He wo n't lead the boy into any danger as Mahbub would . Curious -- his wish to be an F R S. Very human , too . He is best on the Ethnological side -- Hurree . ' No money and no preferment would have drawn Creighton from his work on the Indian Survey , but deep in his heart also lay the ambition to write ' F R S ' after his name . Honours of a sort he knew could be obtained by ingenuity and the help of friends , but , to the best of his belief , nothing save work -- papers representing a life of it -- took a man into the Society which he had bombarded for years with monographs on strange Asiatic cults and unknown customs . Nine men out of ten would flee from a Royal Society soiree in extremity of boredom ; but Creighton was the tenth , and at times his soul yearned for the crowded rooms in easy London where silver-haired , bald-headed gentlemen who know nothing of the Army move among spectroscopic experiments , the lesser plants of the frozen tundras , electric flight-measuring machines , and apparatus for slicing into fractional millimetres the left eye of the female mosquito . By all right and reason , it was the Royal Geographical that should have appealed to him , but men are as chancy as children in their choice of playthings . So Creighton smiled , and thought the better of Hurree Babu , moved by like desire . He dropped the ghost-dagger and looked up at Mahbub . ` How soon can we get the colt from the stable ? ' said the horse-dealer , reading his eyes . ` Hmm ! If I withdraw him by order now -- what will he do , think you ? I have never before assisted at the teaching of such an one . ' ` He will come to me , ' said Mahbub promptly . ` Lurgan Sahib and I will prepare him for the Road . ' ` So be it , then . For six months he shall run at his choice . But who will be his sponsor ? ' Lurgan slightly inclined his head .
` He will not tell anything , if that is what you are afraid of , Colonel XXXXX . '
Army Creighton Hurree Mahbub Society flight-measuring millimetres playthings right tenth