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But the next minute she was back, to ask about some luggage a bullock-trunk or two and she was coming up to me, as I eagerly stepped forward to meet her, when she seemed, as it were, to take it into her head to shy at me, going instead to Harry Lant, who had just come up, and who, on hearing what she wanted, placed his hands, with a grave swoop, upon his head, and made her a regular eastern salaam, ending by telling her that her slave would obey her commands.
The school was empty; nearly all the masters had gone away; Colonel Creighton's railway pass lay in his hand, and Kim puffed himself that he had not spent Colonel Creighton's or Mahbub's money in riotous living. He was still lord of two rupees seven annas. His new bullock-trunk, marked 'K. O'H., and bedding-roll lay in the empty sleeping-room.
'I thought so. What an out and out swindler you must have been to spring that price at once! 'I hope I've done nothing to dissatisfy any of the tenants, least of all you, sir. 'Never mind that. Get me the money to-morrow, and see that all my clothes are packed in the little brown bullock-trunk. I'm going. 'But the quarter's notice? 'I'll pay forfeit. Look after the packing and leave me alone.
The boy made for his bullock-trunk; but Glyn caught him by the arm and stopped him. "That'll do," he said. "What do you mean?" cried Singh. "You will take care of it for me?" "That I won't," cried Glyn, "and you ought to be ashamed to ask me to." "Ashamed?" cried Singh, flushing. "Ashamed to put full trust in you?" "No; but you ought to be ashamed not to be able to trust yourself.
On reaching the door of his room he thrust it open quietly, and found Singh kneeling down before his Indian bullock-trunk, lifting out some of its contents ready to make place for something else. "Why, hallo! There you are, then!"
There's a good chap," cried Singh eagerly, and thrusting his hand into his pocket he brought out his keys. "In the bottom drawer, isn't it?" said Glyn. "Yes, I think so. If it isn't, it's in the bullock-trunk." "All right," cried Glyn, catching the keys that were pitched to him; and he trotted off, while Singh picked out a shady spot and threw himself upon the turf.
The Doctor stepped in and made way for the two boys to pass, himself closing the door after them, and then turning, raising his eyebrows a little as he saw the state of the floor, where the carpet was scattered with different garments and odds and ends, while the bullock-trunk lay upside down. The Doctor glanced at Glyn, who read his wish in his eyes. "Where are your keys, Singh?" he cried.
Hurrying up to his room for a good wash and change, to get it over before Singh returned, the first thing that caught the boy's eyes was Singh's little bunch of keys hanging from the lock of the bullock-trunk in the corner. Glyn was in such high spirits that the sight of the bunch set him laughing. "Well, of all the untrustworthy fellows I ever knew," he said, "poor old Singh's about the worst."
That same afternoon we three and Kadir Buksh began to pack for our month's holiday, Vixen rolling in and out of the bullock-trunk twenty times a minute, and Garm grinning all over and thumping on the floor with his tail. Vixen knew the routine of travelling as well as she knew my office-work. She went to the station, singing songs, on the front seat of the carriage, while Garin sat with me.
The regular working of the Empire shifted his world to India, where he tasted utter loneliness in subaltern's quarters, one room and one bullock-trunk, and, with his mess, learned the new life from the beginning.
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