The next thing he remembered was feeling hands on his legs andarms——hard, strong, little hands——and then a swash of branches inhis face, and then he was staring down through the swaying boughs asBaloo woke the jungle with his deep cries and Bagheera bounded up thetrunk with every tooth bared. The Bandar-log howled with triumph andscuffled away to the upper branches where Bagheera dared not follow,shouting: “He has noticed us！ Bagheera has noticed us. All the Jungle-People admire us for our skill and our cunning.” Then they began theirflight; and the flight of the Monkey-People through tree-land is oneof the things nobody can describe. They have their regular roads andcrossroads, up hills and down hills, all laid out from fifty to seventy or ahundred feet above ground, and by these they can travel even at night ifnecessary. Two of the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli under the armsand swung off with him through the treetops, twenty feet at a bound.Hadthey been alone they could have gone twice as fast,but the boy"s weightheld them back. Sick and giddy as Mowgli was he could not help enjoyingthe wild rush, though the glimpses of earth far down below frightenedhim, and the terrible check and jerk at the end of the swing over nothingbut empty air brought his heart between his teeth. His escort would rushhim up a tree till he felt the thinnest topmost branches crackle and bendunder them, and then with a cough and a whoop would fling themselvesinto the air outward and downward, and bring up, hanging by their handsor their feet to the lower limbs of the next tree.Sometimes he could see formiles and miles across the still green jungle, as a man on the top of a mastcan see for miles across the sea, and then the branches and leaves wouldlash him across the face, and he and his two guards would be almost downto earth again. So, bounding and crashing and whooping and yelling, thewhole tribe of Bandar-log swept along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner.
For a time he was afraid of being dropped. Then he grew angrybut knew better than to struggle, and then he began to think. The firstthing was to send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at the pace themonkeys were going, he knew his friends would be left far behind. It wasuseless to look down, for he could only see the topsides of the branches, sohe stared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann the Kite balancingand wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waiting for things to die.
Rann saw that the monkeys were carrying something, and dropped a fewhundred yards to find out whether their load was good to eat. He whistledwith surprise when he saw Mowgli being dragged up to a treetop andheard him give the Kite call for——“We be of one blood, you and I.
”
The waves of the branches closed over the boy, but Chil balanced away tothe next tree in time to see the little brown face come up again. “Markmy trail！” Mowgli shouted. “Tell Baloo of the Seeonee Pack andBagheera of the Council Rock.”
“In whose name, Brother？” Rann had never seen Mowglibefore,though of course he had heard of him.
“Mowgli, the Frog.Man-cub they call me！ Mark my tra-il！”
The last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the air,but Rann nodded and rose up till he looked no bigger than a speck of dust,and there he hung, watching with his telescope eyes the swaying of thetreetops as Mowgli"s escort whirled along.
“They never go far,” he said with a chuckle. “They never dowhat they set out to do. Always pecking at new things are the Bandar-log. This time, if I have any eye-sight, they have pecked down troublefor themselves, for Baloo is no fledgling and Bagheera can, as I know, killmore than goats.”
So he rocked on his wings, his feet gathered up under him, and waited.
Meantime, Baloo and Bagheera were furious with rage and grief. Bagheera climbed as he had never climbed before, but the thin branches broke beneath his weight, and he slipped down, his claws full of bark.
“Why didst you not warn the man-cub？” he roared to poor Baloo, who had set off at a clumsy trot in the hope of overtaking the monkeys. “What was the use of half slaying him with blows if you didst not warn him？”
“Haste！ O haste！ We——we may catch them yet！” Baloo panted.
“At that speed！ It would not tire a wounded cow. Teacher of the Law——cub-beater——a mile of that rolling to and fro would burst you open. Sit still and think！ Make a plan. This is no time for chasing. They may drop him if we follow too close.”
“Arrula！ Whoo！ They may have dropped him already, being tired of carrying him. Who can trust the Bandar-log？ Put dead bats onmy head！ Give me black bones to eat！ Roll me into the hives of the wild bees that I may be stung to death, and bury me with the Hyaena, for I am most miserable of bears！ Arulala！Wahooa！ O Mowgli, Mowgli！ Why did I not warn you against the Monkey-Folk instead of breakingyour head？ Now perhaps I may have knocked the day"s lesson out of his mind, and he will be alone in the jungle without the Master Words.”
Baloo clasped his paws over his ears and rolled to and fro moaning.
“At least he gave me all the Words correctly a little time ago,” said Bagheera impatiently. “Baloo, you hast neither memory nor respect. What would the jungle think if I, the Black Panther,curled myself up likeIkki the Porcupine, and howled？”
“What do I care what the jungle thinks？ He may be dead by now.”
“Unless and until they drop him from the branches in sport, or killhim out of idleness, I have no fear for the man-cub. He is wise and welltaught, and above all he has the eyes that make the Jungle-People afraid.
But (and it is a great evil) he is in the power of the Bandar-log, and they,because they live in trees,have no fear of any of our people.” Bagheeralicked one forepaw thoughtfully.
“Fool that I am！ Oh, fat, brown, root-digging fool that I am,”
said Baloo, uncoiling himself with a jerk, “it is true what Hathi the WildElephant says: `To each his own fear"; and they,the Bandar-log, fear Kaathe Rock Snake. He can climb as well as they can. He steals the youngmonkeys in the night. The whisper of his name makes their wicked tailscold. Let us go to Kaa.”
“What will he do for us？ He is not of our tribe, beingfootless——and with most evil eyes,” said Bagheera.
“He is very old and very cunning. Above all, he is alwayshungry,” said Baloo hopefully. “Promise him many goats.”