EPISODE: 7.

"Arrula! Whoo! They may have dropped him already, being

tired of carrying him. Who can trust the Bandar-log? Put dead

bats on my head! Give me black bones to eat! Roll me into the

hives of the wild bees that I may be stung to death, and bury me

with the Hyaena, for I am most miserable of bears! Arulala!

Wahooa! O Mowgli, Mowgli! Why did I not warn thee against

the Monkey-Folk instead of breaking thy head? Now perhaps I

may have knocked the day's lesson out of his mind, and he will

be alone in the jungle without the Master Words."

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."

"Unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport, or

kill him out of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub. He is

wise and well taught, and above all he has the eyes that make

the Jungle-People afraid. But (and it is a great evil) he is in the

power of the Bandar-log, and they, because they live in trees,

have no fear of any of our people." Bagheera licked one forepaw

thoughtfully.

"Fool that I am! Oh, fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am,"

said Baloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk, "it is true what Hathi

the Wild Elephant says: `To each his own fear'; and they, the

Bandar-log, fear Kaa the Rock Snake. He can climb as well as

they can. He steals the young monkeys in the night. The whisper

of his name makes their wicked tails cold. Let us go to Kaa."

"What will he do for us? He is not of our tribe, being

footless—and with most evil eyes," said Bagheera.

"He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is always

hungry," said Baloo hopefully. "Promise him many goats." "He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten. He may be

asleep now, and even were he awake what if he would rather kill

his own goats?" Bagheera, who did not know much about Kaa,

was naturally suspicious.

"Then in that case, thou and I together, old hunter, might

make him see reason." Here Baloo rubbed his faded brown

shoulder against the Panther, and they went off to look for Kaa

the Rock Python.

They found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the

afternoon sun, admiring his beautiful new coat, for he had been

in retirement for the last ten days changing his skin, and now he

was very splendid—darting his big blunt-nosed head along the

ground, and twisting the thirty feet of his body into fantastic

knots and curves, and licking his lips as he thought of his dinner

to come.

"He has not eaten," said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as soon

as he saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket. "Be

careful, Bagheera! He is always a little blind after he has

changed his skin, and very quick to strike."

Kaa was not a poison snake—in fact he rather despised the

poison snakes as cowards—but his strength lay in his hug, and

when he had once lapped his huge coils round anybody there

was no more to be said. "Good hunting!" cried Baloo, sitting up

on his haunches. Like all snakes of his breed Kaa was rather

deaf, and did not hear the call at first. Then he curled up ready

for any accident, his head lowered.

"Good hunting for us all," he answered. "Oho, Baloo, what

dost thou do here? Good hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least

needs food. Is there any news of game afoot? A doe now, or

even a young buck? I am as empty as a dried well."

"We are hunting," said Baloo carelessly. He knew that you

must not hurry Kaa. He is too big.

"Give me permission to come with you," said Kaa. "A blow

more or less is nothing to thee, Bagheera or Baloo, but I—I have to wait and wait for days in a wood-path and climb half a night

on the mere chance of a young ape. Psshaw! The branches are

not what they were when I was young. Rotten twigs and dry

boughs are they all."

"Maybe thy great weight has something to do with the matter,"

said Baloo.

"I am a fair length—a fair length," said Kaa with a little pride.

"But for all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came

very near to falling on my last hunt—very near indeed—and the

noise of my slipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped around

the tree, waked the Bandar-log, and they called me most evil

names."

"Footless, yellow earth-worm," said Bagheera under his

whiskers, as though he were trying to remember something.

"Sssss! Have they ever called me that?" said Kaa.

"Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last

moon, but we never noticed them. They will say anything—even

that thou hast lost all thy teeth, and wilt not face anything

bigger than a kid, because (they are indeed shameless, these

Bandar-log)—because thou art afraid of the he-goat's horns,"

Bagheera went on sweetly.

Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa, very

seldom shows that he is angry, but Baloo and Bagheera could see

the big swallowing muscles on either side of Kaa's throat ripple

and bulge.

"The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds," he said quietly.

"When I came up into the sun today I heard them whooping

among the tree-tops."

"It—it is the Bandar-log that we follow now," said Baloo, but

the words stuck in his throat, for that was the first time in his

memory that one of the Jungle-People had owned to being

interested in the doings of the monkeys. "Beyond doubt then it is no small thing that takes two such

hunters—leaders in their own jungle I am certain—on the trail of

the Bandar-log," Kaa replied courteously, as he swelled with

curiosity.

"Indeed," Baloo began, "I am no more than the old and

sometimes very foolish Teacher of the Law to the Seeonee wolf-

cubs, and Bagheera here—"

"Is Bagheera," said the Black Panther, and his jaws shut with a

snap, for he did not believe in being humble. "The trouble is

this, Kaa. Those nut-stealers and pickers of palm leaves have

stolen away our man-cub of whom thou hast perhaps heard."

"I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make him

presumptuous) of a man-thing that was entered into a wolf pack,

but I did not believe. Ikki is full of stories half heard and very

badly told."

"But it is true. He is such a man-cub as never was," said Baloo.

"The best and wisest and boldest of man-cubs—my own pupil,

who shall make the name of Baloo famous through all the

jungles; and besides, I—we—love him, Kaa."

"Ts! Ts!" said Kaa, weaving his head to and fro. "I also have

known what love is. There are tales I could tell that—"

"That need a clear night when we are all well fed to praise

properly," said Bagheera quickly. "Our man-cub is in the hands

of the Bandar-log now, and we know that of all the Jungle-People

they fear Kaa alone."

"They fear me alone. They have good reason," said Kaa.

"Chattering, foolish, vain—vain, foolish, and chattering, are the

monkeys. But a man-thing in their hands is in no good luck.

They grow tired of the nuts they pick, and throw them down.

They carry a branch half a day, meaning to do great things with

it, and then they snap it in two. That man-thing is not to be

envied. They called me also—`yellow fish' was it not?" "Worm—worm—earth-worm," said Bagheera, "as well as other

things which I cannot now say for shame."

"We must remind them to speak well of their master. Aaa-ssp!

We must help their wandering memories. Now, whither went

they with the cub?"

"The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe," said

Baloo. "We had thought that thou wouldst know, Kaa."

"I? How? I take them when they come in my way, but I do not

hunt the Bandar-log, or frogs—or green scum on a water-hole,

for that matter."

"Up, Up! Up, Up! Hillo! Illo! Illo, look up, Baloo of the

Seeonee Wolf Pack!"

Baloo looked up to see where the voice came from, and there

was Rann the Kite, sweeping down with the sun shining on the

upturned flanges of his wings. It was near Rann's bedtime, but

he had ranged all over the jungle looking for the Bear and had

missed him in the thick foliage.

"What is it?" said Baloo.

"I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. He bade me tell

you. I watched. The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river

to the monkey city—to the Cold Lairs. They may stay there for a

night, or ten nights, or an hour. I have told the bats to watch

through the dark time. That is my message. Good hunting, all

you below!"

"Full gorge and a deep sleep to you, Rann," cried Bagheera. "I

will remember thee in my next kill, and put aside the head for

thee alone, O best of kites!"

"It is nothing. It is nothing. The boy held the Master Word. I

could have done no less," and Rann circled up again to his roost.

"He has not forgotten to use his tongue," said Baloo with a

chuckle of pride. "To think of one so young remembering the....