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Updated: June 14, 2025
Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack had been without a leader, hunting and fighting at their own pleasure. But they answered the call from habit; and some of them were lame from the traps they had fallen into, and some limped from shot wounds, and some were mangy from eating bad food, and many were missing.
'I did not know these things, said Mowgli, sullenly; and he frowned under his heavy black eyebrows. 'What is the Law of the Jungle? Strike first and then give tongue. By thy very carelessness they know that thou art a man. But be wise. It is in my heart that when Akela misses his next kill, and at each hunt it costs him more to pin the buck, the Pack will turn against him and against thee.
It was long after sunrise, but no one dreamed of going to sleep, and from time to time, during the talk, Mother Wolf would throw up her head, and sniff a deep snuff of satisfaction as the wind brought her the smell of the tiger-skin on the Council Rock. "But for Akela and Gray Brother here," Mowgli said, at the end, "I could have done nothing.
Now I know, for I have good cause," Akela looked down at the old dry scars on his flank and side, "that men do not carry guns for pleasure. Presently, Little Brother, a man with a gun follows our trail if, indeed, he be not already on it." "But why should he? Men have cast me out. What more do they need?" said Mowgli angrily. "Thou art a man, Little Brother," Akela returned.
There is an old war between this lame tiger and myself a very old war, and I have won. To do Buldeo justice, if he had been ten years younger he would have taken his chance with Akela had he met the wolf in the woods, but a wolf who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eating tigers was not a common animal.
Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver. 'Good! said Mowgli, staring round slowly. 'I see that ye are dogs. I go from you to my own people if they be ray own people.
A large, warm tear splashed down on his knee, and, miserable as he was, Mowgli felt happy that he was so miserable, if you can understand that upside-down sort of happiness. "As Chil the Kite used Akela," he repeated, "on the night I saved the Pack from Red Dog." He was quiet for a little, thinking of the last words of the Lone Wolf, which you, of course, remember.
Ever since Akela had been deposed, the Pack had been without a leader, hunting and fighting at their own pleasure.
"Ay, but again and again, and it may be again, Gray Brother?" Gray Brother was silent. When he spoke he growled to himself, "The Black One spoke truth." "And he said?" "Man goes to Man at the last. Raksha, our mother, said " "So also said Akela on the night of Red Dog," Mowgli muttered. "So also says Kaa, who is wiser than us all." "What dost thou say, Gray Brother?"
Go! The fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and Mowgli struck right and left round the circle, and the wolves ran howling with the sparks burning their fur. At last there were only Akela, Bagheera, and perhaps ten wolves that had taken Mowgli's part.
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