again, and Rikki-tikki, covered with dirt, dragged himself out of the
hole leg by leg, licking his whiskers. Darzee stopped with a little
shout. Rikki-tikki shook some of the dust out of his fur and sneezed.
It is all over, he said. The widow will never come out again. And
the red ants that live between the grass stems heard him, and began to
troop down one after another to see if he had spoken the truth.
Rikki-tikki curled himself up in the grass and slept where he was--slept
and slept till it was late in the afternoon, for he had done a hard
day s work.
Now, he said, when he awoke, I will go back to the house. Tell the
Coppersmith, Darzee, and he will tell the garden that Nagaina is dead.
The Coppersmith is a bird who makes a noise exactly like the beating of
a little hammer on a copper pot; and the reason he is always making it
is because he is the town crier to every Indian garden, and tells all
the news to everybody who cares to listen. As Rikki-tikki went up the
path, he heard his attention notes like a tiny dinner gong, and
then the steady Ding-dong-tock! Nag is dead--dong! Nagaina is dead!
Ding-dong-tock! That set all the birds in the garden singing, and the
frogs croaking, for Nag and Nagaina used to eat frogs as well as little
birds.
When Rikki got to the house, Teddy and Teddy s mother (she looked very
white still, for she had been fainting) and Teddy s father came out and
almost cried over him; and that night he ate all that was given him till
he could eat no more, and went to bed on Teddy s shoulder, where Teddy s
mother saw him when she came to look late at night.
He saved our lives and Teddy s life, she said to her husband. Just
think, he saved all our lives.
Rikki-tikki woke up with a jump, for the mongooses are light sleepers.
Oh, it s you, said he. What are you bothering for? All the cobras are
dead. And if they weren t, I m here.
Rikki-tikki had a right to be proud of himself. But he did not grow too
proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth
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