So next morning he was angry.

Ho! Ho! And I also used the news when I fell into the hands of that white Regiment with their Bull!' 'That was foolishness.' Mahbub scowled.

'News is not meant to be thrown about like dung-cakes, but used sparingly--like bhang.' 'So I think now, and moreover, it did me no sort of good.

But that was very long ago,' he made as to brush it all away with a thin brown hand--'and since then, and especially in the nights under the punkah at the madrissah, I have thought very greatly.' 'Is it permitted to ask whither the Heaven-born's thought might have led ?' said Mahbub, with an elaborate sarcasm, smoothing his scarlet beard.
'It is permitted,' said Kim, and threw back the very tone.

'They say at Nucklao that no Sahib must tell a black man that he has made a fault.' Mahbub's hand shot into his bosom, for to call a Pathan a 'black man' [kala admi] is a blood-insult.