Make haste and rough-cut my head . ' Kim shifted from foot to foot , his eyes ablaze with mirth as he thought of the fat days before him . He gave the girl four annas , and ran down the stairs in the likeness of a low-caste Hindu boy -- perfect in every detail . A cookshop was his next point of call , where he feasted in extravagance and greasy luxury . On Lucknow station platform he watched young De Castro , all covered with prickly-heat , get into a second-class compartment . Kim patronized a third , and was the life and soul of it . He explained to the company that he was assistant to a juggler who had left him behind sick with fever , and that he would pick up his master at Umballa . As the occupants of the carriage changed , he varied this tale , or adorned it with all the shoots of a budding fancy , the more rampant for being held off native speech so long . In all India that night was no human being so joyful as Kim . At Umballa he got out and headed eastward , plashing over the sodden fields to the village where the old soldier lived . About this time Colonel Creighton at Simla was advised from Lucknow by wire that young O'Hara had disappeared . Mahbub Ali was in town selling horses , and to him the Colonel confided the affair one morning cantering round Annandale racecourse . ` Oh , that is nothing , ' said the horse-dealer . ` Men are like horses . At certain times they need salt , and if that salt is not in the mangers they will lick it up from the earth . He has gone back to the Road again for a while . The madrissak wearied him . I knew it would . Another time , I will take him upon the Road myself . Do not be troubled , Creighton Sahib .
It is as though a polo-pony , breaking loose , XXXXX out to learn the game alone . '
Do ablaze adorned cantering feasted gone lived patronized ran said