pt! Now, where does he lie
up? If there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies.
These buffaloes will not charge unless they wind him, and I cannot
speak their language. Can we get behind his track so that they may
smell it?'

'He swam far down the Waingunga to cut that off,' said Gray Brother.

'Tabaqui told him that, I know. He would never have thought of it
alone.' Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking. 'The big
ravine of the Waingunga. That opens out on the plain not half a mile
from here. I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head
of the ravine and then sweep down--but he would slink out at the
foot. We must block that end. Gray Brother, canst thou cut the herd
in two for me?'

'Not I, perhaps--but I have brought a wise helper.' Gray Brother
trotted off and dropped into a hole. Then there lifted up a huge gray
head that Mowgli knew well, and the hot air was filled with the most
desolate cry of all the jungle--the hunting-howl of a wolf at
mid-day.

'Akela! Akela!' said Mowgli, clapping his hands. 'I might have known
that thou wouldst not forget me. We have a big work in hand. Cut the
herd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and calves together, and the bulls
and the plough-buffaloes by themselves.'

The two wolves ran, ladies'-chain fashion, in and out of the herd,
which snorted and threw up its head, and separated into two clumps.
In one, the cow-buffaloes stood with their calves in the centre, and
glared and pawed, ready, if a wolf would only stay still, to charge
down and trample the life out of him. In the other, the bulls and the
young bulls snorted and stamped, but though they looked more imposing
they were much less dangerous, for they had no calves to protect. No
six men could have divided the herd so neatly.

'What orders!' panted Akela. 'They are trying to join again.'

Mowgli slipped on to Rama's back. 'Drive the bulls away to the left,
Akela. Gray Brother, when we are gone, hold the cows together, and
drive them into the foot of the ravine.'

'How far?' said Gray Brother, panting and snapping.

'Till the sides are higher than Shere Khan can jump,' shouted Mowgli.
'Keep them there till we come down.' The bulls swept off as Akela
bayed, and Gray Brother stopped in front of the cows. They charged
down on him, and he ran just before them to the foot of the ravine,
as Akela drove the bulls far to the left.

'Well done! Another charge and they are fairly started.