great dealer?'

'Who else? I have been in his service. Take more ink. Again. As the
order was, so I did it. We then went on foot towards Benares, but on
the third day we found a certain regiment. Is that down?'

'Ay, pulton,' murmured the writer, all ears.

'I went into their camp and was caught, and by means of the charm about
my neck, which thou knowest, it was established that I was the son of
some man in the regiment: according to the prophecy of the Red Bull,
which thou knowest was common talk of our bazar.' Kim waited for this
shaft to sink into the letter-writer's heart, cleared his throat, and
continued: 'A priest clothed me and gave me a new name ... One
priest, however, was a fool. The clothes are very heavy, but I am a
Sahib and my heart is heavy too. They send me to a school and beat me.
I do not like the air and water here. Come then and help me, Mahbub
Ali, or send me some money, for I have not sufficient to pay the writer
who writes this.'

'"Who writes this." It is my own fault that I was tricked. Thou art
as clever as Husain Bux that forged the Treasury stamps at Nucklao.
But what a tale! What a tale! Is it true by any chance?'

'It does not profit to tell lies to Mahbub Ali. It is better to help
his friends by lending them a stamp. When the money comes I will
repay.'

The writer grunted doubtfully, but took a stamp out of his desk, sealed
the letter, handed it over to Kim, and departed. Mahbub Ali's was a
name of power in Umballa.

'That is the way to win a good account with the Gods,' Kim shouted
after him.

'Pay me twice over when the money comes,' the man cried over his
shoulder.

'What was you bukkin' to that nigger about?' said the drummer-boy when
Kim returned to the veranda. 'I was watch-in' you.'

'I was only talkin' to him.'

'You talk the same as a nigger, don't you?'

'No-ah! No-ah! I onlee speak a little. What shall we do now?'

'The bugles'll go for dinner in arf a minute. My Gawd! I wish I'd
gone up to the Front with the Regiment. It's awful doin' nothin' but
school down 'ere. Don't you 'ate it?'

'Oah yess!'

I'd run away if I knew where to go to, but, as the men say, in this
bloomin' Injia you're only a prisoner at large. You can't desert
without bein' took back at once. I'm fair sick of it.'

'You have been in Be--England?'

'W'y, I only come out last troopin' season with my mother. I should
think I 'ave been in England. What a ign