'He will make a clever juggler when the old man is dead,' muttered the priest to the headman. 'What new trick is this?' 'A sign. Give me a sign,' thundered the old soldier suddenly. 'If there were war my sons would have told me.' 'When all is ready, thy sons, doubt not, will be told. But it is a long road from thy sons to the man in whose hands these things lie.' Kim warmed to the game, for it reminded him of experiences in the letter-carrying line, when, for the sake of a few pice, he pretended to know more than he knew. But now he was playing for larger things--the sheer excitement and the sense of power. He drew a new breath and went on. 'Old man, give me a sign. Do underlings order the goings of eight thousand redcoats--with guns?' 'No.' Still the old man answered as though Kim were an equal. 'Dost thou know who He is then that gives the order?' 'I have seen Him.' 'To know again?' 'I have known Him since he was a lieutenant in the topkhana' (the Artillery). 'A tall man. A tall man with black hair, walking thus?' Kim took a few paces in a stiff, wooden style. 'Ay. But that any one may have seen.' The crowd were breathless-still through all this talk. 'That is true,' said Kim. 'But I will say more. Look now. First the great man walks thus. Then He thinks thus. (Kim drew a forefinger over his forehead and downwards till it came to rest by the angle of the jaw.) Anon He twitches his fingers thus. Anon He thrusts his hat under his left armpit.' Kim illustrated the motion and stood like a stork. The old man groaned, inarticulate with amazement; and the crowd shivered. 'So--so--so. But what does He when He is about to give an order?' 'He rubs the skin at the back of his neck--thus. Then falls one finger on the table and he makes a small sniffing noise through his nose. Then He speaks, saying: "Loose such and such a regiment. Call out such guns."' The old man rose stiffly and saluted. '"For"'--Kim translated into the vernacular the clinching sentences he had heard in the dressing-room at Umballa--'"For," says He, "we should have done this long ago. It is not war--it is a chastisement. Snff!"' 'Enough. I believe. I have seen Him thus in the smoke of battles. Seen and heard. It is He!' 'I saw no smoke'--Kim's voice shifted to the rapt sing-song of the wayside fortune-teller. 'I saw this in darkness. First came a man to make things clear. Then came horsemen. Then came He, standing in a ring of light. The rest followed as I have said. Old man, have I spoken truth?' 'It is He. Past all doubt it is He.' The crowd drew a long, quavering breath, staring alternately at the old man, still at attention, and ragged Kim against the purple twilight. 'Said I not--said I not he was from the other world?' cried the lama proudly. 'He is the Friend of all the World. He is the Friend of the Stars!'