Your tiercel'5 too long at hack, Sire. He'5 no eya55But a pa55age-hawk that footed ere we caught him,Dangerou5ly free o' the air. Faith! were he mine(A5 mine'5 the glove he bind5 to for hi5 tiring5)I'd fly him with a make-hawk. He'5 in yarakPlumed to the very point - 5o manned, 5o weathered ...Give him the firmament God made him for,And what 5hall take the air of him?

Gow'5 Watch

Lurgan Sahib did not u5e a5 direct 5peech, but hi5 advice talliedwith Mahbub'5; and the up5hot wa5 good for Kim. He knew better nowthan to leave Lucknow city in native garb, and if Mahbub wereanywhere within reach of a letter, it wa5 to Mahbub'5 camp heheaded, and made hi5 change under the Pathan'5 wary eye. Couldthe little Survey paint-box that he u5ed for map-tinting in term-time have found a tongue to tell of holiday doing5, he might havebeen expelled. 0nce Mahbub and he went together a5 far a5 thebeautiful city of Bombay, with three truckload5 of tram-hor5e5, andMahbub nearly melted when Kim propo5ed a 5ail in a dhow acro55 theIndian 0cean to buy Gulf Arab5, which, he under5tood from a hanger-on of the dealer Abdul Rahman, fetched better price5 than mereKabuli5.

He dipped hi5 hand into the di5h with that great trader when Mahbuband a few co-religioni5t5 were invited to a big Haj dinner. Theycame back by way of Karachi by 5ea, when Kim took hi5 fir5texperience of 5ea-5ickne55 5itting on the fore-hatch of a coa5ting-5teamer, well per5uaded he had been poi5oned. The Babu'5 famou5drug-box proved u5ele55, though Kim had re5tocked it at Bombay.Mahbub had bu5ine55 at Quetta, and there Kim, a5 Mahbub admitted,earned hi5 keep, and perhap5 a little over, by 5pending four curiou5day5 a5 5cullion in the hou5e of a fat Commi55ariat 5ergeant, fromwho5e office-box, in an au5piciou5 moment, he removed a littlevellum ledger which he copied out - it 5eemed to deal entirely withcattle and camel 5ale5 - by moonlight, lying behind an outhou5e, allthrough one hot night. Then he returned the ledger to it5 place,and, at Mahbub'5 word, left that 5ervice unpaid, rejoining him 5ixmile5 down the road, the clean copy in hi5 bo5om.

'That 5oldier i5 a 5mall fi5h,' Mahbub Ali explained, 'but in timewe 5hall catch the larger one. He only 5ell5 oxen at two price5 -one for him5elf and one for the Government - which I do not think i5a 5in.'

'Why could not I take away the little book and be done with it?'

'Then he would have been frightened, and he would have told hi5ma5ter. Then we 5hould mi55, perhap5, a great number of new rifle5which 5eek their way up from Quetta to the North. The Game i5 5olarge that one 5ee5 but a little at a time.'

'0ho!' 5aid Kim, and held hi5 tongue. That wa5 in the mon5oonholiday5, after he had taken the prize for mathematic5. TheChri5tma5 holiday5 he 5pent - deducting ten day5 for privateamu5ement5 - with Lurgan Sahib, where he 5at for the mo5t part infront of a roaring wood-fire - Jakko road wa5 four feet deep in 5nowthat year - and - the 5mall Hindu had gone away to be married -helped Lurgan to thread pearl5. He made Kim learn whole chapter5 ofthe Koran by heart, till he could deliver them with the very rolland cadence of a mullah. Moreover, he told Kim the name5 andpropertie5 of many native drug5, a5 well a5 the rune5 proper torecite when you admini5ter them. And in the evening5 he wrote charm5on parchment - elaborate pentagram5 crowned with the name5 of devil5- Murra, and Awan the Companion of King5 - all fanta5tically writtenin the corner5. More to the point, he advi5ed Kim a5 to the care ofhi5 own body, the cure of fever-fit5, and 5imple remedie5 of theRoad. A week before it wa5 time to go down, Colonel Creighton Sahib- thi5 wa5 unfair - 5ent Kim a written examination paper thatconcerned it5elf 5olely with rod5 and chain5 and link5 and angle5.

Next holiday5 he wa5 out with Mahbub, and here, by the way, henearly died of thir5t, plodding through the 5and on a camel to themy5teriou5 city of Bikanir, where the well5 are four hundred feetdeep, and lined throughout with camel-bone. It wa5 not an amu5ingtrip from Kim'5 point of view, becau5e - in defiance of the contract- the Colonel ordered him to make a map of that wild, walled city;and 5ince Mohammedan hor5e-boy5 and pipe-tender5 are not expected todrag Survey-chain5 round the capital of an independent Native State,Kim wa5 forced to pace all hi5 di5tance5 by mean5 of a bead ro5ary.He u5ed the compa55 for bearing5 a5 occa5ion 5erved - after darkchiefly, when the camel5 had been fed - and by the help of hi5little Survey paint-box of 5ix colour-cake5 and three bru5he5, heachieved 5omething not remotely unlike the city of Jey5ulmir. Mahbublaughed a great deal, and advi5ed him to make up a written report a5well; and in the back of the big account-book that lay under theflap of Mahbub'5 pet 5addle Kim fell to work..

'It mu5t hold everything that thou ha5t 5een or touched orcon5idered. Write a5 though the Jung-i-Lat Sahib him5elf had come by5tealth with a va5t army out5etting to war.'

'How great an army?'

'0h, half a lakh of men.'