them out of the boy later on and--you see?'

'I do. Ye'll make a wonderful account of it. Never a word will I say
to anyone till I see it in print.'

'Thank you. That goes straight to an ethnologist's heart. Well, I
must be getting back to my breakfast. Good Heavens! Old Mahbub here
still?' He raised his voice, and the horse-dealer came out from under
the shadow of the tree, 'Well, what is it?'

'As regards that young horse,' said Mahbub, 'I say that when a colt is
born to be a polo-pony, closely following the ball without
teaching--when such a colt knows the game by divination--then I say it
is a great wrong to break that colt to a heavy cart, Sahib!'

'So say I also, Mahbub. The colt will be entered for polo only. (These
fellows think of nothing in the world but horses, Padre.) I'll see you
tomorrow, Mahbub, if you've anything likely for sale.'

The dealer saluted, horseman-fashion, with a sweep of the off hand. 'Be
patient a little, Friend of all the World,' he whispered to the
agonized Kim. 'Thy fortune is made. In a little while thou goest to
Nucklao, and--here is something to pay the letter-writer. I shall see
thee again, I think, many times,' and he cantered off down the road.

'Listen to me,' said the Colonel from the veranda, speaking in the
vernacular. 'In three days thou wilt go with me to Lucknow, seeing and
hearing new things all the while. Therefore sit still for three days
and do not run away. Thou wilt go to school at Lucknow.'

'Shall I meet my Holy One there?' Kim whimpered.

'At least Lucknow is nearer to Benares than Umballa. It may be thou
wilt go under my protection. Mahbub Ali knows this, and he will be
angry if thou returnest to the Road now. Remember--much has been told
me which I do not forget.'

'I will wait,' said Kim, 'but the boys will beat me.'

Then the bugles blew for dinner.

Chapter 7

Unto whose use the pregnant suns are poised
With idiot moons and stars retracing stars?
Creep thou betweene--thy coming's all unnoised.
Heaven hath her high, as Earth her baser, wars.
Heir to these tumults, this affright, that fraye
(By Adam's, fathers', own, sin bound alway);
Peer up, draw out thy horoscope and say
Which planet mends thy threadbare fate or mars?

Sir John Christie.

In the afternoon the red-faced schoolmaster told Kim that he had been
'struck off the strength', which conveyed no meaning to him till he was
ordered to go awa