Hurree Babu had seen all he wanted to see when he sat on the threshing-floor of Ziglaur , twenty miles away as the eagle flies , and forty by road -- that is to say , two small dots which one day were just below the snow-line , and the next had moved downward perhaps six inches on the hillside . Once cleaned out and set to the work , his fat bare legs could cover a surprising amount of ground , and this was the reason why , while Kim and the lama lay in a leaky hut at Ziglaur till the storm should be over-past , an oily , wet , but always smiling Bengali , talking the best of English with the vilest of phrases , was ingratiating himself with two sodden and rather rheumatic foreigners . He had arrived , revolving many wild schemes , on the heels of a thunderstorm which had split a pine over against their camp , and so convinced a dozen or two forcibly impressed baggage-coolies the day was inauspicious for farther travel that with one accord they had thrown down their loads and jibbed . They were subjects of a Hill Rajah who farmed out their services , as is the custom , for his private gain ; and , to add to their personal distresses , the strange Sahibs had already threatened them with rifles . The most of them knew rifles and Sahibs of old : they were trackers and shikarris of the Northern valleys , keen after bear and wild goat ; but they had never been thus treated in their lives . So the forest took them to her bosom , and , for all oaths and clamour , refused to restore . There was no need to feign madness or -- the Babu had thought of another means of securing a welcome . He wrung out his wet clothes , slipped on his patent-leather shoes , opened the blue-and-white umbrella , and with mincing gait and a heart beating against his tonsils appeared as ` agent for His Royal Highness , the Rajah of Rampur , gentlemen . What can I do for you , please ? ' The gentlemen were delighted . One was visibly French , the other Russian , but they spoke English not much inferior to the Babu 's . They begged his kind offices . Their native servants had gone sick at Leh . They had hurried on because they were anxious to bring the spoils of the chase to Simla ere the skins grew moth-eaten . They bore a general letter of introduction -LRB- the Babu salaamed to it orientally -RRB- to all Government officials . No , they had not met any other shooting-parties en route . They did for themselves . They had plenty of supplies . They only wished to push on as soon as might be . At this he waylaid a cowering hillman among the trees , and after three minutes ' talk and a little silver -LRB- one can not be economical upon State service , though Hurree 's heart bled at the waste -RRB- the eleven coolies and the three hangers-on reappeared .
At least the XXXXX would be a witness to their oppression .
Babu Kim Ziglaur baggage-coolies coolies day lama snow-line thunderstorm trackers