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To move down so cunningly that never a leaf stirred; to wade knee-deep in the roaring shallows that drown all noise from behind; to drink, looking backward over one shoulder, every muscle ready for the first desperate bound of keen terror; to roll on the sandy margin, and return, wet-muzzled and well plumped out, to the admiring herd, was a thing that all tall-antlered young bucks took a delight in, precisely because they knew that at any moment Bagheera or Shere Khan might leap upon them and bear them down.
Shere Khan roared still in the night, for he was very angry that Mowgli had not been handed over to him. "Ay, roar well," said Bagheera, under his whiskers, "for the time will come when this naked thing will make thee roar to another tune, or I know nothing of man." "It was well done," said Akela. "Men and their cubs are very wise. He may be a help in time."
Half-way up the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones on his coat. 'Akela has missed, said the Panther. 'They would have killed him last night, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on the hill. 'I was among the ploughed lands. I am ready. See! Mowgli held up the fire-pot. 'Good!
"I am not sure that they did not pull me into a hundred little bearlings," said Baloo, gravely shaking one leg after the other. "Wow! I am sore. Kaa, we owe thee, I think, our lives Bagheera and I." "No matter. Where is the manling?" "Here, in a trap. I cannot climb out," cried Mowgli. The curve of the broken dome was above his head. "Take him away. He dances like Mao the Peacock.
"NOW I see why it was Shere Khan bade me look at him! He got no good of it, for he could not hold his eyes steady, and and I certainly did not fall down at his feet. But then I am not a man, being of the Free People." "Umm!" said Bagheera deep in his furry throat. "Does the Tiger know his Night?" "Never till the Jackal of the Moon stands clear of the evening mist.
That was the manner in which the Jungle was made by Tha; and so the tale was told to me." "It has not lost fat in the telling," Bagheera whispered, and Mowgli laughed behind his hand.
One of thy clumsy feet set down without seeing would end the hunt. See, I leave thee here, and for thy sake only I will carry word to the Pack that they may know where to look for the dhole. For myself, I am not of one skin with ANY wolf." When Kaa disliked an acquaintance he could be more unpleasant than any of the Jungle People, except perhaps Bagheera.
Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and crackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves. "Thou art the master," said Bagheera in an undertone. "Save Akela from the death. He was ever thy friend."
Mowgli sniffed the smoke that came up from the fire, broke off a morsel of the blackened bread, tasted it, and spat it out again. "Apple of Death," he coughed. "The first must have made it ready in the food for THESE, who killed him, having first killed the Gond." "Good hunting, indeed! The kills follow close," said Bagheera.
Then WHY would they kill?" "Mowgli, go thou and sleep. Thou hast lived among men, and " "I remember. Men kill because they are not hunting; for idleness and pleasure. Wake again, Bagheera. For what use was this thorn-pointed thing made?" Bagheera half opened his eyes he was very sleepy with a malicious twinkle.
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