` Who cares to tell truth to a letter-writer ? ' Kim answered , feeling Mahbub 's palm on his heart . ` Hi ! Mahbub , you old villain , pull up ! ' cried a voice , and an Englishman raced alongside on a little polo-pony . ` I 've been chasing you half over the country . That Kabuli of yours can go . For sale , I suppose ? ' ' I have some young stuff coming on made by Heaven for the delicate and difficult polo-game . He has no equal . He -- ' ` Plays polo and waits at table . Yes . We know all that . What the deuce have you got there ? ' ` A. boy , ' said Mahbub gravely . ` He was being beaten by another boy . His father was once a white soldier in the big war . The boy was a child in Lahore city . He played with my horses when he was a babe . Now I think they will make him a soldier .
He has been newly caught by his father 's Regiment that went up to the XXXXX last week .
Englishman Kabuli Kim Lahore Mahbub deuce letter-writer polo-game polo-pony war