They wore un-English leggings and curious girt-in belts that reminded him hazily of the pictures in a book in St Xavier 's library `` The Adventures of a Young Naturalist in Mexico '' was its name . Yes , they looked very like the wonderful M. Sumichrast of that tale , and very unlike the ` highly unscrupulous folk ' of Hurree Babu 's imagining . The coolies , earth-coloured and mute , crouched reverently some twenty or thirty yards away , and the Babu , the slack of his thin gear snapping like a marking-flag in the chill breeze , stood by with an air of happy proprietorship . ` These are the men , ' Hurree whispered , as the ritual went on and the two whites followed the grass-blade sweeping from Hell to Heaven and back again . ` All their books are in the large kilta with the reddish top -- books and reports and maps -- and I have seen a King 's letter that either Hilas or Bunar has written . They guard it most carefully . They have sent nothing back from Hilas or Leh . That is sure . ' ` Who is with them ? ' ` Only the beegar-coolies . They have no servants . They are so close they cook their own food . ' ` But what am I to do ? ' ` Wait and see . Only if any chance comes to me thou wilt know where to seek for the papers . ' ` This were better in Mahbub Ali 's hands than a Bengali 's , ' said Kim scornfully . ` There are more ways of getting to a sweetheart than butting down a wall . ' ` See here the Hell appointed for avarice and greed . Flanked upon the one side by Desire and on the other by Weariness . ' The lama warmed to his work , and one of the strangers sketched him in the quick-fading light .
` That is enough , ' the man XXXXX at last brusquely . '
See am butting crouched getting guard said seen sent warmed