ready.
The bushes rustled a little in the thicket, and Father Wolf dropped
with his haunches under him, ready for his leap. Then, if you had been
watching, you would have seen the most wonderful thing in the world--the
wolf checked in mid-spring. He made his bound before he saw what it was
he was jumping at, and then he tried to stop himself. The result was
that he shot up straight into the air for four or five feet, landing
almost where he left ground.
Man! he snapped. A man s cub. Look!
Directly in front of him, holding on by a low branch, stood a naked
brown baby who could just walk--as soft and as dimpled a little atom
as ever 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 seen one. 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 closed right on the
child s back not a tooth even scratched the skin as he laid it down
among the cubs.
How little! How naked, and--how bold! said Mother Wolf softly. The
baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide.
Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man s
cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man s cub among
her children?
I have heard now and again of such a thing, but never in our Pack 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 is not
afraid.
The moonlight was blocked out of the mouth of the cave, for Shere Khan s
great square head and shoulders were thrust into the entrance. Tabaqui,
behind him, was squeaking: My lord, my lord, it went in here!
5