How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #10
'By Jove, they are not black people. I can do all sorts of things with black people, of course. They are Russians, and highly unscrupulous people. I—I do not want to consort with them without a witness.'
'Will they kill thee?'
'Oah, thatt is nothing. I am good enough Herbert Spencerian, I trust, to meet little thing like death, which is all in my fate, you know. But—but they may beat me.' (12.148-50)
The Babu feels completely assured in dealing with "black people," but he tells Kim that he "[does] not want to consort with [the Russian agents] without a witness." As an Indian man, the Babu implies that Europeans are beyond his power as a Secret Service agent. But as Kim points out after hearing the Babu's whole story of continuing to pretend to be a faithful guide for these guys even after they exchanged gunfire with Kim, "He makes them a mock at the risk of his life—I never would have gone down to them after the pistol shots—and then he says he is a fearful man … And he is a fearful man" (15.104).
The Babu is this bizarrely contradictory figure: he is cowardly and ridiculous and one of the bravest and cleverest men in the book. Kipling pokes fun at him for his over-serious manner, but he also acknowledges that the Babu has tons of amazing, daring adventures almost in spite of himself.