a little. I would call Bagheera."

The long, low howl rose and fell, and Mowgli saw Messua's husband flinch
and turn, half minded to run back to the hut.

"Go on," Mowgli called cheerfully. "I said there might be singing. That
call will follow up to Khanhiwara. It is Favour of the Jungle."

Messua urged her husband forward, and the darkness shut down on them and
Mother Wolf as Bagheera rose up almost under Mowgli's feet, trembling
with delight of the night that drives the Jungle People wild.

"I am ashamed of thy brethren," he said, purring. "What? Did they not
sing sweetly to Buldeo?" said Mowgli.

"Too well! Too well! They made even ME forget my pride, and, by the
Broken Lock that freed me, I went singing through the Jungle as though I
were out wooing in the spring! Didst thou not hear us?"

"I had other game afoot. Ask Buldeo if he liked the song. But where
are the Four? I do not wish one of the Man-Pack to leave the gates
to-night."

"What need of the Four, then?" said Bagheera, shifting from foot to
foot, his eyes ablaze, and purring louder than ever. "I can hold them,
Little Brother. Is it killing at last? The singing and the sight of the
men climbing up the trees have made me very ready. Who is Man that we
should care for him--the naked brown digger, the hairless and toothless,
the eater of earth? I have followed him all day--at noon--in the white
sunlight. I herded him as the wolves herd buck. I am Bagheera! Bagheera!
Bagheera! As I dance with my shadow, so danced I with those men. Look!"
The great panther leaped as a kitten leaps at a dead leaf whirling
overhead, struck left and right into the empty air, that sang under the
strokes, landed noiselessly, and leaped again and again, while the
half purr, half growl gathered head as steam rumbles in a boiler. "I
am Bagheera--in the jungle--in the night, and my strength is in me. Who
shall stay my stroke? Man-cub, with one blow of my paw I could beat thy
head flat as a dead frog in the summer!"

"Strike, then!" said Mowgli, in the dialect of the village, NOT the
talk of the Jungle, and the human words brought Bagheera to a full stop,
flung back on haunches that quivered under him, his head just at the
level of Mowgli's. Once more Mowgli stared, as he had stared at the
rebellious cubs, full into the beryl-green eyes till the red glare
behind their green went out like the light of a lighthouse shut off
twenty miles across the sea; till the eyes dropped, and th