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As soon as he was old enough to understand things, Bagheera told him that he must never touch cattle because he had been bought into the Pack at the price of a bull's life. "All the jungle is thine," said Bagheera, "and thou canst kill everything that thou art strong enough to kill; but for the sake of the bull that bought thee thou must never kill or eat any cattle young or old.
Let him be accepted. And then came Akela's deep bay, crying: Look well look well, O Wolves! Mowgli was still deeply interested in the pebbles, and he did not notice when the wolves came and looked at him one by one. At last they all went down the hill for the dead bull, and only Akela, Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgli's own wolves were left.
Therefore I " he raised his voice, "I say that when the dhole come, and if the dhole come, Mowgli and the Free People are of one skin for that hunting; and I say, by the Bull that bought me by the Bull Bagheera paid for me in the old days which ye of the Pack do not remember I say, that the Trees and the River may hear and hold fast if I forget; I say that this my knife shall be as a tooth to the Pack and I do not think it is so blunt.
Men are always more ready to eat than to run, Mowgli answered, trotting in and out between the low scrub bushes of the new Jungle they were exploring. Bagheera, a little to his left, made an indescribable noise in his throat. "Here is one that has done with feeding," said he. A tumbled bundle of gay-coloured clothes lay under a bush, and round it was some spilt flour.
Besides, the monkeys lived there as much as they could be said to live anywhere, and no self-respecting animal would come within eyeshot of it except in times of drought, when the half-ruined tanks and reservoirs held a little water. "It is half a night's journey at full speed," said Bagheera, and Baloo looked very serious. "I will go as fast as I can," he said anxiously.
Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to and fro moaning. "At least he gave me all the Words correctly a little time ago," said Bagheera impatiently. "Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor respect. What would the jungle think if I, the Black Panther, curled myself up like Ikki the Porcupine, and howled?" "What do I care what the jungle thinks? He may be dead by now."
Close to the fire, and blazing in the sunshine, lay the ruby-and-turquoise ankus. "The thing works quickly; all ends here," said Bagheera. "How did THESE die, Mowgli? There is no mark on any." A Jungle-dweller gets to learn by experience as much as many doctors know of poisonous plants and berries.
Messua urged her husband forward, and the darkness shut down on them and Mother Wolf as Bagheera rose up almost under Mowgli's feet, trembling with delight of the night that drives the Jungle People wild. "I am ashamed of thy brethren," he said, purring. "What? Did they not sing sweetly to Buldeo?" said Mowgli. "Too well! Too well!
When he waked among the very loud-voiced peoples that live in the trees, it was twilight once more, and he had been dreaming of the beautiful pebbles he had thrown away. "At least I will look at the thing again," he said, and slid down a creeper to the earth; but Bagheera was before him. Mowgli could hear him snuffing in the half light. "Where is the thorn-pointed thing?" cried Mowgli.
The next thing he remembered was feeling hands on his legs and arms hard, strong, little hands and then a swash of branches in his face, and then he was staring down through the swaying boughs as Baloo woke the jungle with his deep cries and Bagheera bounded up the trunk with every tooth bared.
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