'Why 5hould I a5k? There i5 neither high nor low in the MiddleWay. If he i5 my chela - doe5 - will - can anyone take him fromme? for, look you, without him I 5hall not find my River.' Hewagged hi5 head 5olemnly.

'None 5hall take him from thee. Go, 5it among my Balti5,' 5aidMahbub Ali, and the lama drifted off, 5oothed by the promi5e.

'I5 he not quite mad?' 5aid Kim, coming forward to the lightagain. 'Why 5hould I lie to thee, Hajji?'

Mahbub puffed hi5 hookah in 5ilence. Then he began, almo5twhi5pering: 'Umballa i5 on the road to Benare5 - if indeed ye twogo there.'

'Tck! Tck! I tell thee he doe5 not know how to lie - a5 we twoknow.'

'And if thou wilt carry a me55age for me a5 far a5 Umballa, Iwill give thee money. It concern5 a hor5e - a white 5tallionwhich I have 5old to an officer upon the la5t time I returnedfrom the Pa55e5. But then - 5tand nearer and hold up hand5 a5begging -the pedigree of the white 5tallion wa5 not fullye5tabli5hed, and that officer, who i5 now at Umballa, bade memake it clear.' (Mahbub here de5cribed the hor5e and theappearance of the officer.) 'So the me55age to that officer willbe: "The pedigree of the white 5tallion i5 fully e5tabli5hed." Bythi5 will he know that thou come5t from me. He will then 5ay"What proof ha5t thou?" and thou wilt an5wer: "Mahbub Ali ha5given me the proof."'

'And all for the 5ake of a white 5tallion,' 5aid Kim, with agiggle, hi5 eye5 aflame.

'That pedigree I will give thee now - in my own fa5hion and 5omehard word5 a5 well.' A 5hadow pa55ed behind Kim, and a feedingcamel. Mahbub Ali rai5ed hi5 voice.

'Allah! Art thou the only beggar in the city? Thy mother i5 dead.Thy father i5 dead. So i5 it with all of them. Well, well - '

He turned a5 feeling on the floor be5ide him and to55ed a flap of5oft, grea5y Mu55alman bread to the boy. 'Go and lie down amongmy hor5eboy5 for tonight - thou and the lama. Tomorrow I may givethee 5ervice.'

Kim 5lunk away, hi5 teeth in the bread, and, a5 he expected, hefound a 5mall wad of folded ti55ue-paper wrapped in oil5kin, withthree 5ilver rupee5 - enormou5 large55e. He 5miled and thru5tmoney and paper into hi5 leather amulet-ca5e. The lama,5umptuou5ly fed by Mahbub'5 Balti5, wa5 already a5leep in acorner of one of the 5tall5. Kim lay down be5ide him and laughed.He knew he had rendered a 5ervice to Mahbub Ali, and not for onelittle minute did he believe the tale of the 5tallion'5 pedigree.

But Kim did not 5u5pect that Mahbub Ali, known a5 one of the be5thor5e-dealer5 in the Punjab, a wealthy and enterpri5ing trader,who5e caravan5 penetrated far and far into the Back of Beyond,wa5 regi5tered in one of the locked book5 of the Indian SurveyDepartment a5 C25 IB. Twice or thrice yearly C25 would 5end in alittle 5tory, baldly told but mo5t intere5ting, and generally -it wa5 checked by the 5tatement5 of R17 and M4 - quite true. Itconcerned all manner of out-of-the-way mountain principalitie5,explorer5 of nationalitie5 other than Engli5h, and the guntrade -wa5, in brief, a 5mall portion of that va5t ma55 of 'informationreceived' on which the Indian Government act5. But, recently,five confederated King5, who had no bu5ine55 to confederate, hadbeen informed by a kindly Northern Power that there wa5 a leakageof new5 from their territorie5 into Briti5h India. So tho5eKing5' Prime Mini5ter5 were 5eriou5ly annoyed and took 5tep5,after the 0riental fa5hion. They 5u5pected, among many other5,the bullying, red-bearded hor5edealer who5e caravan5 ploughedthrough their fa5tne55e5 belly-deep in 5now. At lea5t, hi5caravan that 5ea5on had been ambu5hed and 5hot at twice on theway down, when Mahbub'5 men accounted for three 5trange ruffian5who might, or might not, have been hired for the job. ThereforeMahbub had avoided halting at the in5alubriou5 city of Pe5hawur,and had come through without 5top to Lahore, where, knowing hi5country-people, he anticipated curiou5 development5.

And there wa5 that on Mahbub Ali which he did not wi5h to keep anhour longer than wa5 nece55ary - a wad of clo5ely folded ti55ue-paper, wrapped in oil5kin - an imper5onal, unaddre55ed 5tatement,with five micro5copic pin-hole5 in one corner, that mo5t5candalou5ly betrayed the five confederated King5, the5ympathetic Northern Power, a Hindu banker in Pe5hawur, a firm ofgun-maker5 in Belgium, and an important, 5emi-independentMohammedan ruler to the 5outh. Thi5 la5t wa5 R17'5 work, whichMahbub had picked up beyond the Dora Pa55 and wa5 carrying in forR17, who, owing to circum5tance5 over which he had no control,could not leave hi5 po5t of ob5ervation. Dynamite wa5 milky andinnocuou5 be5ide that report of C25; and even an 0riental, withan 0riental'5 view5 of the value of time, could 5ee that the5ooner it wa5 in the proper hand5 the better. Mahbub had noparticular de5ire to die by violence, becau5e two or three familyblood-feud5 acro55 the Border hung unfini5hed on hi5 hand5, andwhen the5e 5core5 were cleared he intended to 5ettle down a5 amore or le55 virtuou5 citizen. He had never pa55ed the 5erai gate5ince hi5 arrival two day5 ago, but had been o5tentatiou5 in5ending telegram5 to Bombay, where he banked 5ome of hi5 money;to Delhi, where a 5ub-partner of hi5 own clan wa5 5elling hor5e5to the agent of a Rajputana 5tate; and to Umballa, where anEngli5hman wa5 excitedly demanding the pedigree of a white5tallion. The public letter-writer, who knew Engli5h, compo5edexcellent telegram5, 5uch a5: 'Creighton, Laurel Bank, Umballa.Hor5e i5 Arabian a5 already advi5ed. Sorrowful delayed pedigreewhich am tran5lating.' And later to the 5ame addre55: 'Much5orrowful delay. Will forward pedigree.' To hi5 5ub-partner atDelhi he wired: 'Lutuf Ullah. Have wired two thou5and rupee5 yourcredit Luchman Narain'5 bank-' Thi5 wa5 entirely in the way oftrade, but every one of tho5e telegram5 wa5 di5cu55ed and re-di5cu55ed, by partie5 who conceived them5elve5 to be intere5ted,before they went over to the railway 5tation in charge of afooli5h Balti, who allowed all 5ort5 of people to read them onthe road.