You must go back to Lucknow and be a good little boy and mind your book , as the English say , and perhaps , next holidays if you care , you can come back to me ! ' Kim 's face fell . ` Oh , I mean if you like . I know where you want to go . ' Four days later a seat was booked for Kim and his small trunk at the rear of a Kalka tonga . His companion was the whale-like Babu , who , with a fringed shawl wrapped round his head , and his fat openwork-stockinged left leg tucked under him , shivered and grunted in the morning chill . ` How comes it that this man is one of us ? ' thought Kim considering the jelly back as they jolted down the road ; and the reflection threw him into most pleasant day-dreams . Lurgan Sahib had given him five rupees -- a splendid sum -- as well as the assurance of his protection if he worked . Unlike Mahbub , Lurgan Sahib had spoken most explicitly of the reward that would follow obedience , and Kim was content . If only , like the Babu , he could enjoy the dignity of a letter and a number -- and a price upon his head ! Some day he would be all that and more . Some day he might be almost as great as Mahbub Ali ! The housetops of his search should be half India ; he would follow Kings and Ministers , as in the old days he had followed vakils and lawyers ' touts across Lahore city for Mahbub Ali 's sake . Meantime , there was the present , and not at all unpleasant , fact of St Xavier 's immediately before him . There would be new boys to condescend to , and there would be tales of holiday adventures to hear . Young Martin , son of the tea-planter at Manipur , had boasted that he would go to war , with a rifle , against the head-hunters . That might be , but it was certain young Martin had not been blown half across the forecourt of a Patiala palace by an explosion of fireworks ; nor had he ... Kim fell to telling himself the story of his own adventures through the last three months . He could paralyse St Xavier 's -- even the biggest boys who shaved -- with the recital , were that permitted . But it was , of course , out of the question .
There would be a price upon his head in good time , as Lurgan Sahib had assured him ; and if he talked foolishly now , not only would that price never be set , but Colonel Creighton would cast him off -- and he would be left to the wrath of Lurgan XXXXX and Mahbub Ali -- for the short space of life that would remain to him .
Ali India Kalka Mahbub Sahib Xavier day days forecourt head-hunters