"I do not know. They be white, and it is said that they govern all the land, and do not suffer people to burn or beat each other without witnesses. If we can get thither to-night, we live. Otherwise we die.""Live, then. No man passes the gates to-night. But what does HEdo?" Messua's husband was on his hands and knees digging up the earth in one corner of the hut.
"It is his little money," said Messua. "We can take nothing else.""Ah, yes. The stuff that passes from hand to hand and never grows warmer. Do they need it outside this place also?"said Mowgli.
The man stared angrily. "He is a fool, and no devil," he muttered. With the money I can buy a horse. We are too bruised to walk far, and the village will follow us in an hour.""I say they will NOT follow till I choose; but a horse is well thought of, for Messua is tired." Her husband stood up and knotted the last of the rupees into his waist-cloth.
Mowgli helped Messua through the window, and the cool night air revived her, but the Jungle in the starlight looked very dark and terrible.
"Ye know the trail to Khanhiwara?" Mowgli whispered.
They nodded.
'Good. Remember, now, not to be afraid. And there is no need to go quickly. Only--only there may be some small singing in the Jungle behind you and before.""Think you we would have risked a night in the Jungle through anything less than the fear of burning? It is better to be killed by beasts than by men," said Messua's husband; but Messua looked at Mowgli and smiled.
"I say," Mowgli went on, just as though he were Baloo repeating an old Jungle Law for the hundredth time to a foolish cub--"I say that not a tooth in the Jungle is bared against you;not a foot in the Jungle is lifted against you. Neither man nor beast shall stay you till you come within eye-shot of Khanhiwara. There will be a watch about you." He turned quickly to Messua, saying, "HE does not believe, but thou wilt believe?""Ay, surely, my son. Man, ghost, or wolf of the Jungle, I believe.""HE will be afraid when he hears my people singing. Thou wilt know and understand. Go now, and slowly, for there is no need of any haste. The gates are shut."Messua flung herself sobbing at Mowgli's feet, but he lifted her very quickly with a shiver. Then she hung about his neck and called him every name of blessing she could think of, but her husband looked enviously across his fields, and said: "IF we reach Khanhiwara, and I get the ear of the English, I will bring such a lawsuit against the Brahmin and old Buldeo and the others as shall eat the village to the bone. They shall pay me twice over for my crops untilled and my buffaloes unfed. I will have a great justice."Mowgli laughed. "I do not know what justice is, but--come next Rains. and see what is left."They went off toward the Jungle, and Mother Wolf leaped from her place of hiding.
"Follow!" said Mowgli; "and look to it that all the Jungle knows these two are safe. Give tongue 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, NOTthe 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 the big head with them--dropped lower and lower, and the red rasp of a tongue grated on Mowgli's instep.
"Brother--Brother--Brother!" the boy whispered, stroking steadily and lightly from the neck along the heaving back.
"Be still, be still! It is the fault of the night, and no fault of thine.""It was the smells of the night," said Bagheera penitently.
