wait for thee at the village gate this evening--for thee and for no one
else. He is lying up now, in the big dry ravine of the Waingunga.
Has he eaten today, or does he hunt empty? said Mowgli, for the answer
meant life and death to him.
He killed at dawn,--a pig,--and he has drunk too. Remember, Shere Khan
could never fast, even for the sake of revenge.
Oh! Fool, fool! What a cub s cub it is! Eaten and drunk too, and he
thinks that I shall wait till he has slept! Now, where does he lie up?
If there were but ten of us we might pull him down as he lies. These
buffaloes will not charge unless they wind him, and I cannot speak their
language. Can we get behind his track so that they may smell it?
He swam far down the Waingunga to cut that off, said Gray Brother.
Tabaqui told him that, I know. He would never have thought of it
alone. Mowgli stood with his finger in his mouth, thinking. The big
ravine of the Waingunga. That opens out on the plain not half a mile
from here. I can take the herd round through the jungle to the head of
the ravine and then sweep down--but he would slink out at the foot. We
must block that end. Gray Brother, canst thou cut the herd in two for
me?
Not I, perhaps--but I have brought a wise helper. Gray Brother trotted
off and dropped into a hole. Then there lifted up a huge gray head that
Mowgli knew well, and the hot air was filled with the most desolate cry
of all the jungle--the hunting howl of a wolf at midday.
Akela! Akela! said Mowgli, clapping his hands. I might have known
that thou wouldst not forget me. We have a big work in hand. Cut the
herd in two, Akela. Keep the cows and calves together, and the bulls and
the plow buffaloes by themselves.
The two wolves ran, ladies -chain fashion, in and out of the herd, which
snorted and threw up its head, and separated into two clumps. In one,
the cow-buffaloes stood with their calves in the center, and glared
and pawed, ready, if a wolf would only stay still, to charge down and
trample the life out of him. In the other, the bulls and the young bulls
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