They came out on a broad tract of grazing-ground , brown and purple in the afternoon light , with a heavy clump of mangoes in the centre . It struck Kim as curious that no shrine stood in so eligible a spot : the boy was observing as any priest for these things . Far across the plain walked side by side four men , made small by the distance . He looked intently under his curved palms and caught the sheen of brass . ` Soldiers . White soldiers ! ' said he . ` Let us see . ' ` It is always soldiers when thou and I go out alone together . But I have never seen the white soldiers . ' ` They do no harm except when they are drunk . Keep behind this tree . ' They stepped behind the thick trunks in the cool dark of the mango-tope . Two little figures halted ; the other two came forward uncertainly . They were the advance-party of a regiment on the march , sent out , as usual , to mark the camp . They bore five-foot sticks with fluttering flags , and called to each other as they spread over the flat earth . At last they entered the mango-grove , walking heavily . ` It 's here or hereabouts -- officers ' tents under the trees , I take it , an ' the rest of us can stay outside . Have they marked out for the baggage-wagons behind ? ' They cried again to their comrades in the distance , and the rough answer came back faint and mellowed .
` Shove the flag in here , then , ' XXXXX one .
Keep cried go halted made mark said see stay walking