tle 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 round 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
ploughed fields to-night'; 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 fore foot.

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, too