Creighton heard Kim say bitterly: `Trust a Brahmin before a snake, and a snake before an harlot, and an harlot before a Pathan, Mahbub Ali.'
`That is all one.' The great red beard wagged solemnly. `Children should not see a carpet on the loom till the pattern is made plain. Believe me, Friend of all the World, I do thee great service. They will not make a soldier of thee.'
`You crafty old sinner!' thought Creighton. `But you're not far wrong. That boy mustn't be wasted if he is as advertised.'
`Excuse me half a minute,' cried the Padre from within, `but I'm gettin' the documents in the case.'
`If through me the favour of this bold and wise Colonel Sahib comes to thee, and thou art raised to honour, what thanks wilt thou give Mahbub Ali when thou art a man?'
`Nay, nay! I begged thee to let me take the Road again, where I should have been safe; and thou hast sold me back to the English. What will they give thee for blood-money?'
`A cheerful young demon!' The Colonel bit his cigar, and turned politely to Father Victor.
`What are the letters that the fat priest is waving before the Colonel? Stand behind the stallion as though looking at my bridle!' said Mahbub Ali.
`A letter from my lama which he wrote from Jagadhir Road, saying that he will pay three hundred rupees by the year for my schooling.'
`Oho! Is old Red Hat of that sort? At which school?'
`God knows. I think in Nucklao.'
`Yes. There is a big school there for the sons of Sahibs - and half-Sahibs. I have seen it when I sell horses there. So the lama also loved the Friend of all the World?'
`Ay; and he did not tell lies, or return me to captivity.'
`Small wonder the Padre does not know how to unravel the thread. How fast he talks to the Colonel Sahib!' Mahbub Ali chuckled. `By Allah!' - the keen eyes swept the veranda for an instant - `thy lama has sent what to me looks like a note of hand. I have had some few dealings in hoondis. The Colonel Sahib is looking at it.'
`What good is all this to me?' said Kim wearily. `Thou wilt go away, and they will return me to those empty rooms where there is no good place to sleep and where the boys beat me.'
`I do not think that. Have patience, child. All Pathans are not faithless - except in horseflesh.'
Five - ten - fifteen minutes passed, Father Victor talking energetically or asking questions which the Colonel answered.
`Now I've told you everything that I know about the boy from beginnin' to end; and it's a blessed relief to me. Did ye ever hear the like?'
`At any rate, the old man has sent the money. Gobind Sahai's notes of hand are good from here to China,' said the Colonel. `The more one knows about natives the less can one say what they will or won't do.'