s no name, but only a number and a letter--that is
a custom among us.'

'And is there a price upon his head too--as upon Mah--all the others?'

'Not yet; but if a boy rose up who is now sitting here and went--look,
the door is open!--as far as a certain house with a red-painted
veranda, behind that which was the old theatre in the Lower Bazar, and
whispered through the shutters: "Hurree Chunder Mookerjee bore the bad
news of last month", that boy might take away a belt full of rupees.'

'How many?' said Kim promptly.

'Five hundred--a thousand--as many as he might ask for.'

'Good. And for how long might such a boy live after the news was
told?' He smiled merrily at Lurgan's Sahib's very beard.

'Ah! That is to be well thought of. Perhaps if he were very clever,
he might live out the day--but not the night. By no means the night.'

'Then what is the Babu's pay if so much is put upon his head?'

'Eighty--perhaps a hundred--perhaps a hundred and fifty rupees; but the
pay is the least part of the work. From time to time, God causes men
to be born--and thou art one of them--who have a lust to go abroad at
the risk of their lives and discover news--today it may be of far-off
things, tomorrow of some hidden mountain, and the next day of some
near-by men who have done a foolishness against the State. These souls
are very few; and of these few, not more than ten are of the best.
Among these ten I count the Babu, and that is curious. How great,
therefore, and desirable must be a business that brazens the heart of a
Bengali!'

'True. But the days go slowly for me. I am yet a boy, and it is only
within two months I learned to write Angrezi. Even now I cannot read
it well. And there are yet years and years and long years before I can
be even a chain-man.'

'Have patience, Friend of all the World'--Kim started at the title.
'Would I had a few of the years that so irk thee. I have proved thee
in several small ways. This will not be forgotten when I make my
report to the Colonel Sahib.' Then, changing suddenly into English
with a deep laugh:

'By Jove! O'Hara, I think there is a great deal in you; but you must
not become proud and you must not talk. You must go back to Lucknow
and be a good little boy and mind your book, as the English say, and
perhaps, next holidays if you care, you can come back to me!' Kim's
face fell. 'Oh, I mean if you like. I know where you want to go.'

Four days later a seat