Then I will tell thee more , Friend of all the World , though in the telling I lend thee my head . ' ` It was forfeit to me , ' said Kim , with deep relish , ` in Umballa , when thou didst pick me up on the horse after the drummer-boy beat me . ' ` Speak a little plainer . All the world may tell lies save thou and I. For equally is thy life forfeit to me if I chose to raise my finger here . ' ` And this is known to me also , ' said Kim , readjusting the live charcoal-ball on the weed . ` It is a very sure tie between us . Indeed , thy hold is surer even than mine ; for who would miss a boy beaten to death , or , it may be , thrown into a well by the roadside ? Most people here and in Simla and across the passes behind the Hills would , on the other hand , say : `` What has come to Mahbub Ali ? '' if he were found dead among his horses . Surely , too , the Colonel Sahib would make inquiries . But again , ' -- Kim 's face puckered with cunning , -- ` he would not make overlong inquiry , lest people should ask : `` What has this Colonel Sahib to do with that horse-dealer ? '' But I -- if I lived -- ' ` As thou wouldst surely die -- ' ` Maybe ; but I say , if I lived , I , and I alone , would know that one had come by night , as a common thief perhaps , to Mahbub Ali 's bulkhead in the serai , and there had slain him , either before or after that thief had made a full search into his saddlebags and between the soles of his slippers . Is that news to tell to the Colonel , or would he say to me -- -LRB- I have not forgotten when he sent me back for a cigar-case that he had not left behind him -RRB- -- `` What is Mahbub Ali to me ? '' ? ' Up went a gout of heavy smoke . There was a long pause : then Mahbub Ali spoke in admiration : ` And with these things on thy mind , dost thou lie down and rise again among all the Sahibs ' little sons at the madrissah and meekly take instruction from thy teachers ? ' ` It is an order , ' said Kim blandly . ` Who am I to dispute an order ? ' ' A most finished Son of Eblis , ' said Mahbub Ali . ` But what is this tale of the thief and the search ? '
` That which I saw , ' said XXXXX , ` the night that my lama and I lay next thy place in the Kashmir Seral .
Eblis Hills Kim Simla World horse-dealer madrissah night plainer serai