Kim

done; and I see my road all clear before me to a good service. I will

stay in the madrissah till I am ripe.'

'Well said. Especially are distances and numbers and the manner of

using compasses to be learned in that game. One waits in the Hills

above to show thee.'

'I will learn their teaching upon a condition--that my time is given to

me without question when the madrissah is shut. Ask that for me of the

Colonel.'

'But why not ask the Colonel in the Sahibs' tongue?'

'The Colonel is the servant of the Government. He is sent hither and

yon at a word, and must consider his own advancement. (See how much I

have already learned at Nucklao!) Moreover, the Colonel I know since

three months only. I have known one Mahbub Ali for six years. So! To

the madrissah I will go. At the madrissah I will learn. In the

madrissah I will be a Sahib. But when the madrissah is shut, then must

I be free and go among my people. Otherwise I die!'

'And who are thy people, Friend of all the World?'

'This great and beautiful land,' said Kim, waving his paw round the

little clay-walled room where the oil-lamp in its niche burned heavily

through the tobacco-smoke. 'And, further, I would see my lama again.

And, further, I need money.'

'That is the need of everyone,' said Mahbub ruefully. 'I will give

thee eight annas, for much money is not picked out of horses' hooves,

and it must suffice for many days. As to all the rest, I am well

pleased, and no further talk is needed. Make haste to learn, and in

three years, or it may be less, thou wilt be an aid--even to me.'

'Have I been such a hindrance till now?' said Kim, with a boy's giggle.

'Do not give answers,' Mahbub grunted. 'Thou art my new horse-boy. Go

and bed among my men. They are near the north end of the station, with

the horses.'

'They will beat me to the south end of the station if I come without

authority.'

Mahbub felt in his belt, wetted his thumb on a cake of Chinese ink, and

dabbed the impression on a piece of soft native paper. From Balkh to

Bombay men know that rough-ridged print with the old scar running

diagonally across it.

'That is enough to show my headman. I come in the morning.'

'By which road?' said Kim.

'By the road from the city. There is but one, and then we return to

Creighton Sahib. I have saved thee a beating.'

'Allah! What is a beating when the very head is loose on the

shoulders?'

Kim slid out quietly into the night, walked half round the house,

keeping close to the walls, and headed away from the station for a mile

or so. Then, fetching a wide compass, he worked back at leisure, for

he needed time to invent a story if any of Mahbub's retainers asked

questions.

They were camped on a piece of waste ground beside the railway, and,

being natives, had not, of course, unloaded the two trucks in which

Mahbub's animals stood among a consignment of country-breds bought by

the Bombay tram-company. The headman, a broken-down,

consumptive-looking Mohammedan, promptly challenged Kim, but was

pacified at sight of Mahbub's sign-manual.

'The Hajji has of his favour given me service,' said Kim testily. 'If

this be doubted, wait till he comes in the morning. Meantime, a place

by the fire.'

Followed the usual aimless babble that every low-caste native must

raise on every occasion. It died down, and Kim lay out behind the

little knot of Mahbub's followers, almost under the wheels of a

horse-truck, a borrowed blanket for covering. Now a bed among

brickbats and ballast-refuse on a damp night, between overcrowded

horses and unwashed Baltis, would not appeal to many white boys; but

Kim was utterly happy. Change of scene, service, and surroundings were

the breath of his little nostrils, and thinking of the neat white cots

of St Xavier's all arow under the punkah gave him joy as keen as the

repetition of the multiplication-table in English.

'I am very old,' he thought sleepily. 'Every month I become a year

more old. I was very young, and a fool to boot, when I took Mahbub's

message to Umballa. Even when I was with that white Regiment I was

very young and small and had no wisdom. But now I learn every day, and

in three years the Colonel will take me out of the madrissah and let me

go upon the Road with Mahbub hunting for horses' pedigrees, or maybe I

shall go by myself; or maybe I shall find the lama and go with him.

Yes; that is best. To walk again as a chela with my lama when he comes

back to Benares.'

The thoughts came more slowly and disconnectedly. He was plunging into

a beautiful dreamland when his ears caught a whisper, thin and sharp,

above the monotonous babble round the fire. It came from behind the

iron-skinned horse-truck.

'He is not here, then?'

'Where should he be but roystering in the city. Who looks for a rat in

a frog-pond? Come away. He is not our man.'

'He must not go back beyond the Passes a second time. It is the order.'

'Hire some woman to drug him. It is a few rupees only, and there is no

evidence.'

'Except the woman. It must be more certain; and remember the price

upon his head.'

'Ay, but the police have a long arm, and we are far from the Border.

If it were in Peshawur, now!'

'Yes--in Peshawur,' the second voice sneered. 'Peshawur, full of his

blood-kin--full of bolt-holes and women behind whose clothes he will

hide. Yes, Peshawur or Jehannum would suit us equally well.'

'Then what is the plan?'

'O fool, have I not told it a hundred times? Wait till he comes to lie

down, and then one sure shot. The trucks are between us and pursuit.

We have but to run back over the lines and go our way. They will not

see whence the shot came. Wait here at least till the dawn. What

manner of fakir art thou, to shiver at a little watching?'

'Oho!' thought Kim, behind close-shut eyes. 'Once again it is Mahbub.

Indeed a white stallion's pedigree is not a good thing to peddle to

Sahibs! Or maybe Mahbub has been selling other news. Now what is to

do, Kim? I know not where Mahbub houses, and if he comes here before

the dawn they will shoot him. That would be no profit for thee, Kim.

And this is not a matter for the police. That would be no profit for

Mahbub; and'--he giggled almost aloud--'I do not remember any lesson at

Nucklao which will help me. Allah! Here is Kim and yonder are they.

First, then, Kim must wake and go away, so that they shall not suspect.

A bad dream wakes a man--thus--'

He threw the blanket off his face, and raised himself suddenly with the

terrible, bubbling, meaningless yell of the Asiatic roused by nightmare.

'Urr-urr-urr-urr! Ya-la-la-la-la! Narain! The churel! The churel!'

A churel is the peculiarly malignant ghost of a woman who has died in

child-bed. She haunts lonely roads, her feet are turned backwards on

the ankles, and she leads men to torment.

Louder rose Kim's quavering howl, till at last he leaped to his feet

and staggered off sleepily, while the camp cursed him for waking them.

Some twenty yards farther up the line he lay down again, taking care

that the whisperers should hear his grunts and groans as he recomposed

himself. After a few minutes he rolled towards the road and stole away

into the thick darkness.

He paddled along swiftly till he came to a culvert, and dropped behind

it, his chin on a level with the coping-stone. Here he could command

all the night-traffic, himself unseen.

Two or three carts passed, jingling out to the suburbs; a coughing