第52章 Chapter 8(6)

'Allah kerim !'said Mahbub Ali.'Wilt thou some day sell my head for a few sweetmeats if the fit takes thee?'Kim will remember till he dies that long,lazy journey from Umballa,through Kalka and the Pinjore Gardens near by,up to Simla.A sudden spate in the Gugger River swept down one horse (the most valuable,be sure),and nearly drowned Kim among the dancing boulders.Farther up the road the horses were stampeded by a Government elephant,and being in high condition of grass food,it cost a day and a half to get them together again.Then they met Sikandar Khan coming down with a few unsaleable screws -remnants of his string -and Mahbub,who has more of horse-coping in his little fingernail than Sikandar Khan in all his tents,must needs buy two of the worst,and that meant eight hours'laborious diplomacy and untold tobacco.

But it was all pure delight -the wandering road,climbing,dipping,and sweeping about the growing spurs;the flush of the morning laid along the distant snows;the branched cacti,tier upon tier on the stony hillsides;the voices of a thousand water-channels;the chatter of the monkeys;the solemn deodars,climbing one after another with down-drooped branches;the vista of the Plains rolled out far beneath them;the incessant twanging of the tonga-horns and the wild rush of the led horses when a tonga swung round a curve;the halts for prayers (Mahbub was very religious in dry-washings and bellowings when time did not press);the evening conferences by the halting-places,when camels and bullocks chewed solemnly together and the stolid drivers told the news of the Road -all these things lifted Kim's heart to song within him.

'But,when the singing and dancing is done,'said Mahbub Ali,'comes the Colonel Sahib's,and that is not so sweet.'

'A fair land -a most beautiful land is this of Hind -and the land of the Five Rivers is fairer than all,'Kim half chanted.'Into it I will go again if Mahbub Ali or the Colonel lift hand or foot against me.Once gone,who shall find me?Look,Hajji,is yonder the city of Simla?Allah,what a city!'

'My father's brother,and he was an old man when Mackerson Sahib's well was new at Peshawur,could recall when there were but two houses in it.'

He led the horses below the main road into the lower Simla bazar -the crowded rabbit-warren that climbs up from the valley to the Town Hall at an angle of forty-five.A man who knows his way there can defy all the police of India's summer capital,so cunningly does veranda communicate with veranda,alley-way with alley-way,and bolt-hole with bolt-hole.Here live those who minister to the wants of the glad city -jhampanis who pull the pretty ladies''rickshaws by night and gamble till the dawn;grocers,oil-sellers,curio-vendors,firewood-dealers,priests,pickpockets,and native employees of the Government.Here are discussed by courtesans the things which are supposed to be profoundest secrets of the India Council;and here gather all the sub-sub-agents of half the Native States.Here,too,Mahbub Ali rented a room,much more securely locked than his bulkhead at Lahore,in the house of a Mohammedan cattle-dealer.It was a place of miracles,too,for there went in at twilight a Mohammedan horseboy,and there came out an hour later a Eurasian lad -the Lucknow girl's dye was of the best -in badly-fitting shop-clothes.

'I have spoken with Creighton Sahib,'quoth Mahbub Ali,'and a second time has the Hand of Friendship averted the Whip of Calamity.He says that thou hast altogether wasted sixty days upon the Road,and it is too late,therefore,to send thee to any Hill-school.'

'I have said that my holidays are my own.I do not go to school twice over.That is one part of my bond.'

'The Colonel Sahib is not yet aware of that contract.Thou art to lodge in Lurgan Sahib's house till it is time to go again to Nucklao.'

'I had sooner lodge with thee,Mahbub.'

'Thou dost not know the honour.Lurgan Sahib himself asked for thee.

Thou wilt go up the hill and along the road atop,and there thou must forget for a while that thou hast ever seen or spoken to me,Mahbub Ali,who sells horses to Creighton Sahib,whom thou dost not know.Remember this order.'

Kim nodded.'Good,'said he,'and who is Lurgan Sahib?Nay'-he caught Mahbub's sword-keen glance -'indeed I have never heard his name.Is he by chance'-he lowered his voice -'one of us?'

'What talk is this of us ,Sahib?'Mahbub Ali returned,in the tone he used towards Europeans.'I am a Pathan;thou art a Sahib and the son of a Sahib.Lurgan Sahib has a shop among the European shops.All Simla knows it.Ask there...and,Friend of all the World,he is one to be obeyed to the last wink of his eyelashes.Men say he does magic,but that should not touch thee.Go up the hill and ask.Here begins the Great Game.'