as Messua--ran across to the herd, and cried: 'Oh, my
son, my son! They say thou art a sorcerer who can turn himself into a
beast at will. I do not believe, but go away or they will kill thee.
Buldeo says thou art a wizard, but I know thou hast avenged Nathoo's
death.'

'Come back, Messua!' shouted the crowd. 'Come back, or we will stone
thee.'

Mowgli laughed a little short ugly laugh, for a stone had hit him in
the mouth. 'Run back, Messua. This is one of the foolish tales they
tell under the big tree at dusk. I have at least paid for thy son's
life. Farewell; and run quickly, for I shall send the herd in more
swiftly than their brickbats. I am no wizard, Messua. Farewell!'

'Now, once more, Akela,' he cried. 'Bring the herd in.'

The buffaloes were anxious enough to get to the village. They hardly
needed Akela's yell, but charged through the gate like a whirlwind,
scattering the crowd right and left.

'Keep count!' shouted Mowgli, scornfully. 'It may be that I have
stolen one of them. Keep count, for I will do your herding no more.
Fare you well, children of men, and thank Messua that I do not come
in with my wolves and hunt you up and down your street.'

He turned on his heel and walked away with the Lone Wolf; and as he
looked up at the stars he felt happy. 'No more sleeping in traps for
me, Akela. Let us get Shere Khan's skin and go away. No; we will not
hurt the village, for Messua was kind to me.'

When the moon rose over the plain, making it look all milky, the
horrified villagers saw Mowgli, with two wolves at his heels and a
bundle on his head, trotting across at the steady wolf's trot that
eats up the long miles like fire. Then they banged the temple bells
and blew the conches louder than ever; and Messua cried, and Buldeo
embroidered the story of his adventures in the jungle, till he ended
by saying that Akela stood up on his hind legs and talked like a man.

The moon was just going down when Mowgli and the two wolves came to
the hill of the Council Rock, and they stopped at Mother Wolf's cave.

'They have cast me out from the man Pack, Mother,' shouted Mowgli,
'but I come with the hide of Shere Khan to keep my word.' Mother Wolf
walked stiffly from the cave with the cubs behind her, and her eyes
glowed as she saw the skin.

'I told him on that day, when he crammed his head and shoulders into
this cave, hunting for thy life, little frog--I told him that the
hunter would be the hunted. It is well