` The game is well played . That war is done now , and the evil , we hope , nipped before the flower -- thanks to me -- and thee . What didst thou later ? ' ' I made the news as it were a hook to catch me victual and honour among the villagers in a village whose priest drugged my lama . But I bore away the old man 's purse , and the Brahmin found nothing . So next morning he was angry . Ho ! Ho ! And I also used the news when I fell into the hands of that white Regiment with their Bull ! ' ` That was foolishness . ' Mahbub scowled . ` News is not meant to be thrown about like dung-cakes , but used sparingly -- like bhang . ' ` So I think now , and moreover , it did me no sort of good . But that was very long ago , ' he made as to brush it all away with a thin brown hand -- ` and since then , and especially in the nights under the punkah at the madrissah , I have thought very greatly . ' ` Is it permitted to ask whither the Heaven-born 's thought might have led ? ' said Mahbub , with an elaborate sarcasm , smoothing his scarlet beard . ` It is permitted , ' said Kim , and threw back the very tone . ` They say at Nucklao that no Sahib must tell a black man that he has made a fault . ' Mahbub 's hand shot into his bosom , for to call a Pathan a ` black man ' -LSB- kala admi -RSB- is a blood-insult . Then he remembered and laughed .
` Speak , XXXXX .
Brahmin Ho Pathan Sahib dung-cakes madrissah nights punkah war whither