Kim

backwater of life, he was not prepared for Hurree Babu. It annoyed

him, too, that he had been hoodwinked.

'Ah ha! I told you at Lucknow--resurgam--I shall rise again and you

shall not know me. How much did you bet--eh?'

He chewed leisurely upon a few cardamom seeds, but he breathed uneasily.

'But why come here, Babuji?'

'Ah! Thatt is the question, as Shakespeare hath it. I come to

congratulate you on your extraordinary effeecient performance at Delhi.

Oah! I tell you we are all proud of you. It was verree neat and

handy. Our mutual friend, he is old friend of mine. He has been in

some dam'-tight places. Now he will be in some more. He told me; I

tell Mr Lurgan; and he is pleased you graduate so nicely. All the

Department is pleased.'

For the first time in his life, Kim thrilled to the clean pride (it can

be a deadly pitfall, none the less) of Departmental praise--ensnaring

praise from an equal of work appreciated by fellow-workers. Earth has

nothing on the same plane to compare with it. But, cried the Oriental

in him, Babus do not travel far to retail compliments.

'Tell thy tale, Babu,' he said authoritatively.

'Oah, it is nothing. Onlee I was at Simla when the wire came in about

what our mutual friend said he had hidden, and old Creighton--' He

looked to see how Kim would take this piece of audacity.

'The Colonel Sahib,' the boy from St Xavier's corrected. 'Of course.

He found me at a loose string, and I had to go down to Chitor to find

that beastly letter. I do not like the South--too much railway travel;

but I drew good travelling allowance. Ha! Ha! I meet our mutual at

Delhi on the way back. He lies quiett just now, and says

Saddhu-disguise suits him to the ground. Well, there I hear what you

have done so well, so quickly, upon the instantaneous spur of the

moment. I tell our mutual you take the bally bun, by Jove! It was

splendid. I come to tell you so.'

'Umm!'

The frogs were busy in the ditches, and the moon slid to her setting.

Some happy servant had gone out to commune with the night and to beat

upon a drum. Kim's next sentence was in the vernacular.

'How didst thou follow us?'

'Oah. Thatt was nothing. I know from our mutual friend you go to

Saharunpore. So I come on. Red Lamas are not inconspicuous persons. I

buy myself my drug-box, and I am very good doctor really. I go to

Akrola of the Ford, and hear all about you, and I talk here and talk

there. All the common people know what you do. I knew when the

hospitable old lady sent the dooli. They have great recollections of

the old lama's visits here. I know old ladies cannot keep their hands

from medicines. So I am a doctor, and--you hear my talk? I think it

is verree good. My word, Mister O'Hara, they know about you and the

lama for fifty miles--the common people. So I come. Do you mind?'

'Babuji,' said Kim, looking up at the broad, grinning face, 'I am a

Sahib.'

'My dear Mister O'Hara--'

'And I hope to play the Great Game.'

'You are subordinate to me departmentally at present.'

'Then why talk like an ape in a tree? Men do not come after one from

Simla and change their dress, for the sake of a few sweet words. I am

not a child. Talk Hindi and let us get to the yolk of the egg. Thou

art here--speaking not one word of truth in ten. Why art thou here?

Give a straight answer.'

'That is so verree disconcerting of the Europeans, Mister O'Hara. You

should know a heap better at your time of life.'

'But I want to know,' said Kim, laughing. 'If it is the Game, I may

help. How can I do anything if you bukh [babble] all round the shop?'

Hurree Babu reached for the pipe, and sucked it till it gurgled again.

'Now I will speak vernacular. You sit tight, Mister O'Hara ... It

concerns the pedigree of a white stallion.'

'Still? That was finished long ago.'

'When everyone is dead the Great Game is finished. Not before. Listen

to me till the end. There were Five Kings who prepared a sudden war

three years ago, when thou wast given the stallion's pedigree by Mahbub

Ali. Upon them, because of that news, and ere they were ready, fell

our Army.'

'Ay--eight thousand men with guns. I remember that night.'

'But the war was not pushed. That is the Government custom. The

troops were recalled because the Government believed the Five Kings

were cowed; and it is not cheap to feed men among the high Passes.

Hilas and Bunar--Rajahs with guns--undertook for a price to guard the

Passes against all coming from the North. They protested both fear and

friendship.' He broke off with a giggle into English: 'Of course, I

tell you this unoffeecially to elucidate political situation, Mister

O'Hara. Offeecially, I am debarred from criticizing any action of

superiors. Now I go on.--This pleased the Government, anxious to avoid

expense, and a bond was made for so many rupees a month that Hilas and

Bunar should guard the Passes as soon as the State's troops were

withdrawn. At that time--it was after we two met--I, who had been

selling tea in Leh, became a clerk of accounts in the Army. When the

troops were withdrawn, I was left behind to pay the coolies who made

new roads in the Hills. This road-making was part of the bond between

Bunar, Hilas, and the Government.'

'So? And then?'

'I tell you, it was jolly-beastly cold up there too, after summer,'

said Hurree Babu confidentially. 'I was afraid these Bunar men would

cut my throat every night for thee pay-chest. My native sepoy-guard,

they laughed at me! By Jove! I was such a fearful man. Nevar mind

thatt. I go on colloquially ... I send word many times that these two

Kings were sold to the North; and Mahbub Ali, who was yet farther

North, amply confirmed it. Nothing was done. Only my feet were

frozen, and a toe dropped off. I sent word that the roads for which I

was paying money to the diggers were being made for the feet of

strangers and enemies.'

'For?'

'For the Russians. The thing was an open jest among the coolies. Then

I was called down to tell what I knew by speech of tongue. Mahbub came

South too. See the end! Over the Passes this year after

snow-melting'--he shivered afresh--'come two strangers under cover of

shooting wild goats. They bear guns, but they bear also chains and

levels and compasses.'

'Oho! The thing gets clearer.'

'They are well received by Hilas and Bunar. They make great promises;

they speak as the mouthpiece of a Kaisar with gifts. Up the valleys,

down the valleys go they, saying, "Here is a place to build a

breastwork; here can ye pitch a fort. Here can ye hold the road

against an army"--the very roads for which I paid out the rupees

monthly. The Government knows, but does nothing. The three other

Kings, who were not paid for guarding the Passes, tell them by runner

of the bad faith of Bunar and Hilas. When all the evil is done, look

you--when these two strangers with the levels and the compasses make

the Five Kings to believe that a great army will sweep the Passes

tomorrow or the next day--Hill-people are all fools--comes the order to

me, Hurree Babu, "Go North and see what those strangers do." I say to

Creighton Sahib, "This is not a lawsuit, that we go about to collect

evidence."' Hurree returned to his English with a jerk: "'By Jove," I

said, "why the dooce do you not issue demi-offeecial orders to some

brave man to poison them, for an example? It is, if you permit the