e big head
with them--dropped lower and lower, and the red rasp of a tongue grated
on Mowgli's instep.

"Brother--Brother--Brother!" the boy whispered, stroking steadily and
lightly from the neck along the heaving back. "Be still, be still! It is
the fault of the night, and no fault of thine."

"It was the smells of the night," said Bagheera penitently. "This air
cries aloud to me. But how dost THOU know?"

Of course the air round an Indian village is full of all kinds of
smells, and to any creature who does nearly all his thinking through his
nose, smells are as maddening as music and drugs are to human beings.
Mowgli gentled the panther for a few minutes longer, and he lay down
like a cat before a fire, his paws tucked under his breast, and his eyes
half shut.

"Thou art of the Jungle and NOT of the Jungle," he said at last. "And I
am only a black panther. But I love thee, Little Brother."

"They are very long at their talk under the tree," Mowgli said, without
noticing the last sentence. "Buldeo must have told many tales. They
should come soon to drag the woman and her man out of the trap and put
them into the Red Flower. They will find that trap sprung. Ho! ho!"

"Nay, listen," said Bagheera. "The fever is out of my blood now. Let
them find ME there! Few would leave their houses after meeting me. It is
not the first time I have been in a cage; and I do not think they will
tie ME with cords."

"Be wise, then," said Mowgli, laughing; for he was beginning to feel as
reckless as the panther, who had glided into the hut.

"Pah!" Bagheera grunted. "This place is rank with Man, but here is just
such a bed as they gave me to lie upon in the King's cages at Oodeypore.
Now I lie down." Mowgli heard the strings of the cot crack under the
great brute's weight. "By the Broken Lock that freed me, they will think
they have caught big game! Come and sit beside me, Little Brother; we
will give them 'good hunting' together!"

"No; I have another thought in my stomach. The Man-Pack shall not know
what share I have in the sport. Make thine own hunt. I do not wish to
see them."

"Be it so," said Bagheera. "Ah, now they come!"

The conference under the peepul-tree had been growing noisier and
noisier, at the far end of the village. It broke in wild yells, and
a rush up the street of men and women, waving clubs and bamboos and
sickles and knives. Buldeo and the Brahmin were at the head of it, but
the mob was close at their h