Ho ! Friend of all the World , a war is toward as thou hast said . ' ` Nay , as I know , the war , ' returned Kim composedly . ` Eh ? ' said the lama , fingering his beads , all eager for the road . ` My master does not trouble the Stars for hire . We brought the news bear witness , we brought the news , and now we go . ' Kim half-crooked his hand at his side . The son tossed a silver coin through the sunlight , grumbling something about beggars and jugglers . It was a four-anna piece , and would feed them well for days . The lama , seeing the flash of the metal , droned a blessing . ` Go thy way , Friend of all the World , ' piped the old soldier , wheeling his scrawny mount . ` For once in all my days I have met a true prophet -- who was not in the Army . ' Father and son swung round together : the old man sitting as erect as the younger . A Punjabi constable in yellow linen trousers slouched across the road . He had seen the money pass . ` Halt ! ' he cried in impressive English . ` Know ye not that there is a takkus of two annas a head , which is four annas , on those who enter the Road from this side-road ? It is the order of the Sirkar , and the money is spent for the planting of trees and the beautification of the ways . '
` And the bellies of the police , ' said XXXXX , slipping out of arm 's reach .
Army English Ho Kim World annas days lama side-road takkus