EPISODE: 3.

in the jungle that he nearly walked into it, and told him that it

was a trap. He loved better than anything else to go with

Bagheera into the dark warm heart of the forest, to sleep all

through the drowsy day, and at night see how Bagheera did his

killing. Bagheera killed right and left as he felt hungry, and so

did Mowgli—with one exception. 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. That is the Law of the Jungle."

Mowgli obeyed faithfully.

And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does

not know that he is learning any lessons, and who has nothing

in the world to think of except things to eat.

Mother Wolf told him once or twice that Shere Khan was not a

creature to be trusted, and that some day he must kill Shere

Khan. But though a young wolf would have remembered that

advice every hour, Mowgli forgot it because he was only a boy—

though he would have called himself a wolf if he had been able

to speak in any human tongue.

Shere Khan was always crossing his path in the jungle, for as

Akela grew older and feebler the lame tiger had come to be great

friends with the younger wolves of the Pack, who followed him

for scraps, a thing Akela would never have allowed if he had

dared to push his authority to the proper bounds. Then Shere

Khan would flatter them and wonder that such fine young

hunters were content to be led by a dying wolf and a man's cub.

"They tell me," Shere Khan would say, "that at Council ye dare

not look him between the eyes." And the young wolves would

growl and bristle.

Bagheera, who had eyes and ears everywhere, knew something

of this, and once or twice he told Mowgli in so many words that

Shere Khan would kill him some day. Mowgli would laugh and

answer: "I have the Pack and I have thee; and Baloo, though he is so lazy, might strike a blow or two for my sake. Why should I

be afraid?"

It was one very warm day that a new notion came to

Bagheera—born of something that he had heard. Perhaps Ikki

the Porcupine had told him; but he said to Mowgli when they

were deep in the jungle, as the boy lay with his head on

Bagheera's beautiful black skin, "Little Brother, how often have I

told thee that Shere Khan is thy enemy?"

"As many times as there are nuts on that palm," said Mowgli,

who, naturally, could not count. "What of it? I am sleepy,

Bagheera, and Shere Khan is all long tail and loud talk—like

Mao, the Peacock."

"But this is no time for sleeping. Baloo knows it; I know it; the

Pack know it; and even the foolish, foolish deer know. Tabaqui

has told thee too."

"Ho! ho!" said Mowgli. "Tabaqui came to me not long ago with

some rude talk that I was a naked man's cub and not fit to dig

pig-nuts. But I caught Tabaqui by the tail and swung him twice

against a palm-tree to teach him better manners."

"That was foolishness, for though Tabaqui is a mischief-maker,

he would have told thee of something that concerned thee

closely. Open those eyes, Little Brother. Shere Khan dare not kill

thee in the jungle. But remember, Akela is very old, and soon

the day comes when he cannot kill his buck, and then he will be

leader no more. Many of the wolves that looked thee over when

thou wast brought to the Council first are old too, and the young

wolves believe, as Shere Khan has taught them, that a man-cub

has no place with the Pack. In a little time thou wilt be a man."

"And what is a man that he should not run with his brothers?"

said Mowgli. "I was born in the jungle. I have obeyed the Law of

the Jungle, and there is no wolf of ours from whose paws I have

not pulled a thorn. Surely they are my brothers!"

Bagheera stretched himself at full length and half shut his

eyes. "Little Brother," said he, "feel under my jaw." Mowgli put up his strong brown hand, and just under

Bagheera's silky chin, where the giant rolling muscles were all

hid by the glossy hair, he came upon a little bald spot.

"There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera,

carry that mark—the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I

was born among men, and it was among men that my mother

died—in the cages of the king's palace at Oodeypore. It was

because of this that I paid the price for thee at the Council when

thou wast a little naked cub. Yes, I too was born among men. I

had never seen the jungle. They fed me behind bars from an iron

pan till one night I felt that I was Bagheera—the Panther—and

no man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of

my paw and came away. And because I had learned the ways of

men, I became more terrible in the jungle than Shere Khan. Is it

not so?"

"Yes," said Mowgli, "all the jungle fear Bagheera—all except

Mowgli."

"Oh, thou art a man's cub," said the Black Panther very

tenderly. "And even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go

back to men at last—to the men who are thy brothers—if thou

art not killed in the Council."

"But why—but why should any wish to kill me?" said Mowgli.

"Look at me," said Bagheera. And Mowgli looked at him

steadily between the eyes. The big panther turned his head away

in half a minute.

"That is why," he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. "Not

even I can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among

men, and I love thee, Little Brother. The others they hate thee

because their eyes cannot meet thine; because thou art wise;

because thou hast pulled out thorns from their feet—because

thou art a man."

"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. They will hold a

jungle Council at the Rock, and then—and then—I have it!" said

Bagheera, leaping up. "Go thou down quickly to the men's huts

in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which they grow

there, so that when the time comes thou mayest have even a

stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love

thee. Get the Red Flower."

By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the

jungle will call fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in

deadly fear of it, and invents a hundred ways of describing it.

"The Red Flower?" said Mowgli. "That grows outside their huts

in the twilight. I will get some."

"There speaks the man's cub," said Bagheera proudly.

"Remember that it grows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep

it by thee for time of need."

"Good!" said Mowgli. "I go. But art thou sure, O my

Bagheera"—he slipped his arm around the splendid neck and

looked deep into the big eyes—"art thou sure that all this is

Shere Khan's doing?"

"By the Broken Lock that freed me, I am sure, Little Brother."

"Then, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay Shere Khan full

tale for this, and it may be a little over," said Mowgli, and he

bounded away.

"That is a man. That is all a man," said Bagheera to himself,

lying down again. "Oh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting

than that frog-hunt of thine ten years ago!"

Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and

his heart was hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening

mist rose, and drew breath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but Mother Wolf, at the back of the cave, knew

by his breathing that something was troubling her frog.

"What is it, Son?" she said.

"Some bat's chatter of Shere Khan," he called back. "I hunt

among the plowed fields tonight," and he plunged downward

through the bushes, to the stream at the bottom of the valley.

There he checked, for he heard the yell of the Pack hunting,

heard the bellow of a hunted Sambhur, and the snort as the

buck turned at bay. Then there were wicked, bitter howls from

the young wolves: "Akela! Akela! Let the Lone Wolf show his

strength. Room for the leader of the Pack! Spring, Akela!"

The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for

Mowgli heard the snap of his teeth and then a yelp as the

Sambhur knocked him over with his forefoot.

He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the

yells grew fainter behind him as he ran into the croplands where

the villagers lived.

"Bagheera spoke truth," he panted, as he nestled down in some

cattle fodder by the window of a hut. "To-morrow is one day

both for Akela and for me."

Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the

fire on the hearth. He saw the husbandman's wife get up and

feed it in the night with black lumps. And when the morning

came and the mists were all white and cold, he saw the man's

child pick up a wicker pot plastered inside with earth, fill it with

lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under his blanket, and go out

to tend the cows in the byre.

"Is that all?" said Mowgli. "If a cub can do it, there is nothing

to fear." So he strode round the corner and met the boy, took the

pot from his hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy

howled with fear.

"They are very like me," said Mowgli, blowing into the pot as

he had seen the woman do. "This thing will die if I do not give it....