Page 72 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

‘Hah!’ said Kaa with a chuckle, ‘he has friends
everywhere, this manling. Stand back, manling. And hide
you, O Poison People. I break down the wall.’
Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored crack in

the marble tracery showing a weak spot, made two or
three light taps with his head to get the distance, and then
lifting up six feet of his body clear of the ground, sent
home half a dozen full-power smashing blows, nose-first.
The screen-work broke and fell away in a cloud of dust
and rubbish, and Mowgli leaped through the opening and
flung himself between Baloo and Bagheera—an arm
around each big neck.
‘Art thou hurt?’ said Baloo, hugging him softly.
‘I am sore, hungry, and not a little bruised. But, oh,
they have handled ye grievously, my Brothers! Ye bleed.’
‘Others also,’ said Bagheera, licking his lips and looking
at the monkey-dead on the terrace and round the tank.
‘It is nothing, it is nothing, if thou art safe, oh, my
pride of all little frogs!’ whimpered Baloo.
‘Of that we shall judge later,’ said Bagheera, in a dry
voice that Mowgli did not at all like. ‘But here is Kaa to
whom we owe the battle and thou owest thy life. Thank
him according to our customs, Mowgli.’

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