At that hour, had I chosen, thy head was forfeit.

It needed only to say to that man, "I have here a paper concerning a horse which I cannot read." And then ?' Kim peered at Mahbub under his eyebrows.
'Then thou wouldst have drunk water twice--perhaps thrice, afterwards.
I do not think more than thrice,' said Mahbub simply.
'It is true.

I thought of that a little, but most I thought that I loved thee, Mahbub.

Therefore I went to Umballa, as thou knowest, but (and this thou dost not know) I lay hid in the garden-grass to see what Colonel Creighton Sahib might do upon reading the white stallion's pedigree.' 'And what did he ?' for Kim had bitten off the conversation.
'Dost thou give news for love, or dost thou sell it ?' Kim asked.
'I sell and--I buy.' Mahbub took a four-anna piece out of his belt and held it up.
'Eight!' said Kim, mechanically following the huckster instinct of the East.
Mahbub laughed, and put away the coin.

'It is too easy to deal in that market, Friend of all the World.