should in a few days earn the hundred rupees.'

'By what road?'

Kim shook his head resolutely. 'If I said how I would earn them,
another man might hear and forestall me. It is not good to sell
knowledge for nothing.'

'Tell now.' The Colonel held up a rupee. Kim's hand half reached
towards it, and dropped.

'Nay, Sahib; nay. I know the price that will be paid for the
answer, but I do not know why the question is asked.'

'Take it for a gift, then,' said Creighton, tossing it over. 'There
is a good spirit in thee. Do not let it be blunted at St Xavier's.
There are many boys there who despise the black men.'

'Their mothers were bazar-women,' said Kim. He knew well there is
no hatred like that of the half-caste for his brother-in-law.

'True; but thou art a Sahib and the son of a Sahib. Therefore, do
not at any time be led to contemn the black men. I have known boys
newly entered into the service of the Government who feigned not to
understand the talk or the customs of black men. Their pay was cut
for ignorance. There is no sin so great as ignorance. Remember
this.'

Several times in the course of the long twenty-four hours' run
south did the Colonel send for Kim, always developing this latter