wooden rosary beads.

'It irks me,' he said at last. 'The speed and the clatter irk me.
Moreover, my chela, I think that maybe we have over-passed that
River.'

'Peace, peace,' said Kim. 'Was not the River near Benares? We are
yet far from the place.'

'But - if our Lord came North, it may be any one of these little
ones that we have run across.'

'I do not know.'

'But thou wast sent to me - wast thou sent to me? - for the merit
I had acquired over yonder at Such-zen. From beside the cannon
didst thou come - bearing two faces - and two garbs.'

'Peace. One must not speak of these things here,' whispered Kim.
'There was but one of me. Think again and thou wilt remember. A
boy - a Hindu boy - by the great green cannon.'

'But was there not also an Englishman with a white beard holy
among images - who himself made more sure my assurance of the
River of the Arrow?'

'He - we - went to the Ajaib-Gher in Lahore to pray before the
Gods there,' Kim explained to the openly listening company. 'And
the Sahib of the Wonder House talked to him - yes, this is truth
as a brother. He is a very holy man, from far beyond the Hills.