Chapter - 8 “Red Dog”

When Mowgli was about 15 years old, Mother and Father Wolf died. Mowgli cried the Death Song over them. Baloo had grown old and stiff. Even Bagheera was slower at the kill. Akela walked as if made from wood, and Mowgli killed for him.

A young wolf named Phao had become leader of the wolf pack. For memory's sake, Mowgli came to the Council Rock, but he stayed by himself, or with his four wolf brothers. One night when he was hunting with them, they heard a terrible cry. Mowgli's hand flew to his knife.

"It must be a great killing!" cried Gray Brother. They hurried to the Council Rock. There they found the pack listening and waiting. In a few minutes they heard tired feet on the rocks. Then a wolf flung himself into the circle, gasping. His sides were streaked with blood, his right forepaw useless.

"Good hunting!" said Phao. "Who are you?"

"Good hunting," replied the wolf. "I am an Outlier." Mowgli knew that an Outlier is a wolf who lives outside of any pack, taking care of his mate and cubs away from all others.

"What moves?" said Phao.

"The Red Dog of the Dekkan," the Outlier replied. "They came from the south, saying the Dekkan was empty of game. Now they come this way, killing all they meet. When this moon was new, there were four to me—my mate and three cubs. At dawn I found them stiff on the grass. I went after the Red Dog and found them."

"How many?" said Mowgli.

"I do not know. Three of them will kill no more,vbut at last they drove me like a deer. In a few days, a little strength will come back to me. Then I will fight them to pay my blood debt. But you, O wolves, you should go north until the Red Dog is gone."

"Hear the Outlier!" cried Mowgli, with a laugh. "We must go north and eat lizards and rats until the Red Dog is gone? No! This is good hunting! For the pack—for the lair and for the little cubs in the cave—we must fight!"

The pack answered with a chorus of deep crashing barks, "We fight!"

"Make ready for battle," cried Mowgli. "I go ahead to count the pack.

Wild with excitement, Mowgli ran off into the darkness. He hardly looked where he set his feet, and so tripped over the old snake Kaa, who was watching a deer path.

"Kssha!" said Kaa angrily. "Your noise will undo a night's hunting."

"Please forgive me. It was my fault," admitted Mowgli. "I was looking for you, Flathead. There is none like you in the jungle, O wise, strong, and most beautiful Kaa."

"Now where does this trail lead?" Kaa asked in a gentler voice.

Mowgli told Kaa of the Red Dog.

"Remember that this is the pack that cast you out," Kaa said. "Let the wolf fight the dog."

"It is true that I am a man," said Mowgli. "But this night it is in my stomach that I am also a wolf."

Kaa asked, "What do you plan to do when the Red Dog comes?"

"Make them swim the Wainganga!" Mowgli said.

"I thought to meet them with my knife in the shallow water, the pack behind me. Have you a better plan, Kaa?"

For a long hour, Kaa lay wihout moving. He thought of all he had seen and known since he came from the egg. At last he said, "We will go to the river, and I will show you what can be done against the Red Dog."

Mowgli held onto Kaa as the great snake swam through the rapids. Soon they came to a gorge of marble rocks that were 80 to 100 feet high. On both sides, the gorge seemed to be hung with shining black curtains. These were the sleeping bodies of millions of the Little People—the busy, furious, wild black bees of India. On a sandbar below the cliffs lay the skeletons of many deer and buffalo.

"The Little People's kill," said Kaa. "Think, Mowgli! Hathi and the tiger himself turn aside for the Red Dog. And the Red Dog turn aside for no one. And yet for whom do the Little People turn aside? Who is the master of the jungle?"

"These," whispered Mowgli. "Come. This is a place of death. Let us go."

"They do not wake till dawn," said Kaa. "Now, many rains ago a buck came running here, a pack on his trail. Blinded with fear, he leaped over the gorge. The pack followed, but many were dead before they reached the water. Only the buck lived.

How do you think that happened?"

"How?" Mowgli demanded.

"Because he came first—before the Little People were aware," said Kaa.

"The buck lived," Mowgli said slowly.

"At least he did not die then," said Kaa. "Of course, he had no fat old Flathead waiting to pull him through the rapids."

Mowgli whispered, "Why, we will pull the very whiskers of death. Oh, Kaa—you are the wisest in all the jungle!"

Kaa said, "For your sake only I will carry word to the pack. Soon they will know where to look for the Red Dog. I leave you here."

Mowgli gathered a small bundle of garlic, which he knew the Little People disliked. Then he went to find the Outlier's trail.

The trail, marked with blood, ran under a forest of trees that grew thinner and thinner as it neared the Bee Rocks. Mowgli waited in a tree, sharpening his knife on the bottom of his foot.

Before midday, the Red Dog came, following the trail. "Good Hunting!" called Mowgli. "Who gives you leave to hunt here?"

The pack slowed to a stop beneath Mowgli's tree. There were 200 of them, tall red dogs with heavy shoulders. One dog showed his teeth and said, "All jungles are our jungles."

"Dog, red dog!" Mowgli teased. "Go back to the Dekkan and eat lizards!" 

The pack lept and snapped at him. Mowgli told them exactly what he thought of their manners, their customs, their mates, and their puppies. The Red Dog began to growl and then to yell with rage.

At last their leader made a great leap toward Mowgli. Mowgli grabbed him by the neck. While the branch under him shook, Mowgli pulled him up, inch by inch. Then he reached for his knife and cut off the dog's red, bushy tail, letting the dog fall back to the ground. That was all he needed. Now the Red Dog pack was furious. They would not leave Mowgli until they had killed him.

Mowgli waited in the tree until the sun had almost set. Then he lept from tree to tree, toward the Bee Rocks. The Red Dog followed hungrily. Then Mowgli came to the last tree. From here to the Bee Rocks was a stretch of open ground. After rubbing himself all over with garlic, Mowgli threw the leader's tail at the pack. Then he jumped to the ground and ran like the wind toward the Bee Rocks, the dogs howling behind him.

As he reached the edge of the gorge, Mowgli heard a roar like the sea in a cave. The air behind him grew black! Leaping outward with all his strength, he landed feet first in the water. There was not a sting on his body.

Then Mowgli could feel Kaa's strong body carrying him along. Red Dogs were falling through the air like black lumps. Every one of them was covered with hundreds of stinging bees!

Nearly half of the dog pack had seen what the others had rushed into. Now they turned aside and entered the river farther down. Seeing this, Mowgli dove off Kaa's back and found a couple of the swimming dogs with his knife.

The current soon swept them along to a sandy bank where the wolf pack waited.

"I leave you here," said Kaa to Mowgli. "I do not help wolves."

The Red Dogs crawled out of the water to meet the wolves. They were tired from swimming—their coats were wet and heavy.

It was a hard fight, loud with yells and snaps and cries. Mowgli's knife came and went. His wolf brothers fought by his side. At last the Red Dog grew weaker. It was the Outlier himself who killed the Red Dog leader.

"The blood debt is paid, Outlier," said Mowgli.

"Yes, their leader hunts no more," said Gray Brother, "but Akela is silent, too."

Seeing the Red Dogs retreating from the battle, Mowgli shouted, "They have killed Akela! Do not let a single dog go!"

He ran to Akela's side. The old wolf said, "It is good hunting. I would die by you, man-cub."

"No, no, I am a wolf !" Mowgli insisted. "It is no will of mine that I am also a man."

"Today you have saved the pack," said Akela.

"All debts are paid. Go now to your own people. Hurry—before you are driven."

"Who will drive me?" said Mowgli.

"Mowgli will drive Mowgli," Akela sighed.

Then Akela sang the Death Song and fell silent upon his last kill.

Twenty-one of the wolves lay dead by the river. And every living wolf carried a terrible wound. But of all the pack of 200 Red Dogs, not one was left alive to carry the news to the Dekkan.