I saw his face as they helped him on the engine . The very same man . ' ` Why didst thou not tell before ? ' ` Oh , he will go to jail , and be safe for some years . There is no need to tell more than is necessary at any one time . Besides , I did not then need money for sweetmeats . ' ` Allah kerim ! ' said Mahbub Ah . ` Wilt thou some day sell my head for a few sweetmeats if the fit takes thee ? ' Kim will remember till he dies that long , lazy journey from Umballa , through Kalka and the Pinjore Gardens near by , up to Simla . A sudden spate in the Gugger River swept down one horse -LRB- the most valuable , be sure -RRB- , and nearly drowned Kim among the dancing boulders . Farther up the road the horses were stampeded by a Government elephant , and being in high condition of grass food , it cost a day and a half to get them together again . Then they met Sikandar Khan coming down with a few unsaleable screws -- remnants of his string -- and Mahbub , who has more of horse-coping in his little fingernail than Sikandar Khan in all his tents , must needs buy two of the worst , and that meant eight hours ' laborious diplomacy and untold tobacco . But it was all pure delight -- the wandering road , climbing , dipping , and sweeping about the growing spurs ; the flush of the morning laid along the distant snows ; the branched cacti , tier upon tier on the stony hillsides ; the voices of a thousand water-channels ; the chatter of the monkeys ; the solemn deodars , climbing one after another with down-drooped branches ; the vista of the Plains rolled out far beneath them ; the incessant twanging of the tonga-horns and the wild rush of the led horses when a tonga swung round a curve ; the halts for prayers -LRB- Mahbub was very religious in dry-washings and bellowings when time did not press -RRB- ; the evening conferences by the halting-places , when camels and bullocks chewed solemnly together and the stolid drivers told the news of the Road -- all these things lifted Kim 's heart to song within him . ` But , when the singing and dancing is done , ' said Mahbub Ali , ` comes the Colonel Sahib 's , and that is not so sweet . ' ' A fair land -- a most beautiful land is this of Hind -- and the land of the Five Rivers is fairer than all , ' Kim half chanted . ` Into it I will go again if Mahbub Ali or the Colonel lift hand or foot against me . Once gone , who shall find me ? Look , Hajji , is yonder the city of Simla ? Allah , what a city ! '
` My father 's brother , and he was an old man when Mackerson XXXXX 's well was new at Peshawur , could recall when there were but two houses in it . '
Ah Ali Khan Sahib Simla Umballa deodars hours tier years