 section 20 at the second jungle book this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the second jungle book by Rajad Kipling section 20 red dog part one for our white and our excellent nights for the nights of swift running fair-ranging far-seeing good hunting sure cunning for the smells of the dawning untainted air dew has departed for the rush through the mist and the quarry blind started for the cry of our mates when the sandbird has wheeled and it's standing at bay for the risk and the riot of night for the sleep at the bare mouth by day it is met and we go to fight they obey it was after the letting in of the jungle that the pleasantest part of Malgalee's life begun he had the good conscience that comes from paying debts all the jungle was his friend and just a little afraid of him the things that he did and saw and heard when he was wandering from one people to another with all without his four companions would make many many stories each as long as this one so you will never be told how he met the mad elephant of Mandela who killed two and twenty bullocks drawing eleven carts of coin silver to the government treasury and scattered the shiny rupees in the dust how he fought Jackala the crocodile all one long night in the marshes of the north and broke his skinny knife on the boots back plates how he found a new and longer knife around the neck of a man who had been killed by a wild boar and how he trapped that bore and killed him as a fair price for the knife how he was caught up once in the great famine by the moving of the deer and nearly crushed to death in the swaying hot herds how he saved hearty the silent from being once more trapped in a pit with the stake at the bottom and how next day he himself fell into a very cunning leopard trap and how hattie broke the thick wooden bars to pieces above him how he milked the wild buffaloes in the swamp and how but we must tell one tale at a time father and mother wolf died and Mowgli rolled a big boulder against the mouth of their cave and cried the death song over them Baloo grew very old and stiff and even beguira whose nerves were steel and whose muscles were iron was a shade slower on the kill than he had been a killer turned from gray to milky white with pure rage his ribs stuck out and he walked as though he had been made of wood and Mowgli killed for him but the young wolves the children of the disbanded C&E pack throw and increased and when there were about 40 of them masterless full voiced clean-footed five-year-olds a killer told them that they ought to gather themselves together and follow the law and run under the head as be fitted the free people this was not a question in which Mowgli concerned himself for as he said he had eaten sour fruit and he knew the tree it hung from but when payo son a payona his father was the gray tracker in the days of a killer's headship fought his way to the leadership of the pack according to the jungle law and the old calls and songs began to ring under the stars once more Mowgli came to the council rock for memory's sake when he chose to speak the pack waited till he had finished and he sat at a killer's side on the rock above payo those were days of good hunting and good sleeping no stranger cared to break into the jungles that belong to Mowgli's people as they called the pack and the young wolves grew fat and strong and there were many cubs to bring to the looking over Mowgli always attended a looking over remembering the night when a black panther bought a naked brown baby into the pack and the long call look look well over wolves made his heart flutter otherwise he would be far away in the jungle with his four brothers tasting touching seeing and feeling new things one twilight when he was trotting leisurely across the ranges to give a killer the half of the buck that he had killed while the four jogged behind him sparring a little and tumbling one another over for joy of being alive he heard a cry that had never been heard since the bad days of sheer card it was what they called in the jungle the pale a hideous kind of shriek that the jackal gives when he is hunting behind the tiger or when there is a big killing of foot if you can imagine a mixture of hate triumph fear and despair with the kind of layer running through it you will get some notion of the pale that rose and sunk and wavered and quavered far away across the Wanganga the four stopped at once bristling and growling Mowgli's hand went to his night and he checked the blood in his face his eyebrows knotted there is no striped one dare kill here he said that is not the cry at the forerunner answered gray brother it is some great killing listen it broke out again half sobbing and half chuckling just as though the jackal had soft human lips then Mowgli drew deep breath and ran to the council rock overtaking on his way hurrying wolves of the pack payo and Akila were on the rock together and below them every nerve strain set the others the mothers and the cubs were cantering off to their liars but when the payo cries it is no time for which things to be abroad they could hear nothing except the Wanganga rushing and gurgling in the dark and the light evening winds above the treetops till suddenly across the river a wolf called it was no wolf at the pack for they were all at the rock the note changed to a long despairing day and dole it said dole dole dole they heard tired feet on the rocks and a gaunt wolf streaked with red on his planks he's bright for poor useless and his jaws white with foam flung himself into the circle and like at Mowgli's feet good hunting under whose headship said payo gravely good hunting one tola and I was the answer he meant that he was a solitary wolf fending for himself his mate and his cubs in some lonely layer as they do many wolves in the south one tola means an outlier one who lies out from any pack then he panted and they could see his heartbeats shake him backward and forward what moves said payo for that is the question all the jungle asks after the peel cries the doll the doll at the deacon red dog the killer they came north from the south saying that deacon was empty and killing out by the way when this moon was new there was four to me my mate and three cubs she would teach them to kill on the grass plains hiding to drive the buck as we do who are at the open at midnight I heard them together full tongue on the trail at the dawn wind I found them stiff in the grass for three people for when this moon was new then sought I my blood right and found the doll how many said Mowgli quickly the pat growl deep in their throats I do not know three of them will kill no more but at the last they drove me like the buck on my three legs they drove me look three people he thrust out his mangled forefoot all dark with dried blood there were cruel bites low down on his side and his throat was torn and worried eat said a killer rising up from the meat Mowgli had brought him and the outlier flung himself on it this shall be no loss he said humbly when he had taken off the first edge of his hunger give me a little strength three people and I also will kill my layer is empty that was full when this moon was new and the blood debt is not all paid payo heard his teeth crack on a haunch bone and grunted approvingly we shall need those yours said he were their cubs with the doll no no red hunters all grown dogs of their pack heavy and strong for all that they eat lizards in the deacon what one teller had said meant that the doll the red hunting dog of the deacon was moving to kill and the pack knew well that even the tiger will surrender a new kill to the doll they drive straight through the jungle and what they need they pull down and tear to pieces though they are not as big nor half as cunning as the wolf they are very strong and very numerous the doll for instance do not begin to call themselves the pack till they are a hundred strong whereas 40 wolves make a very fair pack indeed Mowgli's wanderings had taken him to the edge of the high grassy downs of the deacon and he had seen the fearless dolls sleeping and playing and scratching themselves in the little hollows and tussles that they use for less he despised and hated them because they did not smell like the free people because they did not live in caves and above all because they had hair between their toes while he and his friends were clean footed but he knew the Haiti had told him what a terrible thing a doll hunting pack was even Haiti moves aside from their line and until they are killed all till game is scarce they will go forward a killer knew something of the dolls too but he said to Mowgli quietly it is better to die in a full pack than leaderless and alone this is good hunting and my last but as men live they'll haste very many more nights and days little brother go north and lie down and if any live after the doll has gone by he shall bring their word of the fight ah said Mowgli quite gravely must I go to the marshes and catch little fish and sleep in a tree or must I ask help at the bandal log and crack nuts while the pack fight below it is to the death said a killer they'll has never met the doll the red killer even the striped one our our said Mowgli pettingly I have killed one striped ape and sure am I in my stomach the chair Khan would have left his own mate the meat to the doll if he had winded a pack across three ranges listen now there was a wolf my father and there was a wolf my mother and there was an old gray wolf not too wise he is white now was my father and my mother therefore I he raised his voice I say that when the doll come and if the doll come Mowgli and the three people are of one skin for that hunting and I say by the ball that bought me by the ball Bagheera paid for me in the old days which here at the pack do not remember I say that the trees and the river may hear and hold fast if I forget I say that this my knife shall be as a tooth to the pack and I do not think it is so blunt this is my word which has gone from me they'll does not know the doll man with a wolf's tongue said one teller I look only to clear the blood debt against them or they have me in many pieces they move slowly killing out as they go but in two days a little strength will come back to me and I turn again for the blood debt but the ye free people my word is that you go north and eat but little for a while till the doll are gone there is no meat in this hunting here the outlier said Mowgli with a laugh free people we must go north and dig lizards and rats from the bank let's buy any chance we meet the doll he must kill out our hunting grounds while we lie hid in the north till it please him to give us our own again he is the dog and the pup of the dog red yellow-bellied lealus and head between every toe he counts his cubs six and eight at the litter as though he were chick I the little leaping rat surely we must run away free people and big leave of the peoples of the north for the awful of dead cattle you know the same north are the vermin south are the lies we are the jungle choosy oh choose it is a good hunting for the pack for the full pack for the layer and the litter for the in kill and the out kill for the mate that drives the dough and the little little cub within the cave it is met it is met it is met the pack answered with one deep crashing bark that sounded in the night like a big tree falling it is met they cried stay with these said Mowgli to the four we shall need every tooth payo and a killer must make ready the battle I go to count the dogs it is death want I like cried half rising what can such a hairless one do against the red dog even the striped one remember they are indeed an outlier Mowgli call back but we will speak when the dolls are dead good hunting all he hurried off into the darkness while with excitement hardly looking where he set foot and the natural consequence was that he tripped full length over cars great coils where the python lay watching a deer park near the river cursor said car angrily is this jungle work to stamp and tramp and undo a nice hunting when the game are moving so well too the fault was mine said Mowgli picking himself up indeed I was seeking me flathead but each time we meet they are longer and broader by the length of my arm there is none like thee in the jungle wise old strong and most beautiful car now with a does this trail lead cars voice was gentler not a moon since there was a manling with a knife through stones at my head and called me bad little tree cat names because I lay asleep in the open I and turned every driven deer to all the winds and Mowgli was hunting and this same flathead was too dead to hear his whistle and leave the deer roads free Mowgli answered composedly sitting down among the painted coils now this same manling comes with soft tickling words to this same flathead telling him that he is wise and strong and beautiful and this same old flathead believes and makes a place bus for this same stone throwing manling and art they are at ease now could be giro give thee so good a resting place car had as usual made a sort of soft half hammock of himself under Mowgli's weight the boy reached out in the darkness and gathered the supple cable like neck till cars head rested on his shoulder and then he told him all that had happened in the jungle that night wise I may be said car at the end but death I surely am else I should have heard the pale small wonder the eaters of the grass are uneasy how many be the doll I have not yet seen I came hotfoot to the older than Haiti but okay here Mowgli wriggled with sheer joy it will be good hunting few of us will see another moon does they are strike in this remember they'll art a man and remember what pack cast the out let the wolf look to the dog they'll art a man last year's nuts are the shears black earth said Mowgli it is true that I am a man but it is in my stomach that this night I have said that I am a wolf I called the river and the trees to remember I am at the free people car till the doll has gone by free people car grunted free thieves and now has tied thyself into the death knot for the sake of the memory of the dead wolves this is no good hunting it is my word which I have spoken the trees know the river knows till the doll have gone by my word comes not back to me next this changes all trails I had thought to take their way with me to the northern marshes but the word even the word of a little naked hairless manling is the word now I car say think well flathead at least they'll tie thyself into the death knot also I need no word from me for well I know be it so then said car I will give no word but what is in my stomach to do when the doll come they must swim the wanganga I thought to meet them with my knife in the shallows the pack behind me and so stabbing and thrusting we a little might turn them downstream or cool their throats the doll do not turn and their throats are hot said car there will be neither manling nor wolf cub when that hunting is done then only dry bones a lala if we die we die it will be most good hunting but my stomach is young and I have not seen many rains I am not wise nor strong I saw a better plan car I have seen a hundred and a hundred rains her Haiti cast his milk tushes my trail was big in the dust by the first day I am older than many trees and I have seen all that the jungle has done but this is new hunting said Mowgli never before have the doll crossed our trail what is has been what will be is no more than a forgotten year striking backward these still while I count those my years end of section 20 section 21 at the second jungle book this is a Libra box recording all Libra box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libra box the second jungle book by Rudyard Kipling section 21 red dog part 2 for a long hour Mowgli lay back among the coils while car his head motionless on the ground thought of all that he had seen and known since the day he came from the egg the light seemed to go out of his eyes and lead them like stale opals and now and again he made little step passes with his head right and left as though he were hunting in his sleep Mowgli does quietly so he knew that there is nothing like sleep before hunting and he was trained to take it at any hour the day or night then he felt cars back grow bigger and broader below him as the huge python puffed himself out hissing with the noise of a sword drawn from a steel scabbard I have seen all the dead seasons car said at last and the great trees and the old elephants and the rocks that were there and sharp pointed the moss grew up they're still alive mainly it is only a little after moon set said Mowgli I do not understand yes I am a game car I knew it was but a little time now we will go to the river and I will show the what is to be done against the doll he turned straight as an arrow for the mainstream at the Wanganga plunging in a little above the pool that it hid the peace rock Mowgli at his side nay do not swim I go swiftly my back little brother Mowgli tucked his left arm around cars neck dropped his right close to his body and straightened his feet then car breasted the current as he alone could and the ripple of the checked water stood up in a frill round Mowgli's neck and his feet were waved to and fro in the eddy under the python slashing sides a mile or two above the peace rock the Wanganga narrows between a gorge of marble rocks from 80 to 100 feet high and the current runs like a mill race between and over all manner of ugly stones but Mowgli did not trouble his head above the water little water in the world could have given him a moment's fear he was looking at the gorge on either side and sniffing uneasily for there was a Swedish sourish smell in the air very like the smell of a big ant hill on a hot day instinctively he lowered himself in the water only raising his head to breathe from time to time and car came to anchor with a double twist of his tail round a sunken rock holding Mowgli in the hollow of a coil while the water raised on this is the place of death said the boy why do we come here they sleep said car Haiti will not turn aside for the striped one yet Haiti and the stripe one together turn aside for the doll and the doll they say turn aside for nothing and yet for whom do the little people of the rocks turn aside tell me master of the jungle who is the master of the jungle these Mowgli whispered it is the place of death let us go no look well for they are asleep it is as it was when I was not the length of my arm the split and weather worn rocks at the gorge at the Wanganga had been used since the beginning of the jungle by little people of the rocks the busy furious black wild bees of India and as Mowgli knew well all trails turned off half a mile before they reached the gorge for centuries the little people had hived and swarmed from cleft to cleft and swarmed again staining the white marble with stale honey and made their combs tall and deep in the dark of the inner caves where neither man nor beast nor fire nor water had ever touched them the length of the gorge on both sides were hung as if it were with black shimmery velvet curtains and Mowgli sunk as he looked for those were the clotted millions of the sleeping bees there were other lumps and festoons and things like decayed tree trunks started on the face of the rock the old combs of past years all new cities built in the shadow of the windlass gorge and huge masses of spongy rotten trash had rolled down and stuck among the trees and creepers that clung to the rock face as he listened he heard more than once the rustle and slide of the honey loaded comb turning over or failing away somewhere in the dark galleries when a booming of angry wings and the sullen drip drip drip of the wasted honey guttering a long till it looked over some ledge in the open air and sluggishly trickled down on the twigs there was a tiny little beach not five feet broad on one side of the river and that was piled high with the rubbish of uncounted years there were dead bees drones sweeping and stale combs and wings of marauding moths that had strayed in after honey all tumbled in smooth piles of the finest black dust the mare-shaped smell of it was enough to frighten anything that had no wings and knew what the little people were calm moved upstream again till he came to a sandy bar at the head of the gorge here is this season skill said he look on the bank lay the skeletons of a couple of young deer and a buffalo Mowgli could see that neither wolf nor jackal had touched the bones which were laid out naturally they came beyond the line they did not know the law murmured Mowgli and the little people killed them let us go or they wake they do not wait till the dawn said car now I will tell thee a hunted buck from the south many many rains ago came hither from the south not knowing the jungle a pack on his trail being made blind by fear he leaked from above the pack running by sight for they were hot and blind on the trail the sun was high and the little people were many and very angry many too were those of the pack who leaked into the Wenganga but they were dead or they took water those who did not leave died also in the rocks above but the buck lived how because he came first running for his life leaving her the little people were aware and was in the river when they gathered to kill the pack following was altogether lost under the weight of the little people the buck lived Mowgli repeated slowly at least he did not die then though none waited his coming down with a strong body to hold him safe against the water as a certain old fat death yellow flat head would wait for a manly yay though there were all the dolls at the deacon on his trail what is in my stomach cars head was close to Mount Gleazier and it was a little time before the boy answered it is to pull the very whiskers of death but car they are indeed the wisest of all the jungle so many have said look now if the doll follow they as surely they will follow ho ho I have many little thorns under my tongue to prick into their hides if they follow the hot and blind looking only at their shoulders those who do not die up above will take water either here or lower down for the little people will rise up and cover them now the Wenganga is hungry water and they will have no car to hold them but will go down such as live to the shallows by the sea only layers and there they pack may meet them by the throat a hey Eora better could not be till the rains fall in the dry season there is now only the little matter of the run and the leap I will make me known to the dolls so they shall follow me very closely haste they are seeing the rocks above thee from the landward side indeed no that I had forgotten go look it is all rotten ground cut and full of holes one of the clumsy feet set down without seeing would end the hunt see I leave there here and for thy sake only I will carry word to the pack that they may know where to look for the doll for myself I am not of one skin with any wolf when car disliked and acquaintance he could be more unpleasant than any of the jungle people except perhaps the gear up he swum downstream and opposite the rock he came on payo and a killer listening to the night noises his dogs he said cheerfully the dolls will come downstream if you be not afraid you can kill them in the shallows why come they said payo and where is my man cub said a killer they come when they come said car wait and see as for thy man cub from whom they has taken a word and so laid him open to death thy man cub is with me and if he be not already dead the fault is none of thine bleached dog wait here for the doll and be glad that the man cub and I strike on my side car flashed upstream again and moored himself in the middle of the gorge looking upward at the line of the clip presently he saw Mowgli's head move against the stars and then there was a whiz in the air the keen clean schloop of the body falling feet first and next minute the boy was at rest again in the loop of cars body it is no leap by night said Mowgli quietly I have jumped twice as far for sport but that is an evil place above blow bushes and gullies that go down very deep all full of the little people I have put big stones one above the other by the side of three gullies these I shall throw down with my feet in running and the little people will rise up behind me very angry that is man's talk and man's cunning said car thou art wise but the little people are always angry nay at twilight all wings near and far rest for a while I will play with the doll at twilight for the doll hunts best by day he follows now one teller's blood trail chill does not leave a dead ox nor the doll the blood trail said car then I will make him a new blood trail of his own blood if I can and give him dirt to eat they will stay here car till I come again with my dolls I but what if they kill me in the jungle or the little people kill me before they'll can't sleep down to the river when tomorrow comes we will kill for tomorrow said Mowgli quoting a jungle saying and again when I am dead it is time to sing the death song good hunting car he loosened his arm from the python's neck and went down the gorge like a log in a fresh it paddling toward the far bank where he found slack water and laughing aloud from sheer happiness there was nothing now Glee like better than as he himself said to pull the whiskers of death and make the jungle know that he was their overlord he had often with Baloo's help robbed these nests in single trees and he knew that the little people hated the smell of wild garlic so he gathered a small bundle of it tied it up with a bark string and then followed one tola's blood trail as it ran suddenly from the layers for some five miles looking at the trees with his head on one side and chuckling as he looked Mowgli the frog have I been said he to himself Mowgli the wolf have I said that I am now Mowgli the ape must I be before I am Mowgli the buck at the end I shall be Mowgli the man ho and he slid his thumb along the 18 inch blade of his knife one tola's trail all rank with dark blood spots ran under a forest of thick trees that grew close together and stretched away north east would gradually growing thinner and thinner to within two miles of the bee rocks from the last tree to the low scrum at the bee rocks was open country where there was hardly covered enough to hide a wolf Mowgli trotted along under the trees judging distances between branch and branch occasionally climbing up a trunk and taking a trial leap from one tree to another till he came to the open ground which he studied very carefully for an hour then he turned picked up on tola's trail where he had left it settled himself in a tree with an outrunning branch some eight feet from the ground and sat still sharpening his knife on the sole of his foot and singing to himself a little before midday when the sun was very warm he heard the patter of feet and smelt the abominable smell of the doll packed as they trotted pitilessly along one tola's trail seen from above the red doll does not look half the size of the wolf but Mowgli knew how strong his feet and jaws were he watched the sharp they head at the leader snuffing along the trail and gave him good hunting the brute looked up and his companions halted behind him scores and scores of red dogs with low hung tails heavy shoulders weak quarters and bloody mouths the dolls are a very silent people as a rule and they have no manners even in their own jungle fully 200 must have gathered below him but he could see that the leaders sniffed hungrily on one tola's trail and tried to drag the pack forward that would never do or they would be at the layers in broad daylight and Mowgli meant to hold them under his tree till dusk by whose lead did you come here said Mowgli all jungles are our jungle was the reply and the doll that gave it be it is white teeth Mowgli looked down with a smile and imitated perfectly the sharp chitter chatter of Chikai the leaping rat of the deacon meaning the dolls to understand that he considered them no better than Chikai the pack closed up around the tree trunk and the leader bade savagely calling Mowgli a tree ape for an answer Mowgli stretched down one naked lead and wriggled his bare toes just above the leader's head that was enough and more than enough to wake the pack to stupid rage those who have had between their toes do not care to be reminded of it Mowgli called his foot away as the leader looked up and said sweetly dog red dog go back to the deacon and eat lizards go to Chikai my brother dog dog red red dog there is head between every toe he twiddled these toes a second time come down a whisked up the out hairless ape yelled the pack and this was exactly what Mowgli wanted he laid himself down along the branch his cheek to the bark his right arm free and there he told the pack what he thought and knew about them their manners their customs their mates and their puppies there is no speech in the world so rancorous as so stinging as the language the jungle people use to show scorn and contempt when you come to think of it you will see how this must be so as Mowgli told car he had many little thorns under his tongue and slowly and deliberately he drove the dolls from silence to growls from growls to yells and from yells to horse slavery ravings they tried to answer his taunts but a cub might as well have tried to answer car in a rage and all the while Mowgli's right hand lay crooked at his side ready for action his feet locked around the branch the big bay leader had leaped many times in the air but Mowgli did not risk a false blow at last made furious beyond his natural strength he bounded up seven or eight feet clear of the ground then Mowgli's hand shot out like the head of a tree snake and gripped him by the scruff of his neck and the branch shook with the jar as his weight fell back almost wrenching Mowgli to the ground but he never loosened his grip an inch by inch he hauled the beast hanging like a drowned jackal up on the branch with his left hand he reached for his knife and cut off the red bushy tail flinging the doll back to the earth again that was all he needed the pack would not go forward on Montola's trail now till they had killed Mowgli or Mowgli had killed them he saw them settle down in circles with a quiver of the haunches that meant they were going to stay and so he climbed to a higher crotch settled his back comfortably and went to sleep after three or four hours he went and counted the pack they were all there silent husky and dry with eyes of steel the sun was beginning to sink in half an hour the little people of the rocks would be ending their labors and as you know the doll does not fight best in the twilight I did not need such faithful watches he said politely standing up on a branch but I will remember this he'd be true dolls but to my thinking over much of one kind for that reason I do not give the big lizard eater his tail again are thou not pleased red doll I myself will tear out thy stomach yell the leader scratching at the foot of the tree no but consider wise rat at the deacon there will now be many letters of little tailless red dogs yeah with raw red stumps they sting when the sand is hot go home red dog and cry that an ape has done this you will not go come then with me and I will make you very wise end of section 21 section 22 of the second jungle book this is a Libra box recording all Libra box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libra box dot org the second jungle book by Rudyard Kipling section 22 red dog part three he moved bandar log fashion into the next tree and so on into the next and the next the pack following with lifted hungry heads now and then he would pretend to fall and the pack would tumble one over the other in their haste to be at the death it was a curious sight the boy with the knife that shone in the low sunlight as it sifted through the upper branches and the silent pack with their red coats all aflame huddling and following below when he came to the last tree he took the garlic and rubbed himself all over carefully and the dolls yelled we scorn ape with wolf's tongue doused they think to cover they said they said we follow to the death take thy tail said mowgli flinging it back along the course he had taken the pack instinctively rushed after it and follow now to the death he had slipped down the tree trunk and headed like the wind in bare feet for the bee rocks before the dolls saw what he would do they gave one deep howl and settled down to the long lobbing canter that can at the last run down anything that runs mowgli knew their packed pace to be much slower than that of the wolves or he would never have risked a two mile run in full sight they were sure that the boy was theirs at last and he was sure that he held them to play with as he pleased all his trouble was to keep them sufficiently hot behind him to prevent their turning off too soon he ran cleanly evenly and springily the tailless leader not five yards behind him and the pack tailing out over perhaps a quarter of a mile of ground crazy and blind with the rage of slaughter so he kept his distance by ear reserving his last effort for the rush across the bee rocks the little people had gone to sleep in the early twilight for it was not the season of late blossoming flowers but as mowgli's first foot falls rang hollow on the hollow ground he heard a sound as though all the earth were humming then he ran as he had never run in his life before spooned aside one two three of the piles of stones into the dark sweet smelling gullies heard a roar like the roar of the sea in a cave saw with the tail of his eye their ear growing dark behind him saw the current of the Wanganga far below and a flat diamond shaped head in the water leaped outward with all its strength the tailless doll snapping at his shoulder in mid-air and dropped feet first to the safety of the river breathless and triumphant there was not a sting upon him for the smell of the garlic had checked the little people for just the few seconds that he was among them when he rose car's coils were steadying him and things were bounding over the edge of the cliff great lumps it seemed have clustered bees falling like plummets but before any lump touched water the bees flew upward and the body of a doll willed downstream overhead they could hear furious short yells that were drowned in a roar like breakers the roar of the wings of the little people of the rocks some of the dolls too had fallen into the gullies that communicated with the underground caves and they choked and fought and snapped among the tumbled honeycombs and at last born up even when they were dead on the heaving waves of bees beneath them shot out of some hole in the river face to roll over on the black rubbish heaps there were dolls who had leaped short into the trees on the cliffs and the bees blotted out these shapes but the greater number of them maddened by the stings had flung themselves into the river and as car said the Wanganga was hungry water car held melgally fast till the boy had recovered his breath we may not stay here he said the little people are roused indeed come swimming low and diving as often as he could melgally went down the river knife in hand slowly slowly said car one tooth does not kill a hundred unless it be a cobra's and many of the dolls took water swiftly when they saw the little people rise the more work for my knife then how the little people follow melgally sunk again the face of the water were blanketed with wild bees buzzing sullenly and stinging all they found nothing was ever yet lost by silence said car no sting could penetrate his scales and they'll haste all the long night for the hunting here them how nearly half the pack had seen the trap their fellows rushed into and turning sharp aside had flung themselves into the water where the gorge broke down in steep banks their cries of rage and their threats against the tree ape who had brought them to their shame mixed with the yells and growls of those who had been punished by the little people to remain ashore was death and every doll knew it their pack was swept along the parent down to the deep eddies at the peace pool but even there the angry little people followed and forced them to the water again melgally could hear the boys at the tailless leader bidding his people hold on and kill out every wolf in sionic but he did not waste his time in listening one kills in the dark behind us snapped a doll here is tainted water melgally had died forward like an otter twitching a struggling doll underwater before he could open his mouth and dark rings rose as the body plumped up turning on its side the dogs tried to turn but the current prevented them and the little people darted at the heads and ears and they could hear the challenge of the sionic pack growing louder and deeper in the gathering darkness again melgally dived and again a doll went under and rose dead and again the climber broke out at the rear of the pack some howling that it was best to go ashore others calling on their leader to lead them back to the deacon and others bidding melgally show himself and be killed they come to fight with two stomachs and several voices said car the rest is with thy brethren below yonder the little people go back to sleep they have chased as far now i too turn back for i am not of one skin with any wolf good hunting little brother and remember the doll bite slow a wolf came running along the bank on three legs leaping up and down laying his head sideways close to the ground hunching his back and breaking high into the air as though he were playing with his cubs it was wantola the outlier and he said never a word he continued his horrible sport beside the dolls they had been long in the water now and were swimming virally their coats drenched and heavy their bushy tails dragging like sponges so tired and shaken they too were silent watching the pair of blazing eyes that moved abreast this is no good hunting said one panting good hunting said melgally as he rose boldly at the brute side and sent the long knife home behind the shoulder pushing hard to avoid his dying snap aren't they out there man cub said one tola across the water ask of the dead outlier melgally replied have none come downstream i have filled these dogs mouths with dirt i have tricked them into broad daylight and their leader lax his tail but here be some few for these still whether shall i drive them i will wait said one tola the night is before me nearer and nearer came the bay at the sione wolves for the pack for the full pack it is met and vending the river drove the dolls forward among the sands and shoals opposite the lairs then they saw their mistake they should have landed half a mile higher up and rushed the wolves on dry ground now it was too late the bank was lined with burning eyes and except for the horrible peel that had never stopped since sundown there was no sound in the jungle it seemed as though one tola were thawning on them to come ashore and turn and take hold said the leader of the dolls the entire pack flung themselves at the shore threshing and squattering through the shoal water till the face of the wanganga was all white and torn and the great ripples went from side to side like bow waves from a boat melgally followed the rush stabbing and slicing as the dolls huddled together rushed up the river beach in one way then the long fight began heaving and straining and splitting and scattering and narrowing and broadening along the red wet sands and over and between the tangled tree roots and through and among the bushes and in and out of the grass clumps for even now the dolls were two to one but they met wolves fighting for all that made the pack and not only the short high deep-chested white tusked hunters of the pack but the anxious eyed lahenas the she-wolves of the lair as the saying is fighting for their letters with here and there a yeeling wolf his first coat still half woolly tugging and grappling by their sides a wolf you must know flies at the throat or snaps at the flank while a doll by preference bites at the belly so when the dolls were struggling out of the water and had to raise their heads the odds were with the wolves on dry land the wolves suffered but in the water or ashore Mowgli's knife came and went without ceasing the four had worried their way to his side gray brother crouched between the boy's knees was protecting his stomach while the others guarded his back and either side or stood over him when the shock of a leaping yelling doll who had thrown himself full on the steady blade bore him down for the rest it was one tangled confusion a locked and swaying mob that moved from right to left and from left to right along the bank and also ground round and round slowly on its own center here would be a heaving mound like a water blister in a whirlpool which would break like a water blister and throw up four or five mangled dogs each striving to get back to the center he would be a single wolf born down by two or three dolls laboriously dragging them forward and sinking the while here a yeeling cub would be held up by the pressure around him though he had been killed early while his mother crazed with dumb rage rolled over and over snapping and passing on and in the middle of the thickest press perhaps one wolf and one doll forgetting everything else would be maneuvering for first hole till they were wheeled away by a rush of furious fighters once Mowgli passed a killer a doll on either flank and his all but toothless jorves closed over the loins of a third and once he saw payo his teeth set in the throat of a doll tugging their unwilling beast forward till the yearlings could finish him but the bulk of the fight was blind flurry and smother in the dark hit trip and tumble yelp grown and worry worry worry round him and behind him and above him as the night wore on the quick get-go-round motion increased the dolls were cowed and afraid to attack the stronger wolves but did not yet dare to run away Mowgli felt that the end was coming soon and contented himself with striking merely to cripple the yearlings were growing bolder there was time now and again to breathe and pass a word to a friend and the mere flicker of the knife would sometimes turn a dog aside the meat is very near the bone great brother gell he was bleeding from a score of flesh wounds but the bone is yet to be cracked said Mowgli, eeww, thus do we do in the jungle the red blade ran like a flame along the side of a doll whose hind quarters were hidden by the weight of a clinging wolf my kill snorted the wolf through his wrinkled nostrils leaving to me is thy stomach still empty outlier said Mowgli one teller was fearfully punished but his grip had paralyzed the doll who could not turn round and reach him by the bull that bought me said Mowgli with a bitter laugh it is the tailors one and indeed it was the big bay colored leader it is not wise to kill cubs and lehinas Mowgli went on philosophically wiping the blood out of his eyes unless one has also killed the outlier and it is in my stomach that this one teller kills thee a doll leaped to his leader's aid but before his teeth had found one teller's flank Mowgli's knife was in his throat and gray brother took what was left and thus do we do in the jungle said Mowgli one teller said not a word only his jaws were closing and closing on the backbone as his life end the doll shuddered his head dropped and he lay still and one teller dropped above him ah the blood debt is paid said Mowgli sing the song one teller he hunts no more said gray brother and a killer too is silent this long time the bone is cracked thundered payo son of payona they go kill kill out old hunters of the free people doll after doll was slinking away from those dark and bloody sands to the river to the thick jungle upstream or downstream as he saw the road clear the debt the debt shouted Mowgli pay the debt they have slain the lone wolf let not a dog go he was flying to the river knife in hand to check any doll who did to take water when from under a mound of nine dead rose a killer's head and four quarters and Mowgli dropped on his knees beside the lone wolf said i not it would be my last fight a killer gasp it is good hunting and now little brother i live having killed many even so i die and i would i would die by the little brother Mowgli took the terrible scarred head on his knees and put his arms around the torn neck it is long since the days of shirkham and a man cub that rolled naked in the dust nay nay i am a wolf i am of one skin with the free people Mowgli cried it is no well of mine that i am a man thou art a man little brother wolfing of my watching thou art a man or else the pack had fled before the doll my life i owe to thee and today thou hast saved the pack even as once i saved thee has thou forgotten all debts are paid now go to thine own people i tell thee again eye of my eye this hunting is ended go to thine own people i will never go i will hunt alone in the jungle i have said it after the summer come the rains and after the rains come the spring go back before thou art driven who will drive me Mowgli will drive Mowgli go back to thy people go to man when Mowgli drives Mowgli i will go Mowgli answered there is no more to say said Akila little brother can't they raise me to my feet i also was the leader of the free people very carefully and gently Mowgli lifted the bodies aside and raised Akila to his feet both arms rounded and the lone wolf drew a long breath and began the death song that the leader of the pack should sing when he dies it gathered strength as he went on lifting and lifting and ringing far across the river till it came to the last good hunting and Akila shook himself clear of Mowgli for an instant and leaping into the air fell backward dead upon his last and most terrible kill Mowgli sat with his head on his knees careless of anything else while the remnant of the flying dolls were being overtaken and run down by the merciless lahenas little by little the cries died away and the wolves returned limping as their wounds stiffened to take stock of the losses 15 of the pack as well as half a dozen lahenas lay dead by the river and of the others not one was unmarked and Mowgli sat through it all till the cold day break when Pao's wet red muzzle was dropped in his hand and Mowgli drew back to show the gold body of Akila good hunting said Pao as though Akila was still alive and then over his bitten shoulder to the others hell dogs a wolf has died tonight but of all the pack of 200 fighting dolls whose boast was that all jungles were their jungle and that no living thing could stand before them not one returned to the deacon to carry that word end of section 22 section 23 of the second jungle book this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Catherine Eastman the second jungle book by Rudyard Kipling section 23 Chills song this is the song that Chills sang as the kites dropped down one after another to the riverbed when the great fight was finished Chill is good friends with everybody but he is a cold-blooded kind of creature at heart because he knows that almost everybody in the jungle comes to him in the long run these were my companions going forth by night for Chill look you for Chill now come I to whistle them the ending of the fight Chill vanguards of Chill word they gave me overhead of quarry newly slain word I gave them underfoot of buck upon the plain here's an end of every trail they shall not speak again they that called the hunting cry they that followed fast for Chill look you for Chill they that made the sampler wheel or pinned him as he passed Chill vanguards of Chill they that lagged behind the scent they that ran before they that shunned the level horn they that overbore here's an end of every trail they shall not follow more these were my companions pity twas they died for Chill look you for Chill now come I to comfort them that knew them in their pride Chill vanguards of Chill tattered flank and sunken eye open mouth and red locked and lank and lone they lie the dead upon their dead here's an end of every trail and here my hosts are fed end of section 23 section 24 of the second jungle book this is a LibriVox recording while LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org read by Matthew J. Almeda MJADesignsOnline.com the second jungle book by Rudyard Kipling section 24 the spring running part one man goes to man cry the challenge through the jungle he that was our brother goes away hear now and judge oh ye people of the jungle answer who shall turn him who shall stay man goes to man he is weeping in the jungle he that was our brother sorrows sore man goes to man oh we loved him in the jungle to the man trail where we may not follow more the second year after the great fight with red dog and the death of Akala Mowgli must have been nearly 17 years old he looked older for hard exercise the best of good eating and baths whenever he felt in the least hot or dusty had given him strength and growth far beyond his age he could swing by one hand from a top branch for half an hour at a time when he had occasion to look along the tree roads he could stop a young buck in mid gallop and throw him sideways by the head he could even jerk over the big blue wild boars that lived in the marshes to the north the jungle people who used to fear him for his wits now feared him for his strength and when he moved quietly on his own affairs the mere whisper of his coming cleared the wood paths and yet the look in his eyes was always gentle even when he fought his eyes never blazed as Bagheera's did they only grew more and more interested and excited and that was one of the things that Bagheera himself did not understand he asked Mowgli about it and the boy laughed and said when i miss the kill i am angry when i must go empty for two days i am very angry do not my eyes talk then the mouth is hungry said Bagheera but the eyes say nothing hunting eating or swimming it is all one like a stone in wet or dry weather Mowgli looked at him lazily from under his long eyelashes and as usual the panthers head dropped Bagheera knew his master they were lying out far up the side of a hill overlooking the Wangunga and the morning mist hung below them in bands of white and green as the sun rose it changed into bubbling seas of red gold churned off and let the low rays strike the dry grass on which Mowgli and Bagheera were resting it was the end of the cold weather the leaves in the trees looked worn and faded and there was a dry ticking rustle everywhere when the wind blew a little leaf tap tap tap furiously against the twig as a single leaf caught in the current will it roused Bagheera for he snuffed the morning air with a deep hollow cough threw himself on his back and struck with his forepaws at the nodding leaf above the year turns he said the jungle goes forward the time of new talk is near that leaf knows it is very good the grass is dry Mowgli answered pulling up a tuft even eye of the spring that is a little trumpet shaped waxy red flower that runs in and out among the grasses even eye of the spring is shut and Bagheera is it well for the black panther so to lie on his back and beat with his paws in the air as though he were a tree cat oh said Bagheera he seemed to be thinking of other things I say is it well for the black panther so to mouth and cough and howl and roll remember we be masters of the jungle thou and I indeed yes I hear man cub Bagheera rolled over hurriedly and sat up the dust on his ragged black flanks he was just casting his winter coat we be surely the masters of the jungle who is so strong as Mowgli who so wise there was a curious drawl in the voice that made Mowgli turn to see whether by any chance the black panther were making fun of him for the jungle is full of words that sound like one thing but mean another I said we be beyond question the masters of the jungle Bagheera repeated have I done wrong I did not know that the man cub no longer lay upon the ground does he fly then Mowgli sat with his elbows on his knees looking out across the valley at the daylight somewhere down in the woods below a bird was trying over in a husky reedy voice the first few notes of his spring song it was no more than a shadow of the liquid tumbling call that would be pouring later but Bagheera heard it I said the time of new talk is near growled the panther switching his tail I hear Mowgli answered Bagheera why does thou shake all over the sun is warm that is Ferraro the scarlet woodpecker said Bagheera he has not forgotten now I too must remember my song and he began purring and crooning to himself harking back to satisfied again and again there is no game afoot said Mowgli little brother are both thine ears stopped that is no killing word but my song that I make ready against the need I'd forgotten I shall know when the time of new talk is here because then thou and the others shall run away and leave me alone Mowgli spoke rather savagely but indeed little brother Bagheera began we do not always I say ye do said Mowgli shooting out his forefinger angrily ye do run away and I when the master of the jungle must needs walk alone how was it last season when I would gather sugar came from the fields of a man pack I sent a runner I sent thee to Hathi bidding him to come upon such a night and pluck the sweet grass for me with his trunk he came only two nights later said Bagheera cowering a little and of that long sweet grass that pleased thee so he gathered more than any man cub could eat in all the nights of the rains that was no fault of mine he did not come upon the night when I sent him the word no he was trumpeting and running and roaring through the valleys in the moonlight his trail was like the trail of three elephants for he would not hide among the trees he danced in the moonlight before the houses of the man pack I saw him and yet he would not come to me and I am the master of the jungle it was the time of the new talk said to panther always very humble perhaps little brother thou didst not at time call him by a master word listen to Ferrero and be glad Mowgli's bad temper seemed to have boiled itself away he lay back with his head in his arms his eyes shut I do not know nor do I care he said sleepily let us sleep Bagheera my stomach is heavy in me make me a rest from my head the panther lay down again with a sigh because he could hear Ferrero practicing and repracticing his song against the springtime of new talk as they say in an indian jungle the seasons slide one into the other almost without division there seem to be only two the wet and the dry but if you look closely below the torrents of rain and the clouds of char and dust you will find all four going round in their regular ring spring is the most wonderful because she has not to cover a clean bare field with new leaves and flowers but to drive before her and to put away the hanging on over surviving raffle of half green things which the gentle winter has suffered to live and to make the partly dressed stale earth feel new and young once more and this she does so well that there is no spring in the world like the jungle spring there is one day when all things are tired and the very smells as they drift on the heavy air are old and used one cannot explain this but it feels so and then there is another day to the eye nothing whatever has changed when all the smells are new and delightful and the whiskers of the jungle people quiver to their roots and the winter hair comes away from their sides in long draggled blocks then perhaps a little rain falls and all the trees and the bushes and the bamboos and the mosses and the juicy leaf plants wake with the noise of growing that you can almost hear and under this noise runs day and night a deep hum that is the noise of the spring a vibrating boom which is neither bees nor falling water nor the wind in the treetops but the purring of the warm happy world up to this year mogley had always delighted in the turn of the seasons it was he who generally saw the first eye of the spring deep down among the grasses and the first bank of spring clouds which are like nothing else in the jungle his voice could be heard in all sorts of wet star-lighted blossoming places helping the big frogs through their courses or mocking the little upside down owls that hoot through the white nights like all his people spring was the season he chose for his flittings moving for the mere joy of rushing through the warm air 30 40 or 50 miles between twilight and the morning star and coming back panting and laughing wreathe with strange flowers the four did not follow him on these wild ringings of the jungle but went off to sing songs with other wolves the jungle people are very busy in the spring and mogley could hear them grunting and screaming and whistling according to their kind their voices then are different from their voices at other times of the year and that is one of the reasons why spring in the jungle is called the time of new talk but that spring as he told bagheera his stomach was changed in him ever since the bamboo shoots turned spotty brown he had been looking forward to the morning when the smell should change but when the morning came and more the peacock blazing in bronze and blue and gold prided aloud all along the misty woods and mogley opened his mouth to send on the cry the words choked between his teeth and a feeling came over him that began at his toes and ended in his hair a feeling of pure unhappiness so that he looked himself over to be sure that he had not trod on a thorn more cried the new smells the other birds took it over and from the rocks by the wengunga he heard bagheera's horse scream something between the scream of an eagle and the naing of a horse there was a yelling and scattering of bandalog in the new budding branches above and there stood mogley his chest filled to answer more sinking in little gasps as the breath was driven out of it by this unhappiness he stared all around him but he could see no more than the mocking bandalogs scutting through the trees and more his tail spread in full splendor dancing on the slopes below the smells have changed scream more good hunting little brother where is the answer little brother good hunting whistled chill the kite and his mate swooping down together the two bathed under mogley's nose so close that a pinch of downy white feathers brushed away a light spring rain elephant rain as they call it drove across the jungle in a belt half a mile wide left the new leaves wet and nodding behind and died out in a double rainbow and a light roll of thunder the spring hum broke out for a minute and was silent but all the jungle folks seemed to be giving tongue at once all except mogley i have eaten good food he said to himself i have drunk good water nor does my throat burn and grow small as it did when i bit the blue sprouted brood that oh the turtle said was clean food but my stomach is heavy and i have given very bad talk to bagheera and the others people of the jungle and my people now to i am hot and now i am cold and now i am neither hot nor cold but angry with that which i cannot see whoo it is time to make a running tonight i will cross the ranges yes i will make a spring running to the marshes of the north and back again i have hunted too easily too long the four shall come with me for they grow as fat as white grubs he called but never one of the four answered they were far beyond airshot singing over the spring songs the moon and sambar songs with the wolves of the pack for in the spring time the jungle people make very little difference between the day and the night he gave the sharp barking note but his only answer was the mocking meow of the little spotted tree cat winding in and out among the branches for early birds nests at this he shook all over with rage and half drew his knife then he became very haughty though there was no one to see him and stalked severely down the hillside chin up and eyebrows down but never a single one of his people asked him a question for they were all too busy with their own affairs yes said mowgli to himself though in his heart he knew that he had no reason let the red doll come from the tecan or the red flower dance among the bamboos and all the jungle runs whining to mowgli calling him great elephant names but now because eye of spring is red and more for sooth must show his naked legs in some spring dance the jungle goes mad as topically by the bull that bought me am i the master of the jungle or am i not be silent what do you hear a couple of young wolves of the pack were cantering down a path looking for open ground in which to fight you will remember that the law of the jungle forbids fighting where the pack can see their neck bristles were as stiff as wire and they bade furiously crouching for the first grapple mowgli leaped forward caught one outstretched throat in either hand expecting to fling the creatures backwards as he had often done in games or pack hunts but he had never before interfered with a spring fight the two leaped forward and dashed him aside and without word to waste rolled over and over close locked mowgli was on his feet almost before he fell his knife and his white teeth were bared and at that minute he would have killed both for no reason but that they were fighting when he wished them to be quiet although every wolf has full right under the law to fight he danced around them with lowered shoulders and quivering hand ready to send in a double blow with the first flurry of the scuffle should be over but while he waited the strength seemed to ebb from his body the knife point lowered and he sheathed the knife and watched i have surely eaten poison he sighed at last since i broke up the council with the red flower since i killed sheer con none of the pack could fling me aside and these be only tail wolves of the packs little hunters my strength is gone for me and presently i shall die oh mowgli why does that not kill them both the fight went on till one wolf ran away and mowgli was left alone on the torn and bloody ground looking now at his knife and now at his legs and arms while the feeling of unhappiness he had never known before covered him as a water covers a log he killed early that evening in eight but little so as to be in good fettle for his spring running and he ate alone because all the jungle people were away singing or fighting it was a perfect white night as they call it all green things seem to have made a month's growth since the morning the branch that was yellow leave the day before i dripped sap when mowgli broke it the moss is curled deep and warm over his feet the young grass had no cutting edges and all the voices of the jungle boomed like one deep harp string touched by the moon the moon of new talk who splashed her light full on rock and pool slipped it between trunk and creeper and sifted it through a million leaves forgetting his unhappiness mowgli sang aloud with pure delight as he settled into his stride it was more like flying than anything else for he had chosen the long downward slope that leads to the northern marshes through the heart of the main jungle where the springy ground dead in the fall of his feet a man-taught man would have picked his way with many stumbles through the cheating moonlight but mowgli's muscles trained by years of experience bore him up as though he were a feather when a rotten log or a hidden stone turned under his foot he saved himself never checking his pace without effort and without thought when he tired of ground going he threw up his hands monkey fashion to the nearest creeper and seemed to flow rather than to climb up into the thin branches once he would follow a tree road till his mood change and he shot downward in a long leafy curve to the levels again there were still hot hollows surrounded by wet rocks where he could hardly breathe for the heavy scents of the night flowers and the bloom along the creeper buds dark avenues where the moonlight lay in belts as regular as checkered marbles in a church aisle thickets where the wet young growth stood breast high about him and threw its arms around his waist in hilltops crowned with broken rock where he leaped from stone to stone above the layers of the frightened little foxes he would hear a very faint and far off the chug-drug of a bore sharpening his tusks on a bowl it would come across the great gray brood all alone scribing and rending the bark of a tall tree his mouth dripping with foam and his eyes blazing with fire or he would turn aside to the sound of clashing horns and hissing grunts and dash past a couple of furious sambor staggering to and fro with lowered heads striped with blood that showed black in the moonlight or at some rushing forward he would hear jacala the crocodile bellowing like a bull or disturb a twine knot of the poisoned people or before they could strike he would be away and across the glistening shingle and deep in the jungle again so he ran sometimes shouting sometimes singing to himself the happiest thing in all the jungle that night till the smell of the flowers warned him that he was near the marshes and those lay far beyond his farthest hunting grounds here again a man-trained man would have sunk overhead in three strides but mowgli's feet had eyes in them and they passed him from tusk to tusk and clumped to quaking clump without asking help from the eyes in his head he ran out to the middle of the swamp disturbing the duck as he ran and sat down on a moss-coated tree trunk lapped in the black water the marsh was awake all around him for in the spring the bird people sleep very lightly and companies of them were coming or going the night through but no one took any notice of mowgli sitting among the tall reeds humming songs without words and looking at the soles of his hard brown feet in case of neglected thorns all his unhappiness seemed to have been left behind in his own jungle and he was just beginning a full-throat song when it came back again ten times worse than before this time mowgli was frightened it is here also he said half aloud it has followed me and he looked over his shoulder to see whether the it were not standing behind him there is no one here the night noises of the marsh went on but never a bird or beast spoke to him and the new feeling of misery grew i have surely eaten poison he said in an austric invoice it must be that carelessly i have eaten poison and my strength is going from me i was afraid and yet it was not i that was afraid mowgli was afraid when the two wolves fought a keila or even fowl would have silenced them yet mowgli was afraid that is true sign i have eaten poison but what do they care in the jungle they sing and howl and fight and run in companies under the moon and i hi am i i am dying in the marshes of that poison which i have eaten he was so sorry for himself that he nearly wept and after he went on they will find me lying in the black water nay i will go back to my own jungle and i will die upon the council rock and bagheera whom i love if he is not screaming in the valley bagheera perhaps may watch by what is left for a little less chill use me as he used a keila a large warm tear splashed down on his knee and miserable as he was mowgli felt happy that he was so miserable if you can understand that upside down sort of happiness as chill the kite used a keila he repeated on the night i saved the pack from red dog he was quiet for a little thinking of the last words of the lone wolf which you of course remember now a keila said to me many foolish things before he died for when we die our stomachs change he said nonetheless i am of the jungle in his excitement as he remembered the fight on wangonga bank he shouted the last words allowed and a wild buffalo cow among the reeds sprang to her knees snorting man uh said misa the wild buffalo mowgli could hear him turn in his wallow that is no man it is only the hairless wolf of the cony pack on such nights runs he to and fro uh said the cow dropping her head again to graze i thought it was man i say no oh mowgli is it danger load misa oh mowgli is it danger the boy called back mockingly that is all misa thinks for is it danger but for mowgli who goes to and fro in the jungle by night watching what do ye care how loud he cries said the cow thus do they cry misa entered contemptuously who having torn up the grass know not how to eat it for less than this mowgli grown to himself for less than this even last rains i had pricked misa out of his wallow and ridden him through the swamp on a rush halter he stretched a hand to break one of the feathery reeds but drew it back with a sigh misa went on steadily chewing the cud and the long grass rips where the cow grazed i will not die here he said angrily misa one who is of one blood with the jacala and the pig would see me let us go beyond the swamp and see what comes never have i run such a spring running hot and cold together up mowgli he could not resist the temptation of stealing across the reeds to misa and pricking him with the point of his knife the great dripping bull broke out of his hollow like a shell exploding while mowgli laughed till he sat down say now that the hairless wolf of the c on e pack once heard it the misa he called wolf thou the bull snorted stamping in the mud all the jungle knows thou was the herder of tame cattle such a man's brat as shouts in the dust by the crops yonder thou of the jungle what hunter would have crawled like a snake among the leeches and for a muddy jest a jackals jest have shamed me before my cow come to firm ground and i will i will misa froth at the mouth for misa has nearly the worst temper of anyone in the jungle mowgli watched him puff and blow with eyes that never changed when he could make himself heard through the pattering mud he said what man-pack layer here by the marshes misa this is new jungle to me go north then roared the angry bull for mowgli had pricked him rather sharply it was a naked cow herds jest go and tell them at the village at the foot of the marsh the man-pack do not love jungle tales nor do i think misa that a scratch more or less on thy hide is any matter for a council but i will go and look at this village yes i will go softly now it is not every night that the master of the jungle comes to hear the end of section 24 read by Matthew J. Almeida mjdesignsonline.com section 25 of the second jungle book this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org read by Matthew J. Almeida mjdesignsonline.com the second jungle book by Roger Kipling section 25 the spring running part two he stepped out to the shivering ground on the edge of the marsh well knowing that Misa would never charge over and laughed as he ran to think of the bull's anger my strength is not altogether gone he said it may be that the poison is not to the bone there is a star sitting low yonder he looked at it between his half-shot hands by the bull that bought me it is the red flower the red flower that i lay beside before before i came even to the first cme pack now that i have seen i will finish the running the marsh ended in a broad plain where a light twinkled it was a long time since Mowgli had concerned himself with the doings of men but this night the glimmer of the red flower drew him forward i will look said he as i did in the old days and i will see how far the man pack has changed forgetting that he was no longer in his own jungle where he could do what he pleased he trod carelessly through the do-loaded grasses till he came to the hut where the light stood three or four yelping dogs gave tongue where he was on the outskirts of a village oh said Mowgli sitting down noiselessly after sending back a deep wolf ground that silenced the curse what comes will come Mowgli what hast thou to do any more with the layers of the man pack he rubbed his mouth remembering where a stone had struck it years ago when the other man packet cast a mouth the door of the hut opened and a woman stood peering out into the darkness a child cried and the woman said over her shoulder sleep it was but a jackal that waked the dogs in a little time morning comes Mowgli in the grass began to shake as though he had fever he knew that voice well but to make sure he cried softly surprised to find how man's talk came back missua oh missua who calls said the woman a quiver in her voice passed out forgotten said Mowgli his throat was dry as he spoke if it be thou what name did i give thee say she had half shut the door and her hand was clutching at her breast nathu ole nathu said Mowgli for as you remember that was the name missua gave him when he first came to the man pack come my son she called and Mowgli stepped into the light and looked full at missua the woman who had been good to him and whose life he had saved from the man pack so long before she was older and her hair was gray but her eyes and her voice had not changed woman like she expected to find Mowgli where she had left him and her eyes traveled upward in a puzzled way from his chest to his head that touched the top of the door my son she stammered and then sinking to his feet but it is no longer my son it is a godling of the woods i as he stood in the red light of the oil lamp strong tall and beautiful his long back hair sweeping over his shoulders the knife swinging at his neck and his head crowned with a wreath of white jasmine he might easily have been mistaken for some wild god of a jungle legend the child half asleep on a cot sprang up and shrieked aloud with terror missua turned to soothe him while Mowgli stood still looking into the water jars and the cooking pots the grain bin and all the other human belongings that he found himself remembering so well what will thou eat or drink missua murmured this is all vine we owe our lives to thee what art thou him i called nathoo or a godling indeed i am thoo said Mowgli i am very far from my own place i saw this light and came hither i did not know that i was here after we came to Kanawara missua said timidly the english would have helped us against those villagers that sought to burn us remembers thou indeed i have not forgotten but when the english law was made ready we went to the village of those evil people and it was no more to be found that also i remember said Mowgli with a quiver of his nostril my man therefore took service in the fields and at last for indeed he was a strong man we held a little land here it is not so rich as the old village but we do not need much we too where is he the man that dug in the dirt when he was afraid on that night he is dead a year and he Mowgli appointed to the child my son that was born two rains ago if thou art a godling give him the favor of the jungle that he may be safe among thy thy people as we were safe on that night she lifted up the child who for getting his fright reached out to play with the knife that hung on Mowgli's chest and Mowgli put the little fingers aside very carefully and if thou art Mathu whom the tiger carried away the soul went on choking he is then thy younger brother give him an elder brother's blessing hi my what do i know of the thing called a blessing i'm neither a godling nor his brother and oh mother mother my heart is heavy in me he shivered as he sat down the child like enough said Masua bustling among the cooking pots this comes of running about the marshes by night beyond question the fever had soaked thee to the marrow Mowgli smiled a little at the idea of anything in the jungle hurting him i will make a fire and thou shall drink warm milk put away the jasmine wreath the smell is heavy in so small a place Mowgli sat down muttering with his face in his hands all men are strange feelings that he had never felt before were running over him exactly as though he had been poisoned and he felt dizzy and a little sick he drank the warm milk and long gulps Masua patting him on the shoulder from time to time not quite sure whether he were son Mathu of the long ago days or some wonderful jungle being but glad to feel that he was at least flesh and blood son she said at last her eyes were full of pride have any told thee thou art beautiful beyond all men ha said Mowgli or naturally he had never heard anything of the kind Masua laughed softly and happily the look in his face was enough for her i am the first then it is right though i come sell them that a mother should tell her son these good things thou art very beautiful never have i looked upon such a man Mowgli twisted his head and tried to see over his heart shoulder and Masua laughed again so long that Mowgli not knowing why was forced to laugh with her and the child ran from one to the other laughing too nay thou must not mock thy brother said Masua catching him to her breast when thou art one half as fair we will marry thee to the youngest daughter of the king and thou shall ride great elephants Mowgli could not understand one word and three of the talk here the warm milk was taking effect on him after his long run so he curled up in a minute was deep asleep and Masua put the hair back from his eyes threw a cloth over him and was happy jungle fashion he slept out the rest of that night and all the next day for his instincts which never wholly slept warned him there was nothing to fear he waked at last with a bound that shook the hut for the cloth over his face made him dream of traps and there he stood his hand on his knife to sleep all heavy in his rolling eyes ready for any fight Masua laughed and set the evening mail before him there were only a few coarse cakes baked over the smoky fire some rice and a lump of sour preserved tamarins just enough to go on with till he could get to his evening kill the smell of the dew in the marshes made him hungry and restless he wanted to finish his spring running but the child insisted on sitting in his arms the Masua would have it that his long blue black hair must be combed out so she sang as she combed foolish little baby songs now calling Mowgli her son and now begging him to give some of his jungle power to the child the hut door was closed but Mowgli heard a sound he knew well and so Masua's jaw dropped with horror as a great gray paw came under the bottom of the door and gray brother outside whined a muffled impenitent line of anxiety and fear out in wait he would not come when i called said Mowgli and jungle talk without turning his head and the great gray paw disappeared do not do not bring thy servants with thee said Masua i we have always lived at peace with the jungle it is peace said Mowgli rising think of that night on the road to Kanawara there were scores of such folk before the end behind they but i see that even in springtime the jungle people do not always forget mother i go Masua drew aside humbly he was indeed a wood dot god she thought but as his hand was on the door the mother and her made her throw her arms around Mowgli's neck again and again come back she whispered son or no son come back for i love thee look he too greaves the child was crying because the man with the shiny knife was going away come back again Masua repeated by night or by day this door is never shut to thee Mowgli's throat worked as though the cords in it were being pulled and his voice seemed to be dragged from it as he answered i will surely come back and now he said as he put by the head of the fawning wolf on the threshold i have a little cry against the great brother why came you not all four when i called so long ago so long ago it was but last night i we were singing in the jungle the new songs but this is the time of new talk remembers thou truly truly and as soon as the songs were sung great brother went on earnestly i followed thy trail i ran from all the others and followed hot foot but oh little brother what has thou done eating and sleeping with the man pack if he had come when i called this had never been said Mowgli running much faster and now what is to be said great brother Mowgli was going to answer when a girl in a white cloth came down some path that led from the outskirts of the village great brother dropped out of sight at once and Mowgli backed noiselessly into a field of high springing crops he could almost have touched her with his hand when the warm green stalks closed before his face and he disappeared like a ghost the girl screamed for she thought she had seen a spirit and then she gave a deep sigh Mowgli parted the stalks with his hands and watched her till she was out of sight and now i do not know if he said sighing in his turn why did you not come when i called we follow thee we follow thee great brother mumbled looking at Mowgli's heel we follow thee always except in the time of the new talk and would you follow me to the man pack Mowgli whispered did i not follow thee on the night our blue pack cast the out who waited lying among the crops i but again have i not followed thee tonight i but again and again and it may be again great brother great brother was silent when he spoke he growled to himself the black one spoke truth and he said man goes to man at the last rakshah our mother said so also said akala on the night of red dog Mowgli muttered so also says ka who was wiser than us all what does thou say great brother they cast the out once with bad talk they cut their mouth with stones they sent bldeo to slay thee they would have thrown the end of the red flower thou and not i has said they are evil and senseless thou and not i i follow my own people that's led in the jungle upon them thou and not i let's make song against them more bitter even than our song against red dog i ask thee what thou sayest they were talking as they ran great brother canted on while a while without replying and then he said between bound and bound as it were man cub master of the jungle son of rakshah their brother to me though i forget for a little while on the spring thy trail is my trail thy lair is my lair thy kill is my kill and thy death fight is my death fight i speak for the three but what will thou say to the jungle that is well thought between the site and the kill it is not going to wait go before and cry them all to the council rock and i will tell them what is in my stomach but they may not come in the time of new talk they may forget me has thou then forgotten nothing snapped great brother over his shoulder as he laid himself down to gallop and mowgli followed thinking at any other season the news would have called all the jungle together with bristling necks but now they were busy hunting and fighting and killing and singing from one to another gray brother ran crying the master of the jungle goes back to man come to the council rock and the happy eager people only answered he will return in the summer heats the rain will drive him to lair run and sing with this great brother but the master of the jungle goes back to man great brother would repeat he you are is the time of new talk any less sweet for that they would reply so when mowgli heavy-hearted came up through the well-remembered rocks to the place where he had been brought into the council he found only the four blue who was nearly blind with age and the heavy cold-blooded cock coiled around cala's empty seat by trail ends here then manly said cock as mowgli threw himself down his face in his hands cry they cry we be of one blood thou and i man and snake together why did i not die under red dog the boy moaned my strength is gone for me and it is not any poison by night and by day i hear a double step upon my trail when i turned my head it is though one had hidden himself for me that instant i go to look behind the trees and he is not there i call and none cry again but it is though one listened and kept back the answer i lie down but i do not rest i've run the spring running but i am not made still i bathe but i am not made cool the kill sickens me but i have no heart to fight except i kill the red flowers in my body my bones are water and i know not but i know what need of talk said baloo slowly turning his head to where mowgli lay the cala by the river said it that mowgli should drive mowgli back to the man pack i said it but who listens now to baloo bagheera where is bagheera this night he knows also it is the law when we met at cold lairs manling i knew it said ca turning a little in his mighty coils man goes to man at the last though the jungle does not cast him out the four looked at one another and at mowgli puzzled but obedient the jungle does not cast me out then mowgli stammered gray brother in the three growled furiously beginning so long as we live none shall dare but baloo checked them i taught thee the law it is for me to speak he said and though i cannot now see the rocks before me i see far little frog take thine own trail make thine lair with thine own blood and packing people but when there is need of foot or tooth or eye or a word carried swiftly by night remember master of the jungle the jungle is thine to call the middle jungle is thine also said ca i speak for no small people hi my my brother's cried mowgli throwing up his arms to the sob i know not what i know i would not go but i am drawn with both feet how shall i leave these nights nay look up little brother although repeated there is no shame in this hunting when the honey is eaten we leave the empty high having cast the skin said ca we may not creep into it afresh it is the law listen dearest of all to me said baloo there is neither word nor will here to hold thee back look up we'll may question the master of the jungle i saw thee playing among the white pebbles yonder when thou wast a little frog and bagheera that bought thee for the price of a young bone newly killed saw thee also of that looking over we too only remain for aksha thy lair mother is dead with thy lair father the old wolf pack is long since dead thou knowest whither shear khan went and a kaleb died among the dolls where but for thy wisdom and strength the second c&e pack would also have died there remains nothing but old bones it is no longer the man cup that asked leave of his pack but the master of the jungle that changes his trail who shall question man in his ways but bagheera and the bull that bought me said moldy i would not his words were cut short by a roar and a crash in the thicket below and bagheera light strong and terrible as always stood before him therefore he said stretching out a dripping right paw i did not come it was a long hunt but he lies dead in the bushes now a bull in his second year the bull that frees the little brother all debts are paid now for the rest my word is balloon's word he like mogul's foot remember bagheera loved thee he cried and bounded away at the foot of the hill he cried again long and loud good hunting on a new trail master of the jungle remember bagheera loved thee now has heard said balloon there is no more go now but first come to me oh why is it a frog come to me it is hard to cast the skin said ca as mogul's sobbed and sobbed with his head on the blind bear's side and his arms around his neck while balloon tried feebly to look his feet the stars are thin said gray brother snuffing at the dawn wind where shall we layer today from now on we follow new trails and this is the last of the mogul stories and of section 25 read by mathu j almeida mja designs online dot com section 26 of the second jungle book this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by Catherine Eastman the second jungle book by Rudyard Kipling section 26 the out song this is the song that mogul heard behind him in the jungle till he came to missua's door again baloo for the sake of him who showed one wise frog the jungle road keep the law the man pack make for thy blind old baloo's sake clean or tainted hot or stale hold it as it were the trail through the day and through the night questing neither left nor right for the sake of him who loves thee beyond all else that moves when thy pack would make thee pain say tabaqui sings again when thy pack would work the ill say sheer con is yet to kill when the knife is drawn to slay keep the law and go thy way root and tony palm and spade guard a cub from harm and scave wood and water wind and tree jungle favor go with thee ka anger is the egg of fear only lidless eyes are clear cobra poison none may leech even so with cobra speech open talk shall call to thee strength whose mate is courtesy send no lunge beyond thy length lend no rotten bow thy strength gauge thy gape with buck or goat lest thine eye should choke thy throat after gorging would thou sleep look thy den is hid and deep lest a wrong by thee forgot draw thy killer to the spot east and west and north and south wash thy hide and close thy mouth pit and rift and blue pool brim middle jungle follow him wood and water wind and tree jungle favor go with thee bagheera in the cage my life began well i know the worth of man by the broken lock that freed man cub where the mancubs breed senting dew or starlight pale choose no tangled tree cat trail pack or counsel hunt or den cry no truce with jackal men feed them silence when they say come with us an easy way feed them silence when they seek help of thine to hurt the weak make no banners boast of skill hold thy peace above the kill let nor call nor song nor sign turn thee from thy hunting line morning mist or twilight clear serve him wardens of the deer wood and water wind and tree jungle favor go with thee the three on the trail that thou must tread to the thresholds of our dread where the flower blossoms red through the nights when thou shalt lie prisoned from our mother sky hearing us thy loves go by in the dawns when thou shalt wake to the toil thou canst not break heart sick for the jungle's sake wood and water wind and tree wisdom strength and courtesy jungle favor go with thee end of section 23 end of the second jungle book by redgeard kippling