He had been diligent, even as the Colonel advised.

A boy's holiday was his own property--of so much the talk of his companions had advised him,--and a barrack-school would be torment after St Xavier's.

Moreover--this was magic worth anything else--he could write.

In three months he had discovered how men can speak to each other without a third party, at the cost of half an anna and a little knowledge.

No word had come from the lama, but there remained the Road.