“Haste!  O haste!  We—­we may catch them yet!” Baloo panted.

“At that speed!  It would not tire a wounded cow.  Teacher of the Law—­cub-beater—­a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst thee open.  Sit still and think!  Make a plan.  This is no time for chasing.  They may drop him if we follow too close.”

“Arrula!  Whoo!  They may have dropped him already, being tired of carrying him.  Who can trust the Bandar-log?  Put dead bats on my head!  Give me black bones to eat!  Roll me into the hives of the wild bees that I may be stung to death, and bury me with the Hyaena, for I am most miserable of bears!  Arulala!  Wahooa!  O Mowgli, Mowgli!  Why did I not warn thee against the Monkey-Folk instead of breaking thy head?  Now perhaps I may have knocked the day’s lesson out of his mind, and he will be alone in the jungle without the Master Words.”

Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to and fro moaning.

“At least he gave me all the Words correctly a little time ago,” said Bagheera impatiently.  “Baloo, thou hast neither memory nor respect.  What would the jungle think if I, the Black Panther, curled myself up like Ikki the Porcupine, and howled?”

“What do I care what the jungle thinks?  He may be dead by now.”

“Unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport, or kill him out of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub.  He is wise and well taught, and above all he has the eyes that make the Jungle-People afraid.  But (and it is a great evil) he is in the power of the Bandar-log, and they, because they live in trees, have no fear of any of our people.”  Bagheera licked one forepaw thoughtfully.

“Fool that I am!  Oh, fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am,” said Baloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk, “it is true what Hathi the Wild Elephant says:  `To each his own fear’; and they, the Bandar-log, fear Kaa the Rock Snake.  He can climb as well as they can.  He steals the young monkeys in the night.  The whisper of his name makes their wicked tails cold.  Let us go to Kaa.”

“What will he do for us?  He is not of our tribe, being footless—­and with most evil eyes,” said Bagheera.

“He is very old and very cunning.  Above all, he is always hungry,” said Baloo hopefully.  “Promise him many goats.”

“He sleeps for a full month after he has once eaten.  He may be asleep now, and even were he awake what if he would rather kill his own goats?” Bagheera, who did not know much about Kaa, was naturally suspicious.

“Then in that case, thou and I together, old hunter, might make him see reason.”  Here Baloo rubbed his faded brown shoulder against the 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 last ten days changing his skin, and now he was very splendid—­darting his big blunt-nosed head along the ground, and twisting the thirty feet of his body into fantastic knots and curves, and licking his lips as he thought of his dinner to come.