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 Serai. 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 knothole 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.