Also , he is very fond of Mahbub , and of me a little . ' ` Will he draw pay ? ' demanded the practical horse-dealer . ` Food and water allowance only . Twenty rupees a month . ' One advantage of the Secret Service is that it has no worrying audit . That Service is ludicrously starved , of course , but the funds are administered by a few men who do not call for vouchers or present itemized accounts . Mahbub 's eyes lighted with almost a Sikh 's love of money . Even Lurgan 's impassive face changed . He considered the years to come when Kim would have been entered and made to the Great Game that never ceases day and night , throughout India . He foresaw honour and credit in the mouths of a chosen few , coming to him from his pupil . Lurgan Sahib had made E. 23 what E. 23 was , out of a bewildered , impertinent , lying , little North-West Province man . But the joy of these masters was pale and smoky beside the joy of Kim when St Xavier 's Head called him aside , with word that Colonel Creighton had sent for him . ' I understand , O'Hara , that he has found you a place as an assistant chain-man in the Canal Department : that comes of taking up mathematics . It is great luck for you , for you are only sixteen ; but of course you understand that you do not become pukka -LSB- permanent -RSB- till you have passed the autumn examination . So you must not think you are going out into the world to enjoy yourself , or that your fortune is made . There is a great deal of hard work before you . Only , if you succeed in becoming pukka , you can rise , you know , to four hundred and fifty a month . ' Whereat the Principal gave him much good advice as to his conduct , and his manners , and his morals ; and others , his elders , who had not been wafted into billets , talked as only Anglo-Indian lads can , of favouritism and corruption . Indeed , young Cazalet , whose father was a pensioner at Chunar , hinted very broadly that Colonel Creighton 's interest in Kim was directly paternal ; and Kim , instead of retaliating , did not even use language .
He was thinking of the immense fun to come , of XXXXX 's letter of the day before , all neatly written in English , making appointment for that afternoon in a house the very name of which would have crisped the Principal 's hair with horror ... Said Kim to Mahbub in Lucknow railway station that evening , above the luggage-scales : ' I feared lest at the last , the roof would fall upon me and cheat me .
Cazalet Creighton Lurgan Mahbub North-West Principal Xavier chain-man favouritism night