Kim slid out quietly into the night , walked half round the house , keeping close to the walls , and headed away from the station for a mile or so . Then , fetching a wide compass , he worked back at leisure , for he needed time to invent a story if any of Mahbub 's retainers asked questions . They were camped on a piece of waste ground beside the railway , and , being natives , had not , of course , unloaded the two trucks in which Mahbub 's animals stood among a consignment of country-breds bought by the Bombay tram-company . The headman , a broken-down , consumptive-looking Mohammedan , promptly challenged Kim , but was pacified at sight of Mahbub 's sign-manual . ` The Hajji has of his favour given me service , ' said Kim testily . ` If this be doubted , wait till he comes in the morning . Meantime , a place by the fire . ' Followed the usual aimless babble that every low-caste native must raise on every occasion . It died down , and Kim lay out behind the little knot of Mahbub 's followers , almost under the wheels of a horse-truck , a borrowed blanket for covering . Now a bed among brickbats and ballast-refuse on a damp night , between overcrowded horses and unwashed Baltis , would not appeal to many white boys ; but Kim was utterly happy . Change of scene , service , and surroundings were the breath of his little nostrils , and thinking of the neat white cots of St Xavier 's all arow under the punkah gave him joy as keen as the repetition of the multiplication-table in English . ' I am very old , ' he thought sleepily . ` Every month I become a year more old . I was very young , and a fool to boot , when I took Mahbub 's message to Umballa . Even when I was with that white Regiment I was very young and small and had no wisdom . But now I learn every day , and in three years the Colonel will take me out of the madrissah and let me go upon the Road with Mahbub hunting for horses ' pedigrees , or maybe I shall go by myself ; or maybe I shall find the lama and go with him . Yes ; that is best . To walk again as a chela with my lama when he comes back to Benares . ' The thoughts came more slowly and disconnectedly . He was plunging into a beautiful dreamland when his ears caught a whisper , thin and sharp , above the monotonous babble round the fire .
It came from behind the iron-skinned XXXXX .
Baltis Benares English Kim brickbats dreamland horse-truck lama year years