第8章 Chapter 1(8)

It concerned all manner of out-of-the-way mountain principalities,explorers of nationalities other than English,and the gun-trade -was,in brief,a small portion of that vast mass of information received on which the Indian Government acts.But,recently,five confederated Kings,who had no business to confederate,had been informed by a kindly Northern Power that there was a leakage of news from their territories into British India.So those Kings'Prime Ministers were seriously annoyed and took steps,after the Oriental fashion.They suspected,among many others,the bullying,red-bearded horse-dealer whose caravans ploughed through their fastnesses belly-deep in snow.At least,his caravan that season had been ambushed and shot at twice on the way down,when Mahbub's men accounted for three strange ruffians who might,or might not,have been hired for the job.Therefore Mahbub had avoided halting at the insalubrious city of Peshawur,and had come through without stop to Lahore,where,knowing his country-people,he anticipated curious developments.

And there was that on Mahbub Ali which he did not wish to keep an hour longer than was necessary -a wad of closely folded tissue-paper,wrapped in oilskin -an impersonal,unaddressed statement,with five microscopic pin-holes in one corner,that most scandalously betrayed the five confederated Kings,the sympathetic Northern Power,a Hindu banker in Peshawur,a firm of gun-makers in Belgium,and an important,semi-independent Mohammedan ruler to the south.This last was R17's work,which Mahbub had picked up beyond the Dora Pass and was carrying in for R17,who,owing to circumstances over which he had no control,could not leave his post of observation.

Dynamite was milky and innocuous beside that report of C25;and even an Oriental,with an Oriental's views of the value of time,could see that the sooner it was in the proper hands the better.Mahbub had no particular desire to die by violence,because two or three family blood-feuds across the Border hung unfinished on his hands,and when these scores were cleared he intended to settle down as a more or less virtuous citizen.He had never passed the serai gate since his arrival two days ago,but had been ostentatious in sending telegrams to Bombay,where he banked some of his money;to Delhi,where a sub-partner of his own clan was selling horses to the agent of a Rajputana state;and to Umballa,where an Englishman was excitedly demanding the pedigree of a white stallion.The public letter-writer,who knew English,composed excellent telegrams,such as:Creighton,Laurel Bank,Umballa.Horse is Arabian as already advised.Sorrowful delayed pedigree which am translating .And later to the same address:Much sorrowful delay.Will forward pedigree .To his sub-partner at Delhi he wired:Lutuf Ullah.Have wired two thousand rupees your credit Luchman Narain's bank.This was entirely in the way of trade,but every one of those telegrams was discussed and re-discussed,by parties who conceived themselves to be interested,before they went over to the railway station in charge of a foolish Balti,who allowed all sorts of people to read them on the road.

When,in Mahbub's own picturesque language,he had muddied the wells of inquiry with the stick of precaution,Kim had dropped on him,sent from Heaven;and,being as prompt as he was unscrupulous,Mahbub Ali,used to taking all sorts of gusty chances,pressed him into service on the spot.

A wandering lama with a low-caste boy-servant might attract a moment's interest as they wandered about India,the land of pilgrims;but no one would suspect them or,what was more to the point,rob.

He called for a new light-ball to his hookah,and considered the case.

If the worst came to the worst,and the boy came to harm,the paper would incriminate nobody.And he would go up to Umballa leisurely and -at a certain risk of exciting fresh suspicion -repeat his tale by word of mouth to the people concerned.

But R17's report was the kernel of the whole affair,and it would be distinctly inconvenient if that failed to come to hand.However,God was great,and Mahbub Ali felt he had done all he could for the time being.

Kim was the one soul in the world who had never told him a lie.That would have been a fatal blot on Kim's character if Mahbub had not known that to others,for his own ends or Mahbub's business,Kim could lie like an Oriental.