Kim by Rudyard Kipling (best summer reads of all time TXT) 📖

at the clear-cut face in which there was no glimmer of recognition; but even at this extremity it never occurred to him to throw himself on the white man’s mercy or to denounce the Afghan. And Mahbub stared deliberately at the Englishman, who stared as deliberately at Kim, quivering and tongue-tied.

‘My horse is well trained,’ said the dealer. ‘Others would have kicked, Sahib.’

‘Ah,’ said the Englishman at last, rubbing his pony’s damp withers with his whip-butt. ‘Who makes the boy a soldier?’

‘He says the Regiment that found him, and especially the Padre-sahib of that regiment.

‘There is the Padre!’ Kim choked as bareheaded Father Victor sailed down upon them from the veranda.

‘Powers O’ Darkness below, O’Hara! How many more mixed friends do you keep in Asia?’ he cried, as Kim slid down and stood helplessly before him.

‘Good morning, Padre,’ the Englishman said cheerily. ‘I know you by reputation well enough. Meant to have come over and called before this. I’m Creighton.’

‘Of the Ethnological Survey?’ said Father Victor. The Englishman nodded. ‘Faith, I’m glad to meet ye then; an’ I owe you some thanks for bringing back the boy.’

‘No thanks to me, Padre. Besides, the boy wasn’t going away. You don’t know old Mahbub Ali.’ The horsedealer sat impassive in the sunlight. ‘You will when you have been in the station a month. He sells us all our crocks. That boy is rather a curiosity. Can you tell me anything about him?’

‘Can I tell you?’ puffed Father Victor. ‘You’ll be the one man that could help me in my quandaries. Tell you! Powers o’ Darkness, I’m bursting to tell someone who knows something o’ the native!’

A groom came round the corner. Colonel Creighton raised his voice, speaking in Urdu. ‘Very good, Mahbub Ali, but what is the use of telling me all those stories about the pony? Not one pice more than three hundred and fifty rupees will I give.’

‘The Sahib is a little hot and angry after riding,’ the horsedealer returned, with the leer of a privileged jester. ‘Presently, he will see my horse’s points more clearly. I will wait till he has finished his talk with the Padre. I will wait under that tree.’

‘Confound you!’ The Colonel laughed. ‘That comes of looking at one of Mahbub’s horses. He’s a regular old leech, Padre. Wait, then, if thou hast so much time to spare, Mahbub. Now I’m at your service, Padre. Where is the boy? Oh, he’s gone off to collogue with Mahbub. Queer sort of boy. Might I ask you to send my mare round under cover?’

He dropped into a chair which commanded a clear view of Kim and Mahbub Ali in conference beneath the tree. The Padre went indoors for cheroots.

Creighton heard Kim say bitterly: ‘Trust a Brahmin before a snake, and a snake before an harlot, and an harlot before a Pathan, Mahbub Ali.’

‘That is all one.’ The great red beard wagged solemnly. ‘Children should not see a carpet on the loom till the pattern is made plain. Believe me, Friend of all the World, I do thee great service. They will not make a soldier of thee.’

‘You crafty old sinner!’ thought Creighton. ‘But you’re not far wrong. That boy mustn’t be wasted if he is as advertised.’

‘Excuse me half a minute,’ cried the Padre from within, ‘but I’m gettin’ the documents in the case.’

‘If through me the favour of this bold and wise Colonel Sahib comes to thee, and thou art raised to honour, what thanks wilt thou give Mahbub Ali when thou art a man?’

‘Nay, nay! I begged thee to let me take the Road again, where I should have been safe; and thou hast sold me back to the English. What will they give thee for blood-money?’

‘A cheerful young demon!’ The Colonel bit his cigar, and turned politely to Father Victor.

‘What are the letters that the fat priest is waving before the Colonel? Stand behind the stallion as though looking at my bridle!’ said Mahbub Ali.

‘A letter from my lama which he wrote from Jagadhir Road, saying that he will pay three hundred rupees by the year for my schooling.’

‘Oho! Is old Red Hat of that sort? At which school?’

‘God knows. I think in Nucklao.’

‘Yes. There is a big school there for the sons of Sahibs - and half-Sahibs. I have seen it when I sell horses there. So the lama also loved the Friend of all the World?’

‘Ay; and he did not tell lies, or return me to captivity.’

‘Small wonder the Padre does not know how to unravel the thread. How fast he talks to the Colonel Sahib!’ Mahbub Ali chuckled. ‘By Allah!’ the keen eyes swept the veranda for an Instant - ‘thy lama has sent what to me looks like a note of hand. I have had some few dealings in hoondis. The Colonel Sahib is looking at it.’

‘What good is all this to me?’ said Kim wearily. ‘Thou wilt go away, and they will return me to those empty rooms where there is no good place to sleep and where the boys beat me.’

‘I do not think that. Have patience, child. All Pathans are not faithless - except in horseflesh.’

Five - ten - fifteen minutes passed, Father Victor talking energetically or asking questions which the Colonel answered.

‘Now I’ve told you everything that I know about the boy from beginnin to end; and it’s a blessed relief to me. Did ye ever hear the like?’

‘At any rate, the old man has sent the money. Gobind Sahai’s notes of hand are good from here to China,’ said the Colonel. ‘The more one knows about natives the less can one say what they will or won’t do.’

‘That’s consolin’ - from the head of the Ethnological Survey. It’s this mixture of Red Bulls and Rivers of Healing (poor heathen, God help him!) an’ notes of hand and Masonic certificates. Are you a Mason, by any chance?’

‘By Jove, I am, now I come to think of it. That’s an additional reason,’ said the Colonel absently.

‘I’m glad ye see a reason in it. But as I said, it’s the mixture o’ things that’s beyond me. An’ his prophesyin’ to our Colonel, sitting on my bed with his little shimmy torn open showing his white skin; an’ the prophecy comin’ true! They’ll cure all that nonsense at St Xavier’s, eh?’

‘Sprinkle him with holy water,’ the Colonel laughed.

‘On my word, I fancy I ought to sometimes. But I’m hoping he’ll be brought up as a good Catholic. All that troubles me is what’ll happen if the old beggar-man -‘

‘Lama, lama, my dear sir; and some of them are gentlemen in their own country.’

‘The lama, then, fails to pay next year. He’s a fine business head to plan on the spur of the moment, but he’s bound to die some day. An’ takin’ a heathen’s money to give a child a Christian education

-‘

 

‘But he said explicitly what he wanted. As soon as he knew the boy was white he seems to have made his arrangements accordingly. I’d give a month’s pay to hear how he explained it all at the Tirthankars’ Temple at Benares. Look here, Padre, I don’t pretend to know much about natives, but if he says he’ll pay, he’ll pay - dead or alive. I mean, his heirs will assume the debt. My advice to you is, send the boy down to Lucknow. If your Anglican Chaplain thinks you’ve stolen a march on him -‘

‘Bad luck to Bennett! He was sent to the Front instead o’ me. Doughty certified me medically unfit. I’ll excommunicate Doughty if he comes back alive! Surely Bennett ought to be content with -‘

‘Glory, leaving you the religion. Quite so! As a matter of fact I don’t think Bennett will mind. Put the blame on me. I - er - strongly recommend sending the boy to St Xavier’s. He can go down on pass as a soldier’s orphan, so the railway fare will be saved. You can buy him an outfit from the Regimental subscription. The Lodge will be saved the expense of his education, and that will put the Lodge in a good temper. It’s perfectly easy. I’ve got to go down to Lucknow next week. I’ll look after the boy on the way - give him in charge of my servants, and so on.’

‘You’re a good man.’

‘Not in the least. Don’t make that mistake. The lama has sent us money for a definite end. We can’t very well return it. We shall have to do as he says. Well, that’s settled, isn’t it? Shall we say that, Tuesday next, you’ll hand him over to me at the night train south? That’s only three days. He can’t do much harm in three days.’

‘It’s a weight off my mind, but - this thing here?’ - he waved the note of hand - ‘I don’t know Gobind Sahai: or his bank, which may be a hole in a wall.’

‘You’ve never been a subaltern in debt. I’ll cash it if you like, and send you the vouchers in proper order.’

‘But with all your own work too! It’s askin’ -‘

‘It’s not the least trouble indeed. You see, as an ethnologist, the thing’s very interesting to me. I’d like to make a note of it for some Government work that I’m doing. The transformation of a regimental badge like your Red Bull into a sort of fetish that the boy follows is very interesting.’

‘But I can’t thank you enough.’

‘There’s one thing you can do. All we Ethnological men are as jealous as jackdaws of one another’s discoveries. They’re of no interest to anyone but ourselves, of course, but you know what book-collectors are like. Well, don’t say a word, directly or indirectly, about the Asiatic side of the boy’s character - his adventures and his prophecy, and so on. I’ll worm them out of the boy later on and - you see?’

‘I do. Ye’ll make a wonderful account of it. Never a word will I say to anyone till I see it in print.’

‘Thank you. That goes straight to an ethnologist’s heart. Well, I must be getting back to my breakfast. Good Heavens! Old Mahbub here still?’ He raised his voice, and the horsedealer came out from under the shadow of the tree, ‘Well, what is it?’

‘As regards that young horse,’ said Mahbub, ‘I say that when a colt is born to be a polo-pony, closely following the ball without teaching - when such a colt knows the game by divination - then I say it is a great wrong to break that colt to a heavy cart, Sahib!’

‘So say I also, Mahbub. The colt will be entered for polo only. (These fellows think of nothing in the world but horses, Padre.) I’ll see you tomorrow, Mahbub, if you’ve anything likely for sale.’

The dealer saluted, horseman-fashion, with a sweep of the off hand. ‘Be patient a little, Friend of all the World,’ he whispered to the agonized Kim. ‘Thy fortune is made. In a little while thou goest to Nucklao, and - here is something to pay the letter-writer. I shall see thee again, I think, many times,’ and he cantered off down the road.

‘Listen to me,’ said the Colonel from the veranda, speaking in the vernacular. ‘In three days thou wilt go with me to Lucknow, seeing and hearing new things all the while. Therefore sit still for three days and do not run away. Thou wilt go to school at Lucknow.’

‘Shall I meet my Holy One there?’ Kim whimpered.

‘At least Lucknow is nearer to Benares than Umballa. It may be thou wilt go under my protection. Mahbub Ali knows this, and he will be angry