Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a nakedbrown baby who could just walk——as soft and as dimpled a little atom asever came to a wolf"s cave at night. He looked up into Father Wolf"s face,and laughed.
“Is that a man"s cub？” said Mother Wolf. “I have never seenone. Bring it here.”
A Wolf accustomed to moving his own cubs can, if necessary,mouth an egg without breaking it, and though Father Wolf"s jaws closedright on the child"s back not a tooth even scratched the skin as he laid itdown among the cubs.
“How little！ How naked, and——how bold！” said MotherWolf softly. The baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get closeto the warm hide.“Ahai！ He is taking his meal with the others. And sothis is a man"s cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man"scub among her children？”
“I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in ourPack or in my time,” said Father Wolf. “He is altogether without hair,and I could kill him with a touch of my foot. But see, he looks up and isnot afraid.”
The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for ShereKhan"s great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance.
Tabaqui, behind him, was squeaking: “My lord, my lord, it went inhere！”
“Shere Khan does us great honor,” said Father Wolf, but his eyeswere very angry. “What does Shere Khan need？”
“My quarry. A man"s cub went this way,” said Shere Khan. “Itsparents have run off. Give it to me.”
Shere Khan had jumped at a woodcutter"s campfire, as Father Wolfhad said, and was furious from the pain of his burned feet. But FatherWolf knew that the mouth of the cave was too narrow for a tiger to come in by.
Even where he was, Shere Khan"s shoulders and forepaws were cramped for want of room, as a man"s would be if he tried to fight in a barrel.
“The Wolves are a free people,” said Father Wolf. “They take orders from the Head of the Pack, and not from any striped cattle-killer. The man"s cub is ours——to kill if we choose.”
“You choose and you do not choose！ What talk is this of choosing？ By the bull that I killed, am I to stand nosing into your dog"s den for my fair dues？ It is I, Shere Khan, who speak！”
The tiger"s roar filled the cave with thunder. Mother Wolf shook herself clear of the cubs and sprang forward, her eyes, like two green moons in the darkness, facing the blazing eyes of Shere Khan.
“And it is I, Raksha, who answers. The man"s cub is mine, Lungri——mine to me！ He shall not be killed. He shall live to run with the Pack and to hunt with the Pack; and in the end, look you, hunter of little naked cubs——frog-eater——fish-killer——he shall hunt you！ Now get hence, or by the Sambhur that I killed (I eat no starved cattle), back you goest to your mother, burned beast of the jungle, lamer than ever you came into the world！ Go！”
Father Wolf looked on amazed. He had almost forgotten the days when he won Mother Wolf in fair fight from five other wolves, when she ran in the Pack and was not called The Demon for compliment"s sake. Shere Khan might have faced Father Wolf, but he could not stand up against Mother Wolf, for he knew that where he was she had all the advantage of the ground, and would fight to the death. So he backed out of the cave mouth growling, and when he was clear he shouted:
“Each dog barks in his own yard！ We will see what the Pack will say to this fostering of man-cubs. The cub is mine, and to my teeth hewill come in the end, O bush-tailed thieves！”
Mother Wolf threw herself down panting among the cubs, andFather Wolf said to her gravely:
“Shere Khan speaks this much truth. The cub must be shown tothe Pack. Wilt you still keep him, Mother？”
“Keep him！” she gasped. “He came naked, by night, aloneand very hungry; yet he was not afraid！ Look, he has pushed one of mybabes to one side already. And that lame butcher would have killed himand would have run off to the Waingunga while the villagers here huntedthrough all our lairs in revenge！ Keep him？ Assuredly I will keep him.
Lie still, little frog. O you Mowgli ——for Mowgli the Frog I will callyou——the time will come when you wilt hunt Shere Khan as he hashunted you.”
“But what will our Pack say？” said Father Wolf.
The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that any wolf may,when he marries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to. But as soon ashis cubs are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to thePack Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in orderthat the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubs arefree to run where they please, and until they have killed their first buckno excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills one of them. Thepunishment is death where the murderer can be found; and if you thinkfor a minute you will see that this must be so.
Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on thenight of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf tothe Council Rock——a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where ahundred wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led allthe Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone to young black three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for ayear now. He had fallen twice into a wolf trap in his youth, and once hehad been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customsof men. There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled overeach other in the center of the circle where their mothers and fatherssat, and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, lookat him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes amother would push her cub far out into the moonlight to be sure that hehad not been overlooked.
Akela from his rock would cry: “You know the Law——youknow the Law. Look well, O Wolves！” And the anxious motherswould take up the call: “Look——look well, O Wolves！”
At last——and Mother Wolf"s neck bristles lifted as the timecame—— Father Wolf pushed “Mowgli the Frog,” as they calledhim, into the center, where he sat laughing and playing with somepebbles that glistened in the oonlight.