I climb！I haste！Ahuwora！The stones slip under my feet！ Waitmy coming, O most infamous Bandar-log！” He panted up the terraceonly to disappear to the head in a wave of monkeys, but he threw himselfsquarely on his haunches, and, spreading out his forepaws, hugged as manyas he could hold, and then began to hit with a regular bat-bat-bat,like theflipping strokes of a paddle wheel. A crash and a splash told Mowgli thatBagheera had fought his way to the tank where the monkeys could notfollow. The Panther lay gasping for breath, his head just out of the water,while the monkeys stood three deep on the red steps, dancing up and down with rage, ready to spring upon him from all sides if he came out to help Baloo. It was then that Bagheera lifted up his dripping chin, and in despair gave the Snake"s Call for protection——“We be of one blood, you and I”——for he believed that Kaa had turned tail at the last minute. Even Baloo, half smothered under the monkeys on the edge of the terrace, could not help chuckling as he heard the Black Panther asking for help.
Kaa had only just worked his way over the west wall, landing with a wrench that dislodged a coping stone into the ditch. He had no intention of losing any advantage of the ground, and coiled and uncoiled himself once or twice, to be sure that every foot of his long body was in working order. All that while the fight with Baloo went on, and the monkeys yelled in the tank round Bagheera,and Mang the Bat, flying to and fro, carried the news of the great battle over the jungle, till even Hathi the Wild Elephant trumpeted, and, far away, scattered bands of the Monkey-Folk woke and came leaping along the tree-roads to help their comrades in the Cold Lairs, and the noise of the fight roused all the day birds for miles round. Then Kaa came straight, quickly, and anxious to kill. The fighting strength of a python is in the driving blow of his head backed by all the strength and weight of his body. If you can imagine a lance, or a battering ram, or a hammer weighing nearly half a ton driven by a cool, quiet mind living in the handle of it, you can roughly imagine what Kaa was like when he fought. A python four or five feet long can knock a man down if he hits him fairly in the chest, and Kaa was thirtyfeet long, as you know. His first stroke was delivered into the heart of the crowd round Baloo. It was sent home with shut mouth in silence, and there was no need of a second. The monkeys scattered with cries of——“Kaa！ It is Kaa！ Run！ Run！”
Generations of monkeys had been scared into good behavior by the stories their elders told them of Kaa, the night thief, who could slip along the branches as quietly as moss grows, and steal away the strongest monkey that ever lived; of old Kaa, who could make himself look so like a dead branch or a rotten stump that the wisest were deceived, till the branch caught them. Kaa was everything that the monkeys feared in the jungle, for none of them knew the limits of his power, none of them could look him in the face, and none had ever come alive out of his hug. And so they ran, stammering with terror, to the walls and the roofs of the houses, and Baloo drew a deep breath of relief. His fur was much thicker than Bagheera"s, but he had suffered sorely in the fight.Then Kaa opened his mouth for the first time and spoke one long hissing word, and the far-away monkeys, hurrying to the defense of the Cold Lairs, stayed where they were, cowering, till the loaded branches bent and crackled under them. The monkeys on the walls and the empty houses stopped their cries, and in the stillness that fell upon the city Mowgli heard Bagheera shaking his wet sides as he came up from the tank. Then the clamor broke out again. The monkeys leaped higher up the walls. They clung around the necks of the big stone idols and shrieked as they skipped along the battlements, while Mowgli, dancing in the summerhouse, put his eye to the screenwork and hooted owl-fashion between his front teeth, to show his derision and contempt.
“Get the man-cub out of that trap; I can do no more,” Bagheera gasped. “Let us take the man-cub and go. They may attack again.”
“They will not move till I order them. Stay you sssso！” Kaa hissed, and the city was silent once more. “I could not come before, Brother, but I think I heard you call”——this was to Bagheera.
“I——I may have cried out in the battle,” Bagheera answered.“Baloo, are you hurt？”
“I am not sure that they did not pull me into a hundred little bearlings,” said Baloo, gravely shaking one leg after the other.“Wow！ Iam sore. Kaa, we owe you, I think, our lives——Bagheera and I.”
“No matter. Where is the manling？”
“Here, in a trap. I cannot climb out,” cried Mowgli. The curveof the broken dome was above his head.
“Take him away. He dances like Mao the Peacock. He will crushour young,” said the cobras inside.
“Hah！” said Kaa with a chuckle, “he has friendseverywhere,this manling. Stand back, manling. And hide you, O PoisonPeople.I break down the wall.”
Kaa looked carefully till he found a discolored crack in the marbletracery showing a weak spot, made two or three light taps with his headto get the distance, and then lifting up six feet of his body clear of theground, sent home half a dozen full-power smashing blows, nose-first.
The screen-work broke and fell away in a cloud of dust and rubbish, andMowgli leaped through the opening and flung himself between Baloo andBagheera——an arm around each big neck.
“Are you hurt？” said Baloo, hugging him softly.
“I am sore, hungry, and not a little bruised. But, oh, they havehandled you grievously, my Brothers！You bleed.”
“Others also,” said Bagheera, licking his lips and looking at themonkey-dead on the terrace and round the tank.
“It is nothing, it is nothing, if you are safe, oh, my pride of all littlefrogs！” whimpered Baloo.
“Of that we shall judge later,” said Bagheera, in a dry voice thatMowgli did not at all like. “But here is Kaa to whom we owe the battleand you owest your life. Thank him according to our customs, Mowgli.”
Mowgli turned and saw the great Python"s head swaying a foot abovehis own.