Meantime , a place by the fire . ' Followed the usual aimless babble that every low-caste native must raise on every occasion . It died down , and Kim lay out behind the little knot of Mahbub 's followers , almost under the wheels of a horse-truck , a borrowed blanket for covering . Now a bed among brickbats and ballast-refuse on a damp night , between overcrowded horses and unwashed Baltis , would not appeal to many white boys ; but Kim was utterly happy . Change of scene , service , and surroundings were the breath of his little nostrils , and thinking of the neat white cots of St Xavier 's all arow under the punkah gave him joy as keen as the repetition of the multiplication-table in English . ' I am very old , ' he thought sleepily . ` Every month I become a year more old . I was very young , and a fool to boot , when I took Mahbub 's message to Umballa . Even when I was with that white Regiment I was very young and small and had no wisdom . But now I learn every day , and in three years the Colonel will take me out of the madrissah and let me go upon the Road with Mahbub hunting for horses ' pedigrees , or maybe I shall go by myself ; or maybe I shall find the lama and go with him . Yes ; that is best . To walk again as a chela with my lama when he comes back to Benares . ' The thoughts came more slowly and disconnectedly . He was plunging into a beautiful dreamland when his ears caught a whisper , thin and sharp , above the monotonous babble round the fire . It came from behind the iron-skinned horse-truck . ` He is not here , then ? ' ` Where should he be but roystering in the city . Who looks for a rat in a frog-pond ? Come away . He is not our man . '
` He must not XXXXX back beyond the Passes a second time .
Come Followed am become died go learn let raise walk