“Why should I ask? There is neither high nor low in the Middle Way. If he is my _chela_—does—will—can anyone take him from me? for, look you, without him I shall not find my River.” He wagged his head solemnly. “None shall take him from thee. Go, sit among my Baltis,” said Mahbub Ali, and the lama drifted off, soothed by the promise. “Is he not quite mad?” said Kim, coming forward to the light again. “Why should I lie to thee, Hajji?” Mahbub puffed his hookah in silence. Then he began, almost whispering: “Umballa is on the road to Benares—if indeed ye two go there.” “Tck! Tck! I tell thee he does not know how to lie—as we two know.” “And if thou wilt carry a message for me as far as Umballa, I will give thee money. It concerns a horse—a white stallion which I have sold to an officer upon the last time I returned from the Passes. But then—stand nearer and hold up hands as begging—the pedigree of the white stallion was not fully established, and that officer, who is now at Umballa, bade me make it clear.” (Mahbub here described the horse and the appearance of the officer.) “So the message to that officer will be: ‘The pedigree of the white stallion is fully established.’ By this will he know that thou comest from me. He will then say ‘What proof hast thou?’ and thou wilt answer: ‘Mahbub Ali has given me the proof.’” “And all for the sake of a white stallion,” said Kim, with a giggle, his eyes aflame. “That pedigree I will give thee now—in my own fashion and some hard words as well.” A shadow passed behind Kim, and a feeding camel. Mahbub Ali raised his voice. “Allah! Art thou the only beggar in the city? Thy mother is dead. Thy father is dead. So is it with all of them. Well, well—” He turned as feeling on the floor beside him and tossed a flap of soft, greasy Mussalman bread to the boy. “Go and lie down among my horseboys for tonight—thou and the lama. Tomorrow I may give thee service.” Kim slunk away, his teeth in the bread, and, as he expected, he found a small wad of folded tissue-paper wrapped in oilskin, with three silver rupees—enormous largesse. He smiled and thrust money and paper into his leather amulet-case. The lama, sumptuously fed by Mahbub’s Baltis, was already asleep in a corner of one of the stalls. Kim lay down beside him and laughed. He knew he had rendered a service to Mahbub Ali, and not for one little minute did he believe the tale of the stallion’s pedigree.