'And I cannot see any need why he should wait,' said Bennett,
feeling in his trouser-pocket. 'We can investigate the details
later - and I will give him a ru -'

'Give him time. Maybe he's fond of the lad,' said Father Victor,
half arresting the clergyman's motion.

The lama dragged forth his rosary and pulled his huge hat-brim over
his eyes.

'What can he want now?'

'He says' - Kim put up one hand. 'He says: "Be quiet." He wants to
speak to me by himself. You see, you do not know one little word of
what he says, and I think if you talk he will perhaps give you very
bad curses. When he takes those beads like that, you see, he always
wants to be quiet.'

The two Englishmen sat overwhelmed, but there was a look in
Bennett's eye that promised ill for Kim when he should be relaxed
to the religious arm.

'A Sahib and the son of a Sahib -' The lama's voice was harsh with
pain. 'But no white man knows the land and the customs of the land
as thou knowest. How comes it this is true?'

'What matter, Holy One? - but remember it is only for a night or
two. Remember, I can change swiftly. It will all be as it was when
I first spoke to thee under Zam-Zammah the great gun -'