‘Then he is not dead, think you?’
‘Fever might kill him. I do not fear for the boy otherwise. A monkey does not fall among trees.’
Next morning, on the same course, Mahbub’s stallion ranged alongside the Colonel.
‘It is as I had thought,’ said the horse-dealer. ‘He has come through Umballa at least, and there he has written a letter to me, having learned in the bazar that I was here.’
‘Read,’ said the Colonel, with a sigh of relief. It was absurd that a man of his position should take an interest in a little country-bred vagabond; but the Colonel remembered the conversation in the train, and often in the past few months had caught himself thinking of the queer, silent, self-possessed boy. His evasion, of course, was the height of insolence, but it argued some resource and nerve.
Mahbub’s eyes twinkled as he reined out into the centre of the cramped little plain, where none could come near unseen.
‘“The Friend of the Stars, who is the Friend of all the World — ”‘
‘What is this?’
‘A name we give him in Lahore city. “The Friend of all the World takes leave to go to his own places. He will come back upon the appointed day. Let the box and the bedding-roll be sent for; and if there has been a fault, let the Hand of Friendship turn aside the Whip of Calamity.” There is yet a little more, but — ’
‘No matter, read.’
‘“Certain things are not known to those who eat with forks. It is better to eat with both hands for a while. Speak soft words to those who do not understand this that the return may be propitious.” Now the manner in which that was cast is of course the work of the letter-writer, but see how wisely the boy has devised the matter of it so that no hint is given except to those who know!’
‘Is this the Hand of Friendship to avert the Whip of Calamity?’ laughed the Colonel.
‘See how wise is the boy. He would go back to the Road again, as I said. Not knowing yet thy trade — ’
‘I am not quite sure of that,’ the Colonel muttered.
‘He turns to me to make a peace between you. Is he not wise? He says he will return. He is but perfecting his knowledge. Think, Sahib! He has been three months at the school. And he is not mouthed to that bit. For my part, I rejoice: the pony learns the game.’
‘Ay, but another time he must not go alone.’
‘Why? He went alone before he came under the Colonel Sahib’s protection. When he comes to the Great Game he must go alone — alone, and at peril of his head. Then, if he spits, or sneezes, or sits down other than as the people do whom he watches, he may be slain. Why hinder him now? Remember how the Persians say: The jackal that lives in the wilds of Mazanderan can only be caught by the hounds of Mazanderan.’
‘True. It is true, Mahbub Ali. And if he comes to no harm, I do not desire anything better. But it is great insolence on his part.’
‘He does not tell me, even, whither he goes,’ said Mahbub. ‘He is no fool. When his time is accomplished he will come to me. It is time the healer of pearls took him in hand. He ripens too quickly — as Sahibs reckon.’
This prophecy was fulfilled to the letter a month later. Mahbub had gone down to Umballa to bring up a fresh consignment of horses, and Kim met him on the Kalka road at dusk riding alone, begged an alms of him, was sworn at, and replied in English. There was nobody within earshot to hear Mahbub’s gasp of amazement.
‘Oho! And where hast thou been?’
‘Up and down — down and up.’
‘Come under a tree, out of the wet, and tell.’
‘I stayed for a while with an old man near Umballa; anon with a household of my acquaintance in Umballa. With one of these I went as far as Delhi to the southward. That is a wondrous city. Then I drove a bullock for a teli (an oilman) coming north; but I heard of a great feast forward in Puttiala, and thither went I in the company of a firework-maker. It was a great feast’ (Kim rubbed his stomach). ‘I saw Rajahs, and elephants with gold and silver trappings; and they lit all the fireworks at once, whereby eleven men were killed, my firework-maker among them, and I was blown across a tent but took no harm. Then I came back to the rel with a Sikh horseman, to whom I was groom for my bread; and so here.’
‘Shabash!’ said Mahbub Ali.
‘But what does the Colonel Sahib say? I do not wish to be beaten.’
‘The Hand of Friendship has averted the Whip of Calamity; but another time, when thou takest the Road it will be with me. This is too early.’
‘Late enough for me. I have learned to read and to write English a little at the madrissah. I shall soon be altogether a Sahib.’
‘Hear him!’ laughed Mahbub, looking at the little drenched figure dancing in the wet. ‘Salaam — Sahib,’ and he saluted ironically. ‘Well, art tired of the Road, or wilt thou come on to Umballa with me and work back with the horses?’
‘I come with thee, Mahbub Ali.’
CHAPTER VIII
‘Something I owe to the soil that grew —
More to the life that fed —
But most to Allah Who gave me two
Separate sides to my head.
I would go without shirts or shoes,
Friends, tobacco or bread
Sooner than for an instant lose
Either side of my head.’
‘THEN in God’s Name take blue for red,’ said Mahbub, alluding to the Hindu colour of Kim’s disreputable turban.
Kim countered with the old proverb, ‘I will change my faith and my bedding, but thou must pay for it.’
The dealer laughed till he nearly fell from his horse. At a shop on the outskirts of the city the change was made, and Kim stood up, externally at least, a Mohammedan.
Mahbub hired a room over against the railway station, sent for a cooked meal of the finest with almond-curd sweetmeats (balushai we call it) and fine-chopped Lucknow tobacco.
‘This is better than some other meat that I ate with the Sikh,’ said Kim, grinning as he squatted, ‘and assuredly they give no such victuals at my madrissah.’
‘I have a desire to hear of that same madrissah.’ Mahbub stuffed himself with great boluses of spiced mutton fried in fat with cabbage and golden-brown onions. ‘But tell me first, altogether and truthfully, the manner of thy escape. For, O Friend of all the World,’ — he loosed his cracking belt, — ’I do not think it is often that a Sahib and the son of a Sahib runs away from there.’
‘How should they? They do not know the land. It was nothing,’ said Kim, and began his tale. When he came to the disguisement and the interview with the girl in the bazar, Mahbub Ali’s gravity went from him. He laughed aloud and beat his hand on his thigh.
‘Shabash! Shabash! Oh, well done, little one! What will the healer of turquoises say to this? Now, slowly, let us hear what befell afterwards — step by step, omitting nothing.’
Step by step then, Kim told his adventures between coughs as the full-flavoured tobacco caught his lungs.
‘I said,’ growled Mahbub Ali to himself, ‘I said it was the pony breaking out to play polo. The fruit is ripe already — except that he must learn his distances and his pacings, and his rods and his compasses. Listen now. I have turned aside the Colonel’s whip from thy skin, and that is no small service.’
‘True.’ Kim puffed serenely. ‘That is all true.’
‘But it is not to be thought that this running out and in is any way good.’
‘It was my holiday, Hajji. I was a slave for many weeks. Why should I not run away when the school was shut? Look, too, how I, living upon my friends or working for my bread, as I did with the Sikh, have saved the Colonel Sahib a great expense.’
Mahbub’s lips twitched under his well-pruned Mohammedan moustache.
‘What are a few rupees’ — the Pathan threw out his open hand carelessly — ’to the Colonel Sahib? He spends them for a purpose, not in any way for love of thee.’
‘That,’ said Kim slowly, ‘I knew a very long time ago.’
‘Who
told?’
‘The Colonel Sahib himself. Not in those many words, but plainly enough for one who is not altogether a mud-head. Yea, he told me in the te-rain when we went down to Lucknow.’
‘Be it so. Then I will tell thee more, Friend of all the World, though in the telling I lend thee my head.’
‘It was forfeit to me,’ said Kim, with deep relish, ‘in Umballa, when thou didst pick me up on the horse after the drummer-boy beat me.’
‘Speak a little plainer. All the world may tell lies save thou and I. For equally is thy life forfeit to me if I chose to raise my finger here.’
‘And this is known to me also,’ said Kim, readjusting the live charcoal-ball on the weed. ‘It is a very sure tie between us. Indeed thy hold is surer even than mine; for who would miss a boy beaten to death, or, it may be, thrown into a well by the roadside? Many people here and in Simla and across the passes behind the Hills would, on the other hand, say: “What has come to Mahbub Ali,” if he were found dead among his horses. Surely too the Colonel Sahib would make inquiries. But again,’ — Kim’s face puckered with cunning, — ’he would not make overlong inquiry, lest people should ask: “What has this Colonel Sahib to do with that horse-dealer?” But I — if I lived — ’
‘As thou wouldst surely die — ’
‘It may be; but I say, if I lived, I, and I alone, would know that one had come by night, as a common thief perhaps, to Mahbub Ali’s bulkhead in the serai, and there had slain him, either before or after that thief had made a full search into his saddle-bags and between the soles of his slippers. Is that news to tell to the Colonel, or would he say to me — (I have not forgotten when he sent me back for a cigar-case that he had not left behind him) — ”What is Mahbub Ali to me?”‘
Up went a gout of heavy smoke. There was a long pause; then Mahbub Ali spoke in admiration: ‘And with these things on thy mind, dost thou lie down and rise again among all the Sahibs’ little sons at the madrissah and meekly take instruction from thy teachers?’
‘It is an order,’ said Kim blandly. ‘Who am I to dispute an order?’
‘A most finished son of Eblis,’ said Mahbub Ali. ‘But what is this tale of the thief and the search?’
‘That which I saw,’ said Kim, ‘the night that my lama and I lay next thy place in the Kashmir Serai. The door was left unlocked, which I think is not thy custom, Mahbub. He came in as one assured that thou wouldst not soon return. My eye was against a knot-hole in the plank. He searched as it were for something — not a rug, not stirrups, nor a bridle, nor brass pots — something little and most carefully hid. Else why did he prick with an iron between the soles of thy slippers?’
‘Ha!’ Mahbub Ali smiled gently. ‘And seeing these things, what tale didst thou fashion to thyself, Well of the Truth?’
‘None. I put my hand upon my amulet, which lies always next to my skin, and, remembering the pedigree of a white stallion that I had bitten out of a piece of Mussalmani bread, I went away to Umballa perceiving that a heavy trust was laid upon me. At that hour, had I chosen, thy head was forfeit. It needed only to say to that man, “I have here a paper concerning a horse which I cannot read.” And then?’ Kim peered at Mahbub under his eyebrows.
‘Then thou wouldst have drunk water twice — perhaps thrice, afterwards. I do not think more than thrice,’ said Mahbub simply.
‘It is true. I thought of that a little, but most I thought that I loved thee, Mahbub. Therefore I went to Umballa, as thou knowest, but (and this thou dost not know) I lay hid in the garden-grass to see what Colonel Creighton Sahib might do upon reading the white stallion’s pedigree.’
‘And what did he?’ for Kim had bitten off the conversation.
‘Dost thou give news for love, or dost thou sell it?’ Kim asked.
‘I sell and — I buy.’ Mahbub took a four-anna piece out of his belt and held it up.
‘Eight!’ said Kim, mechanically following the huckster instinct of the East.
Mahbub laughed, and put away the coin. ‘It is too easy to deal in that market, Friend of all the World. Tell me for love. Our lives lie in each other’s hand.’
‘Very good. I saw the Jang-i-Lat Sahib (the Commander-in-Chief) come to a big dinner. I saw him in Creighton Sahib’s office. I saw the two read the white stallion’s pedigree. I heard the very orders given for the opening of a great war.’
‘Hah!’ Mahbub nodded with deepest eyes afire. The game is well played. That war is done now, and the evil, we hope, nipped before the flower — thanks to me — and thee. What didst thou later?’
‘I made the news as it were a hook to catch me victual and honour among the villagers in a village whose priest drugged my lama. But I bore away the old man’s purse, and the Brahmin found nothing. So next morning he was angry. Ho! Ho! And I also used the news when I fell into the hands of that white regiment with their Bull!’
‘That was foolishness.’ Mahbub scowled. ‘News is not meant to be thrown about like dung-cakes, but used sparingly — like bhang.’
‘So I think now, and, moreover, it did me no sort of good. But that was very long ago,’ — he made as to brush it all away with a thin brown hand, — ’and since then, and especially in the nights under the punkah at the madrissah, I have thought very greatly.’
‘Is it permitted to ask whither the Heaven-born’s thought might have led?’ said Mahbub, with an elaborate sarcasm, smoothing his scarlet beard.
‘It is permitted,’ said Kim, and threw back the very tone. ‘They say at Nucklao that no Sahib must tell a black man that he has made a fault.’
Mahbub’s hand shot into his bosom, for to call a Pathan a ‘black man’ (kala admi) is a blood-insult. Then he remembered and laughed. ‘Speak, Sahib: thy black man hears.’
‘But,’ said Kim, ‘I am not a Sahib, and I say I made a fault when I cursed thee, Mahbub Ali, on the day at Umballa I thought I was betrayed by a Pathan. I was senseless; for I was but newly caught, and I wished to kill that low-caste drummer-boy. I say now, Hajji, that it was well 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 Sahib’s 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 impressio
n 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 unwashen 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.
Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling (Illustrated) Page 79