‘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?  Most 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 -’

’Maybe; 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 saddlebags 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 Seral.  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.’