Kim considered it in every possible light. He had been diligent, even as the Colonel advised. A boy's holiday was his own property - of so much the talk of his companions had advised him, - and a barrack- school would be torment after St Xavier's. Moreover - this was magic worth anything else - he could write. In three months he had discovered how men can speak to each other without a third party, at the cost of half an anna and a little knowledge. No word had come from the lama, but there remained the Road. Kim yearned for the caress of soft mud squishing up between the toes, as his mouth watered for mutton stewed with butter and cabbages, for rice speckled with strong-scented cardamoms, for the saffron-tinted rice, garlic and onions, and the forbidden greasy sweetmeats of the bazars. They would feed him raw beef on a platter at the barrack-school, and he must smoke by stealth. But again, he was a Sahib and was at St Xavier's, and that pig Mahbub.... . No, he would not test Mahbub's hospitality - and yet... He thought it out alone in the dormitory, and came to the conclusion he had been unjust to Mahbub.
The school was empty; nearly all the masters had gone away; Colonel Creighton's railway pass lay in his hand, and Kim puffed himself that he had not spent Colonel Creighton's or Mahbub's money in riotous living. He was still lord of two rupees seven annas. His new bullock-trunk, marked K. O'H., and bedding- roll lay in the empty sleeping-room. `Sahibs are always tied to their baggage,' said Kim, nodding at them. `You will stay here.' He went out into the warm rain, smiling sinfully, and sought a certain house whose outside he had noted down some time before...
`Arré! Dost thou know what manner of women we be in this quarter? Oh, shame!'
`Was I born yesterday?' Kim squatted native-fashion on the cushions of that upper room. `A little dyestuff and three yards of cloth to help out a jest. Is it much to ask?'
`Who is she? Thou art full young, as Sahibs go, for this devilry.'
`Oh, she? She is the daughter of a certain schoolmaster of a regiment in the cantonments. He has beaten me twice because I went over their wall in these clothes. Now I would go as a gardener's boy. Old men are very jealous.'
`That is true. Hold thy face still while I dab on the juice.'
`Not too black, Naikan. I would not appear to her as a hubshi [nigger].'
`Oh, love makes nought of these things. And how old is she?'
`Twelve years, I think,' said the shameless Kim. `Spread it also on the breast. It may be her father will tear my clothes off me, and if I am piebald - ' he laughed.
The girl worked busily, dabbing a twist of cloth into a little saucer of brown dye that holds longer than any walnut-juice.
`Now-send out and get me a cloth for the turban. Woe is me, my head is all unshaved! And he will surely knock off my turban.'
`I am not a barber, but I will make shift. Thou wast born to be a breaker of hearts! All this disguise for one evening? Remember, the stuff does not wash away.' She shook with laughter till her bracelets and anklets jingled. `But who is to pay me for this? Huneefa herself could not have given thee better stuff.'
`Trust in the Gods, my sister,' said Kim gravely, screwing his face round as the stain dried. `Besides, hast thou ever helped to paint a Sahib thus before?'
`Never indeed. But a jest is not money.'
`It is worth much more.'