Page 76 - THE JUNGLE BOOK

The Jungle Book

‘He knows more than we,’ said Bagheera, trembling.
‘In a little time, had I stayed, I should have walked down
his throat.’
‘Many will walk by that road before the moon rises

again,’ said Baloo. ‘He will have good hunting—after his
own fashion.’
‘But what was the meaning of it all?’ said Mowgli, who
did not know anything of a python’s powers of
fascination. ‘I saw no more than a big snake making
foolish circles till the dark came. And his nose was all sore.
Ho! Ho!’
‘Mowgli,’ said Bagheera angrily, ‘his nose was sore on
thy account, as my ears and sides and paws, and Baloo’s
neck and shoulders are bitten on thy account. Neither
Baloo nor Bagheera will be able to hunt with pleasure for
many days.’
‘It is nothing,’ said Baloo; ‘we have the man-cub
again.’
‘True, but he has cost us heavily in time which might
have been spent in good hunting, in wounds, in hair—I
am half plucked along my back—and last of all, in honor.
For, remember, Mowgli, I, who am the Black Panther,
was forced to call upon Kaa for protection, and Baloo and
I were both made stupid as little birds by the Hunger

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