’ This took some time to interpret, for Bennett wished to cut it short.

‘He wants to know how much?’ said Kim placidly.

‘Two or three hundred rupees a year.’ Father Victor was long past any sense of amazement. Bennett, impatient, did not understand.

‘He says: “Write that name and the money upon a paper and give it him.” And he says you must write your name below, because he is going to write a letter in some days to you. He says you are a good man. He says the other man is a fool. He is going away.’

The lama rose suddenly. ‘I follow my Search,’ he cried, and was gone.

‘He’ll run slap into the sentries,’ cried Father Victor, jumping up as the lama stalked out; ‘but I can’t leave the boy.’ Kim made swift motion to follow, but checked himself. There was no sound of challenge outside. The lama had disappeared.

Kim settled himself composedly on the Chaplain’s cot. At least the lama had promised that he would stay with the Raiput woman from Kulu, and the rest was of the smallest importance. It pleased him that the two padres were so evidently excited. They talked long in undertones, Father Victor urging some scheme on Mr Bennett, who seemed incredulous. All this was very new and fascinating, but Kim felt sleepy. They called men into the tent - one of them certainly was the Colonel, as his father had prophesied - and they asked him an infinity of questions, chiefly about the woman who looked after him, all of which Kim answered truthfully. They did not seem to think the woman a good guardian.

After all, this was the newest of his experiences. Sooner or later, if he chose, he could escape into great, grey, formless India, beyond tents and padres and colonels. Meantime, if the Sahibs were to be impressed, he would do his best to impress them. He too was a white man.

After much talk that he could not comprehend, they handed him over to a sergeant, who had strict instructions not to let him escape. The Regiment would go on to Umballa, and Kim would be sent up, partly at the expense of the Lodge and in part by subscription, to a place called Sanawar.

‘It’s miraculous past all whooping, Colonel,’ said Father Victor, when he had talked without a break for ten minutes. ‘His Buddhist friend has levanted after taking my name and address. I can’t quite make out whether he’ll pay for the boy’s education or whether he is preparing some sort of witchcraft on his own account.’ Then to Kim: ‘You’ll live to be grateful to your friend the Red Bull yet. We’ll make a man of you at Sanawar - even at the price o’ making you a Protestant.’

‘Certainly - most certainly,’ said Bennett.

‘But you will not go to Sanawar,’ said Kim.

‘But we will go to Sanawar, little man. That’s the order of the Commander-in-Chief, who’s a trifle more important than O’Hara’s son.’

‘You will not go to Sanawar. You will go to thee War.’

There was a shout of laughter from the full tent.

‘When you know your own Regiment a trifle better you won’t confuse the line of march with line of battle, Kim. We hope to go to “thee War” sometime.’

‘Oah, I know all thatt.’ Kim drew his bow again at a venture. If they were not going to the war, at least they did not know what he knew of the talk in the veranda at Umballa.

‘I know you are not at thee war now; but I tell you that as soon as you get to Umballa you will be sent to the war - the new war. It is a war of eight thousand men, besides the guns.’

‘That’s explicit. D’you add prophecy to your other gifts? Take him along, sergeant. Take up a suit for him from the Drums, an’ take care he doesn’t slip through your fingers. Who says the age of miracles is gone by? I think I’ll go to bed. My poor mind’s weakening.’

At the far end of the camp, silent as a wild animal, an hour later sat Kim, newly washed all over, in a horrible stiff suit that rasped his arms and legs.

‘A most amazin’ young bird,’ said the sergeant. ‘He turns up in charge of a yellow-headed buck-Brahmin priest, with his father’s Lodge certificates round his neck, talkin’ God knows what all of a red bull. The buck-Brahmin evaporates without explanations, an’ the bhoy sets cross-legged on the Chaplain’s bed prophesyin’ bloody war to the men at large. Injia’s a wild land for a God-fearin’ man. I’ll just tie his leg to the tent-pole in case he’ll go through the roof. What did ye say about the war?’

‘Eight thousand men, besides guns,’ said Kim. ‘Very soon you will see.’

‘You’re a consolin’ little imp. Lie down between the Drums an’ go to bye-bye. Those two boys will watch your slumbers.’