Bagheera looked along his ragged, dusty flank and whispered.
"Last night I killed a bullock under the yoke. So low was I
brought that I think I should not have dared to spring if he
had been loose. WOU!"

Mowgli laughed. "Yes, we be great hunters now," said he.
"I am very bold--to eat grubs," and the two came down together
through the crackling undergrowth to the river-bank and the
lace-work of shoals that ran out from it in every direction.

"The water cannot live long," said Baloo, joining them.
"Look across. Yonder are trails like the roads of Man."

On the level plain of the farther bank the stiff jungle-grass
had died standing, and, dying, had mummied. The beaten tracks
of the deer and the pig, all heading toward the river, had
striped that colourless plain with dusty gullies driven through
the ten-foot grass, and, early as it was, each long avenue was
full of first-comers hastening to the water. You could hear the
does and fawns coughing in the snuff-like dust.

Up-stream, at the bend of the sluggish pool round the Peace
Rock, and Warden of the Water Truce, stood Hathi, the wild
elephant, with his sons, gaunt and gray in the moonlight,
rocking to and fro--always rocking. Below him a little were the
vanguard of the deer; below these, again, the pig and the wild
buffalo; and on the opposite bank, where the tall trees came
down to the water's edge, was the place set apart for the
Eaters of Flesh--the tiger, the wolves, the panther, the bear,
and the others.

"We are under one Law, indeed," said Bagheera, wading into the
water and looking across at the lines of clicking horns and
starting eyes where the deer and the pig pushed each other to
and fro. "Good hunting, all you of my blood," he added, lying
own at full length, one flank thrust out of the shallows; and
then, between his teeth, "But for that which is the Law it
would be VERY good hunting."

The quick-spread ears of the deer caught the last sentence,
and a frightened whisper ran along the ranks. "The Truce!
Remember the Truce!"

"Peace there, peace!" gurgled Hathi, the wild elephant.
"The Truce holds, Bagheera. This is no time to talk
of hunting."

"Who should know better than I?" Bagheera answered, rolling his
yellow eyes up-stream. "I am an eater of turtles--a fisher of
frogs. Ngaayah! Would I could get good from chewing branches!"

"WE wish so, very greatly," bleated a young fawn, who had only
been born that spring, and did not at all like it. Wretched as
the Jungle People were, even Hathi could not help chuckling;
while Mowgli, lying on his elbows in the warm water, laughed
aloud, and beat up the scum with his feet.

"Well spoken, little bud-horn," Bagheera purred. "When the
Truce ends that shall be remembered in thy favour," and he
looked keenly through the darkness to make sure of recognising
the fawn again.

Gradually the talking spread up and down the drinking-places.
One could hear the scuffling, snorting pig asking for more
room; the buffaloes grunting among themselves as they lurched
out across the sand-bars, and the deer telling pitiful stories
of their long foot-sore wanderings in quest of food. Now and
again they asked some question of the Eaters of Flesh across
the river, but all the news was bad, and the roaring hot wind
of the Jungle came and went between the rocks and the rattling
branches, and scattered twigs, and dust on the water.

"The men-folk, too, they die beside their ploughs," said a
young sambhur. "I passed three between sunset and night.
They lay still, and their Bullocks with them. We also shall lie
still in a little."

"The river has fallen since last night," said Baloo. "O Hathi,
hast thou ever seen the like of this drought?"

"It will pass, it will pass," said Hathi, squirting water along
his back and sides.

"We have one here that cannot endure long," said Baloo; and he
looked toward the boy he loved.

"I?" said Mowgli indignantly, sitting up in the water. "I have
no long fur to cover my bones, but--but if THY hide were taken
off, Baloo----"

Hathi shook all over at the idea, and Baloo said severely:

"Man-cub, that is not seemly to tell a Teacher of the Law.
Never have I been seen without my hide."

"Nay, I meant no harm, Baloo; but only that thou art, as it
were, like the cocoanut in the husk, and I am the same cocoanut
all naked. Now that brown husk of thine----" Mowgli was sitting
cross-legged, and explaining things with his forefinger in his


<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 |