What is this folly? said Buldeo angrily. To think that thou canst
skin a tiger! Where did the buffaloes kill him? It is the Lame Tiger
too, and there is a hundred rupees on his head. Well, well, we will
overlook thy letting the herd run off, and perhaps I will give thee one
of the rupees of the reward when I have taken the skin to Khanhiwara.
He fumbled in his waist cloth for flint and steel, and stooped down to
singe Shere Khan s whiskers. Most native hunters always singe a tiger s
whiskers to prevent his ghost from haunting them.
Hum! said Mowgli, half to himself as he ripped back the skin of a
forepaw. So thou wilt take the hide to Khanhiwara for the reward, and
perhaps give me one rupee? Now it is in my mind that I need the skin for
my own use. Heh! Old man, take away that fire!
What talk is this to the chief hunter of the village? Thy luck and the
stupidity of thy buffaloes have helped thee to this kill. The tiger has
just fed, or he would have gone twenty miles by this time. Thou canst
not even skin him properly, little beggar brat, and forsooth I, Buldeo,
must be told not to singe his whiskers. Mowgli, I will not give thee one
anna of the reward, but only a very big beating. Leave the carcass!
By the Bull that bought me, said Mowgli, who was trying to get at the
shoulder, must I stay babbling to an old ape all noon? Here, Akela,
this man plagues me.
Buldeo, who was still stooping over Shere Khan s head, found himself
sprawling on the grass, with a gray wolf standing over him, while Mowgli
went on skinning as though he were alone in all India.
Ye-es, he said, between his teeth. Thou art altogether right, Buldeo.
Thou wilt never give me one anna of the reward. There is an old war
between this lame tiger and myself--a very old war, and--I have won.
To do Buldeo justice, if he had been ten years younger he would have
taken his chance with Akela had he met the wolf in the woods, but a wolf
who obeyed the orders of this boy who had private wars with man-eating
tigers was not a common animal. It was sorcery, magic of the worst kind,
thought Buldeo, and he wondered whether the amulet round his neck would
protect him. He lay as still as still, expecting every minute to see
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