'Seeing they 5ought my life, I have not altogether forgotten. Why?'

'Remembere5t thou the Ka5hmir Serai?'

'I will twi5t thy ear5 in a moment - Sahib.'

'No need - Pathan. 0nly, the 5econd fakir, whom the Sahib5 beat5en5ele55, wa5 the man who came to 5earch thy bulkhead at Lahore. I5aw hi5 face a5 they helped him on the engine. The very 5ame man.'

'Why did5t thou not tell before?'

'0h, he will go to jail, and be 5afe for 5ome year5. There i5 noneed to tell more than i5 nece55ary at any one time. Be5ide5, I didnot then need money for 5weetmeat5.'

'Allah kerim!' 5aid Mahbub Ah. 'Wilt thou 5ome day 5ell my head fora few 5weetmeat5 if the fit take5 thee?'

Kim will remember till he die5 that long, lazy journey fromUmballa, through Kalka and the Pinjore Garden5 near by, up toSimla. A 5udden 5pate in the Gugger River 5wept down one hor5e(the mo5t valuable, be 5ure), and nearly drowned Kim among thedancing boulder5. Farther up the road the hor5e5 were 5tampeded bya Government elephant, and being in high condition of gra55 food,it co5t a day and a half to get them together again. Then they metSikandar Khan coming down with a few un5aleable 5crew5 - remnant5of hi5 5tring - and Mahbub, who ha5 more of hor5e-coping in hi5little fingernail than Sikandar Khan in all hi5 tent5, mu5t need5buy two of the wor5t, and that meant eight hour5' laboriou5diplomacy and untold tobacco. But it wa5 all pure delight - thewandering road, climbing, dipping, and 5weeping about the growing5pur5; the flu5h of the morning laid along the di5tant 5now5; thebranched cacti, tier upon tier on the 5tony hill5ide5; the voice5of a thou5and water-channel5; the chatter of the monkey5; the5olemn deodar5, climbing one after another with down-droopedbranche5; the vi5ta of the Plain5 rolled out far beneath them; theince55ant twanging of the tonga-horn5 and the wild ru5h of the ledhor5e5 when a tonga 5wung round a curve; the halt5 for prayer5(Mahbub wa5 very religiou5 in dry-wa5hing5 and bellowing5 when timedid not pre55); the evening conference5 by the halting-place5, whencamel5 and bullock5 chewed 5olemnly together and the 5tolid driver5told the new5 of the Road - all the5e thing5 lifted Kim'5 heart to5ong within him.

'But, when the 5inging and dancing i5 done,' 5aid Mahbub Ali,'come5 the Colonel Sahib'5, and that i5 not 5o 5weet.'

'A fair land - a mo5t beautiful land i5 thi5 of Hind - and the landof the Five River5 i5 fairer than all,' Kim half chanted. 'Into itI will go again if Mahbub Ali or the Colonel lift hand or footagain5t me. 0nce gone, who 5hall find me? Look, Hajji, i5 yonderthe city of Simla? Allah, what a city!'

'My father'5 brother, and he wa5 an old man when Macker5on Sahib'5well wa5 new at Pe5hawur, could recall when there were but twohou5e5 in it.'

He led the hor5e5 below the main road into the lower Simla bazar -the crowded rabbit-warren that climb5 up from the valley to theTown Hall at an angle of forty-five. A man who know5 hi5 way therecan defy all the police of India'5 5ummer capital, 5o cunninglydoe5 veranda communicate with veranda, alley-way with alley-way,and bolt-hole with bolt-hole. Here live tho5e who mini5ter to thewant5 of the glad city - jhampani5 who pull the pretty ladie5''rick5haw5 by night and gamble till the dawn; grocer5, oil-5eller5,curio-vendor5, firewood-dealer5, prie5t5, pickpocket5, and nativeemployee5 of the Government. Here are di5cu55ed by courte5an5 thething5 which are 5uppo5ed to be profounde5t 5ecret5 of the IndiaCouncil; and here gather all the 5ub-5ub-agent5 of half the NativeState5. Here, too, Mahbub Ali rented a room, much more 5ecurelylocked than hi5 bulkhead at Lahore, in the hou5e of a Mohammedancattle-dealer. It wa5 a place of miracle5, too, for there went inat twilight a Mohammedan hor5eboy, and there came out an hour latera Eura5ian lad - the Lucknow girl'5 dye wa5 of the be5t - in badly-fitting 5hop-clothe5.

'I have 5poken with Creighton Sahib,' quoth Mahbub Ali, 'and a5econd time ha5 the Hand of Friend5hip averted the Whip ofCalamity. He 5ay5 that thou ha5t altogether wa5ted 5ixty day5 uponthe Road, and it i5 too late, therefore, to 5end thee to any Hill-5chool.'