il, the Kite.
They found a horse before midnight of the night they were freed, and
went very quickly. Is not that well?"

"That is well," said Mowgli.

"And thy Man-Pack in the village did not stir till the sun was high this
morning. Then they ate their food and ran back quickly to their houses."

"Did they, by chance, see thee?"

"It may have been. I was rolling in the dust before the gate at dawn,
and I may have made also some small song to myself. Now, Little Brother,
there is nothing more to do. Come hunting with me and Baloo. He has new
hives that he wishes to show, and we all desire thee back again as of
old. Take off that look which makes even me afraid! The man and woman
will not be put into the Red Flower, and all goes well in the Jungle. Is
it not true? Let us forget the Man-Pack."

"They shall be forgotten in a little while. Where does Hathi feed
to-night?"

"Where he chooses. Who can answer for the Silent One? But why? What is
there Hathi can do which we cannot?"

"Bid him and his three sons come here to me."

"But, indeed, and truly, Little Brother, it is not--it is not seemly
to say 'Come,' and 'Go,' to Hathi. Remember, he is the Master of the
Jungle, and before the Man-Pack changed the look on thy face, he taught
thee the Master-words of the Jungle."

"That is all one. I have a Master-word for him now. Bid him come to
Mowgli, the Frog: and if he does not hear at first, bid him come because
of the Sack of the Fields of Bhurtpore."

"The Sack of the Fields of Bhurtpore," Bagheera repeated two or three
times to make sure. "I go. Hathi can but be angry at the worst, and
I would give a moon's hunting to hear a Master-word that compels the
Silent One."

He went away, leaving Mowgli stabbing furiously with his skinning-knife
into the earth. Mowgli had never seen human blood in his life before
till he had seen, and--what meant much more to him--smelled Messua's
blood on the thongs that bound her. And Messua had been kind to
him, and, so far as he knew anything about love, he loved Messua as
completely as he hated the rest of mankind. But deeply as he loathed
them, their talk, their cruelty, and their cowardice, not for anything
the Jungle had to offer could he bring himself to take a human life, and
have that terrible scent of blood back again in his nostrils. His plan
was simpler, but much more thorough; and he laughed to himself when he
thought that it was one of old Buldeo's tales told under the