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 Seral.

The door was left unlocked, which I think is not thy custom, Mahbub.