Yes, I too was born among men. I had never seen the jungle. Theyfed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I felt that I wasBagheera——the Panther—— and no man"s plaything, and I broke thesilly lock with one blow of my paw and came away. And because I hadlearned the ways of men, I became more terrible in the jungle than ShereKhan. Is it not so？”
“Yes,” said Mowgli, “all the jungle fear Bagheera——all exceptMowgli.”
“Oh, you are a man"s cub,” said the Black Panther very tenderly.
“And even as I returned to my jungle, so you must go back to men atlast——to the men who are your brothers——if you are not killed in theCouncil.”
“But why——but why should they wish to kill me？” saidMowgli.
“Look at me,” said Bagheera. And Mowgli looked at him steadily between the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a minute. “That is why,” he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. “Not even I can look you between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love you, Little Brother. The others they hate you because their eyes cannot meet your; because you are wise; because you have pulled out thorns from their feet——because you are a man.”
“I did not know these things,” said Mowgli sullenly, and he frowned under his heavy black eyebrows.
“What is the Law of the Jungle？ Strike first and then give tongue. By you very carelessness they know that you are a man. But be wise. It is in my heart that when Akela misses his next kill——and at each hunt it costs him more to pin the buck——the Pack will turn against him and against you.
They will hold a jungle Council at the Rock, and then——and then——I have it！” said Bagheera, leaping up. “Go you down quickly to the men"s huts in the valley, and take some of the Red Flower which they grow there, so that when the time comes you mayest have even a stronger friend than I or Baloo or those of the Pack that love you. Get the Red Flower.”
By Red Flower Bagheera meant fire, only no creature in the jungle will call fire by its proper name. Every beast lives in deadly fear of it, and invents a hundred ways of describing it.
“The Red Flower？” said Mowgli. “That grows outside their huts in the twilight. I will get some.”
“There speaks the man"s cub,” said Bagheera proudly. “Remember that it grows in little pots. Get one swiftly, and keep it by you for time of need.”
“Good！” said Mowgli. “I go. But are you sure, O my Bagheera”——he slipped his arm around the splendid neck and lookeddeep into the big eyes——”are you sure that all this is Shere Khan"sdoing？”
“By the Broken Lock that freed me, I am sure, Little Brother.”
“Then, by the Bull that bought me, I will pay Shere Khan full talefor this, and it may be a little over,” said Mowgli, and he bounded away.
“That is a man. That is all a man,” said Bagheera to himself, lyingdown again. “Oh, Shere Khan, never was a blacker hunting than thatfroghunt of thine ten years ago！”
Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and hisheart was hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, anddrew breath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but MotherWolf, at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something wastroubling her frog.
“What is it, Son？” she said.
“Some bat"s chatter of Shere Khan,” he called back. “I huntamong the plowed fields tonight,” and he plunged downward throughthe bushes, to the stream at the bottom of the valley. There he checked,for he heard the yell of the Pack hunting, heard the bellow of a huntedSambhur, and the snort as the buck turned at bay. Then there werewicked, bitter howls from the young wolves: “Akela！ Akela！ Let theLone Wolf show his strength. Room for the leader of the Pack！ Spring,Akela！”
The Lone Wolf must have sprung and missed his hold, for Mowgliheard the snap of his teeth and then a yelp as the Sambhur knocked himover with his forefoot.
He did not wait for anything more, but dashed on; and the yellsgrew fainter behind him as he ran into the croplands where the villagerslived.
“Bagheera spoke truth,” he panted, as he nestled down insome cattle fodder by the window of a hut. “To-morrow is one dayboth for Akela and for me.”
Then he pressed his face close to the window and watched the fireon the hearth. He saw the husbandman"s wife get up and feed it in thenight with black lumps. And when the morning came and the mists wereall white and cold, he saw the man"s child pick up a wicker pot plasteredinside with earth, fill it with lumps of red-hot charcoal, put it under hisblanket, and go out to tend the cows in the byre.
“Is that all？” said Mowgli. “If a cub can do it, there is nothingto fear.”
So he strode round the corner and met the boy, took the pot fromhis hand,and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled with fear.
“They are very like me,” said Mowgli, blowing into the pot ashe had seen the woman do. “This thing will die if I do not give it thingsto eat”;and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Halfway upthe hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstoneson his coat.
“Akela has missed,” said the Panther. “They would have killedhim last night, but they needed you also. They were looking for you onthe hill.”
“I was among the plowed lands. I am ready. See！” Mowgli heldup the fire-pot.
“Good！ Now, I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff,and presently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Are you notafraid？”
“No. Why should I fear？ I remember now——if it is not adream——how, before I was a Wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and itwas warm and pleasant.”
All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire pot and dippingdry branches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch thatsatisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and toldhim rudely enough that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he laughedtill Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli went to the Council, still laughing.
Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that theleadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following ofscrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly being flattered. Bagheera layclose to Mowgli, and the fire pot was between Mowgli"s knees. Whenthey were all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak——a thing hewould never have dared to do when Akela was in his prime.
“He has no right,” whispered Bagheera. “Say so. Heis a dog"s son. He will be frightened.”
Mowgli sprang to his feet. “Free People,” he cried, “does ShereKhan lead the Pack？ What has a tiger to do with our leadership？”