Page:Kim - Rudyard Kipling (1912).djvu/232

206 father and mother and such all. Pity that he does not take the Queen's service.'

This news amazed the lama, who then did not know how religiously Kim kept to the contract made with Mahbub Ali, and perforce ratified by Colonel Creighton. 'There is no holding the young pony from the game,' said the horse-dealer when the Colonel pointed out that vagabonding over India in holiday time was absurd. 'If permission be refused to go and come as he chooses, he will make light of the refusal. Then who is to catch him? Colonel Sahib, only once in a thousand years is a horse born so well fitted for the game as this our colt.'