'Small wonder the Padre does not know how to unravel the thread.
How fast he talks to the Colonel Sahib!' Mahbub Ali chuckled. 'By
Allah!' the keen eyes swept the veranda for an Instant - 'thy lama
has sent what to me looks like a note of hand. I have had some few
dealings in hoondis. The Colonel Sahib is looking at it.'

'What good is all this to me?' said Kim wearily. 'Thou wilt go
away, and they will return me to those empty rooms where there is
no good place to sleep and where the boys beat me.'

'I do not think that. Have patience, child. All Pathans are not
faithless - except in horseflesh.'

Five - ten - fifteen minutes passed, Father Victor talking
energetically or asking questions which the Colonel answered.

'Now I've told you everything that I know about the boy from
beginnin to end; and it's a blessed relief to me. Did ye ever hear
the like?'

'At any rate, the old man has sent the money. Gobind Sahai's notes
of hand are good from here to China,' said the Colonel. 'The more
one knows about natives the less can one say what they will or
won't do.'

'That's consolin' - from the head of the Ethnological Survey. It's
this mixture of Red Bulls and Rivers of Healing (poor heathen, God
help him!) an' notes of hand and Masonic certificates. Are you a
Mason, by any chance?'