Is it too late to look tonight for the River ? ' ` Too late and too dark . Be comforted . Think how far thou art on the road -- an hundred miles from Lahore already . ' ` Yea -- and farther from my monastery . Alas ! It is a great and terrible world . ' Kim stole out and away , as unremarkable a figure as ever carried his own and a few score thousand other folk 's fate slung round his neck . Mahbub Ali 's directions left him little doubt of the house in which his Englishman lived ; and a groom , bringing a dog-cart home from the Club , made him quite sure . It remained only to identify his man , and Kim slipped through the garden hedge and hid in a clump of plumed grass close to the veranda . The house blazed with lights , and servants moved about tables dressed with flowers , glass , and silver . Presently forth came an Englishman , dressed in black and white , humming a tune . It was too dark to see his face , so Kim , beggar-wise , tried an old experiment . ` Protector of the Poor ! ' The man backed towards the voice . ` Mahbub Ali says -- ' ` Hah ! What says Mahbub Ali ? ' He made no attempt to look for the speaker , and that showed Kim that he knew . ` The pedigree of the white stallion is fully established . ' ` What proof is there ? '
The XXXXX switched at the rose-hedge in the side of the drive .
Ali Club Englishman Hah Kim Lahore Poor Protector house left