'He does not tell me, even, whither he goes,' said Mahbub. 'He is no child. When his time is accomplished he will come to me. I am his friend.'
This prophecy was fulfilled to the letter a month later. Mahbub had gone down to Umballa to bring up a fresh consignment of horses, and Kim met him on the Kalka road at dusk riding alone, begged an alms of him and was sworn at, and replied in English.
There was nobody within earshot to hear Mahbub's gasp of amazement.
'Oho! And where hast thou been?'
'Up and down—down and up.'
'Come under a tree, out of the wet, and tell.'
'I stayed for a while with an old man near Umballa; anon with household of my acquaintance in Umballa. With one of these I went as far as Delhi to the southward. That is a wondrous ity. Then I drove a bullock for a teli (an oilman) coming north; but I heard of a great feast forward in Puttiala, and thither I went in the company of a firework-maker. It was a great feast' (Kim rubbed his stomach). 'I saw Rajahs, and elephants with gold and silver trappings; and they lit all the fireworks at once whereby eleven men were killed, my firework-maker among them, and I was blown across a tent but took no harm. Then I came back to the line with a Sikh horseman, to whom I was groom for my bread; and so here.'
'Shabash!' said Mahbub Ali.
'But what does the Colonel Sahib say? I do not wish to be beaten.'
'The hand of friendship has averted the whip of calamity; but another time, when thou takest the Road it will be with me.'
'Shabash!' said Kim in his turn. 'I have learned to read and
