It is great luck for you , for you are only sixteen ; but of course you understand that you do not become pukka -LSB- permanent -RSB- till you have passed the autumn examination . So you must not think you are going out into the world to enjoy yourself , or that your fortune is made . There is a great deal of hard work before you . Only , if you succeed in becoming pukka , you can rise , you know , to four hundred and fifty a month . ' Whereat the Principal gave him much good advice as to his conduct , and his manners , and his morals ; and others , his elders , who had not been wafted into billets , talked as only Anglo-Indian lads can , of favouritism and corruption . Indeed , young Cazalet , whose father was a pensioner at Chunar , hinted very broadly that Colonel Creighton 's interest in Kim was directly paternal ; and Kim , instead of retaliating , did not even use language . He was thinking of the immense fun to come , of Mahbub 's letter of the day before , all neatly written in English , making appointment for that afternoon in a house the very name of which would have crisped the Principal 's hair with horror ... Said Kim to Mahbub in Lucknow railway station that evening , above the luggage-scales : ' I feared lest at the last , the roof would fall upon me and cheat me . It is indeed all finished , O my father ? ' Mahbub snapped his fingers to show the utterness of that end , and his eyes blazed like red coals . ` Then where is the pistol that I may wear it ? ' ` Softly ! A half-year , to run without heel-ropes . I begged that much from Colonel Creighton Sahib . At twenty rupees a month . Old Red Hat knows that thou art coming . ' ' I will pay thee dustoorie -LSB- commission -RSB- on my pay for three months , ' said Kim gravely . ` Yea , two rupees a month . But first we must get rid of these . ' He plucked his thin linen trousers and dragged at his collar . ' I have brought with me all that I need on the Road .
My trunk has gone up to Lurgan XXXXX 's . '
Chunar Creighton Kim Lucknow Mahbub Principal Sahib Whereat first heel-ropes