ful Rikki-tikki's sake I will stop,' said
Darzee. 'What is it, O killer of the terrible Nag?'

'Where is Nagaina, for the third time?'

'On the rubbish-heap by the stables, mourning for Nag. Great is
Rikki-tikki with the white teeth.'

'Bother my white teeth! Have you ever heard where she keeps her
eggs?'

'In the melon-bed, on the end nearest the wall, where the sun strikes
nearly all day. She hid them three weeks ago.'

'And you never thought it worth while to tell me? The end nearest the
wall, you said?'

'Rikki-tikki, you are not going to eat her eggs?'

'Not eat exactly; no. Darzee, if you have a grain of sense you will
fly off to the stables and pretend that your wing is broken, and let
Nagaina chase you away to this bush! I must get to the melon-bed, and
if I went there now she'd see me.'

Darzee was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold more
than one idea at a time in his head; and just because he knew that
Nagaina's children were born in eggs like his own, he didn't think at
first that it was fair to kill them. But his wife was a sensible
bird, and she knew that cobra's eggs meant young cobras later on; so
she flew off from the nest, and left Darzee to keep the babies warm,
and continue his song about the death of Nag. Darzee was very like a
man in some ways.

She fluttered in front of Nagaina by the rubbish-heap, and cried out,
'Oh, my wing is broken! The boy in the house threw a stone at me and
broke it.' Then she fluttered more desperately than ever.

Nagaina lifted up her head and hissed, 'You warned Rikki-tikki when
I would have killed him. Indeed and truly, you've chosen a bad place
to be lame in.' And she moved toward Darzee's wife, slipping along
over the dust.

'The boy broke it with a stone!' shrieked Darzee's wife.

'Well! It may be some consolation to you when you're dead to know
that I shall settle accounts with the boy. My husband lies on the
rubbish-heap this morning, but before night the boy in the house will
lie very still. What is the use of running away? I am sure to catch
you. Little fool, look at me!'

Darzee's wife knew better than to do _that_, for a bird who looks at
a snake's eyes gets so frightened that she cannot move. Darzee's wife
fluttered on, piping sorrowfully, and never leaving the ground, and
Nagaina quickened her pace.

Rikki-tikki heard them going up the path from the stables, and he
raced for the end of the melon-patch near the wall. There,