“He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten. He may beasleep now, and even were he awake what if he would rather kill his owngoats？
” Bagheera, who did not know much about Kaa, was naturallysuspicious.
“Then in that case, you and I together, old hunter, might makehim see reason.” Here Baloo rubbed his faded brown shoulder againstthe Panther, and they went off to look for Kaa the Rock Python.
They found him stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun,admiring his beautiful new coat, for he had been in retirement for the lastten days changing his skin, and now he was very splendid——darting hisbig blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet of hisbody into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips as he thought of his dinner to come.
“He has not eaten,” said Baloo, with a grunt of relief, as soonas he saw the beautifully mottled brown and yellow jacket.“Be careful,Bagheera！ He is always a little blind after he has changed his skin, andvery quick to strike.”
Kaa was not a poison snake——in fact he rather despised the poisonsnakes as cowards——but his strength lay in his hug, and when he hadonce lapped his huge coils round anybody there was no more to be said.
“Good hunting！” cried Baloo, sitting up on his haunches. Like allsnakes of his breed Kaa was rather deaf, and did not hear the call at first.
Then he curled up ready for any accident, his head lowered.
“Good hunting for us all,” he answered. “Oho, Baloo, whatdost you do here？ Good hunting, Bagheera. One of us at least needsfood. Is there any news of game afoot？ A doe now, or even a youngbuck？ I am as empty as a dried well.”
“We are hunting,” said Baloo carelessly. He knew that you mustnot hurry Kaa. He is too big.
“Give me permission to come with you,” said Kaa. “A blowmore or less is nothing to you, Bagheera or Baloo, but I——I have towait and wait for days in a wood-path and climb half a night on the merechance of a young ape. Psshaw！ The branches are not what they werewhen I was young. Rotten twigs and dry boughs are they all.”
“Maybe your great weight has something to do with the matter,”
said Baloo.
“I am a fair length——a fair length,” said Kaa with a little pride.
“But for all that, it is the fault of this new-grown timber. I came verynear to falling on my last hunt——very near indeed——and the noise ofmy slipping, for my tail was not tight wrapped around the tree, waked theBandar-log, and they called me most evil names.”
“Footless, yellow earth-worm,” said Bagheera under his whiskers, as though he were trying to remember something.
“Sssss！ Have they ever called me that？” said Kaa.
“Something of that kind it was that they shouted to us last moon, but we never noticed them. They will say anything——even that you hast lost all your teeth, and wilt not face anything bigger than a kid, because (they are indeed shameless, these Bandar-log)——because you are afraid of the he-goat"s horns,”Bagheera went on sweetly.
Now a snake, especially a wary old python like Kaa, very seldom shows that he is angry, but Baloo and Bagheera could see the big swallowing muscles on either side of Kaa"s throat ripple and bulge.
“The Bandar-log have shifted their grounds,” he said quietly. “When I came up into the sun today I heard them whooping among the tree-tops.
”
“It——it is the Bandar-log that we follow now.” said Baloo,but the words stuck in his throat, for that was the first time in his memory that one of the Jungle-People had owned to being interested in the doings of the monkeys.
“Beyond doubt then it is no small thing that takes two such hunters——leaders in their own jungle I am certain——on the trail of the Bandar-log,” Kaa replied courteously, as he swelled with curiosity.
“Indeed,” Baloo began, “I am no more than the old and sometimes very foolish Teacher of the Law to the Seeonee wolf-cubs, and Bagheera here——”
“Is Bagheera,” said the Black Panther, and his jaws shut with a snap, for he did not believe in being humble. “The trouble is this, Kaa. Those nut-stealers and pickers of palm leaves have stolen away our man-cub of whom you hast perhaps heard.”
“I heard some news from Ikki (his quills make him presumptuous)of a man-thing that was entered into a wolf pack,but I did not believe.
Ikki is full of stories half heard andvery badly told.”
“But it is true.He is such a man-cub as never was,” said Baloo.
“The best and wisest and boldest of man-cubs——my own pupil, whoshall make the name of Baloo famous through all the jungles; and besides,I——we——love him, Kaa.”
“Ts！ Ts！” said Kaa, weaving his head to and fro. “I alsohave known what love is. There are tales I could tell that——”
“That need a clear night when we are all well fed to praiseproperly,” said Bagheera quickly. “Our man-cub is in the hands of theBandar-log now, and we know that of all the Jungle-People they fear Kaaalone.”
“They fear me alone. They have good reason,” said Kaa.
“Chattering, foolish, vain——vain, foolish, and chattering, are themonkeys. But a man-thing in their hands is in no good luck. They growtired of the nuts they pick, and throw them down. They carry a branchhalf a day, meaning to do great things with it, and then they snap it in two.
That man-thing is not to be envied.They called me also——`yellow fish"
was it not？”
“Worm——worm——earth-worm,” said Bagheera, “as well asother things which I cannot now say for shame.”
“We must remind them to speak well of their master. Aaa-ssp！
We must help their wandering memories. Now, whither went they withthe cub？”
“The jungle alone knows. Toward the sunset, I believe,” saidBaloo. “We had thought that you wouldst know, Kaa.”
“I？ How？ I take them when they come in my way, but I donot hunt the Bandar-log, or frogs——or green scum on a water-hole,forthat matter.”
“Up, Up！ Up, Up！ Hillo！ Illo！ Illo, look up, Baloo of theSeeonee Wolf Pack！”
Baloo looked up to see where the voice came from, and there wasRann the Kite, sweeping down with the sun shining on the upturnedflanges of his wings. It was near Rann"s bedtime, but he had ranged allover the jungle looking for the Bear and had missed him in the thickfoliage.
“What is it？” said Baloo.
“I have seen Mowgli among the Bandar-log. He bade me tellyou. I watched. The Bandar-log have taken him beyond the river to themonkey city——to the Cold Lairs. They may stay there for a night, or tennights, or an hour. I have told the bats to watch through the dark time.
That is my message. Good hunting, all you below！”
